Cliff Joseph
Cliff Joseph | |
---|---|
Born | Clifford Ricardo Joseph June 23, 1922 Panama City |
Died | November 8, 2020 (98) Chicago |
Education | Pratt Institute |
Known for | painting, art therapy, activism |
Clifford Ricardo Joseph (June 23, 1922 – November 8, 2020) was a Panama-born American artist, art therapist and activist.[1]
Early life
Cliff Joseph was born in 1922 in
Art and activism
In 1968, he co-founded the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition (BECC) with Benny Andrews, Henri Ghent, Reggie Gammon, Mahler Ryde and Edward Taylor. Faith Ringgold was also a member of BECC.[7] Its goal was to bring attention to the lack of representation of Black artists in New York City galleries and museums.[8] The founding and mission of the group came in response to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's presentation of the exhibition Harlem on My Mind, which included no Black artists.[1][9] BECC protested the show, leading to a rebuke of the museum from the mayor of New York City, as well as a public apology from the Metroploitan Museum itself.[1]
Joseph and BECC went on to protest at the
According to a 1978 profile, Joseph's art practice "ma[de] racism, war, and sexism his principal pictorial concerns".[13] One study links him to the Black Arts Movement.[14] Joseph strongly opposed the Vietnam War. Paintings including Isaiah II:4 (1964) and The Playpen (1967) reject both the war in Vietnam and war in general.[15]
During the 1971 Attica Prison uprising, Joseph and Andrews presented a letter to Governor Nelson Rockefeller suggesting a variety of cultural activities and art-based therapies for prisoners.[16]
Art therapy
Joseph was among the first African Americans to join the professional practice of art therapy,[17] and is considered to have made a significant contribution to the practice.[18] Joseph was the first African American to join the American Art Therapy Association.[3] As of 1982, he practiced art therapy at Lincoln Hospital[16] and was on staff at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.[19]
Publications
- Harris, Jay; Joseph, Cliff (1973). Murals of the Mind: Image of a Psychiatric Community. New York: OCLC 623262.
- Joseph, Cliff (1997). "Reflections on the Inescapable Political Dimensions of Art and Life". In Farris-Dufrene, Phoebe M. (ed.). Voices of Color: Art and Society in the Americas. Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey: Humanities Press. pp. 46–54. OCLC 1036917184.
Notes
- ^ Joseph's birth year is occasionally cited as 1927.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Vadukul, Alex (4 December 2020). "Cliff Joseph, Artist, Activist and Therapist, Dies at 98". The New York Times.
- ^ "SEASONED CITIZEN | The Crusader Newspaper Group". 16 February 2017.
- ^ a b "Cliff Joseph, fighter for Black artists and champion of Pathfinder Mural – The Militant". themilitant.com.
- S2CID 204719569.
- ^ Fine 1982, pp. 206–207.
- ^ Fine 1982, p. 206.
- ^ Wallace 2015, p. 6.
- ISBN 978-1-135-58122-0.
- ^ "Biographical/Historical Information". Black Emergency Cultural Coalition records, 1971-1984. New York Public Library Archives.
- ^ "Oral history interview with Cliff Joseph, 1972". www.aaa.si.edu.
- ^ a b c Wallace 2015, p. 22.
- ISBN 978-0-8242-0707-6.
- OCLC 1148029684.
- OCLC 17346556.
- OCLC 22892702.
- ^ a b Fine 1982, p. 207.
- .
- ^ "Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association". The Association. 2004.
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(help) - ^ Vadukul, Alex. "Artist, activist and therapist Cliff Joseph dead 98". The Philadelphia Tribune. Retrieved 2020-12-15.
Sources
- Fine, Elsa Honig (1982). The Afro-American Artist: A Search for Identity. New York: Hacker Art Books. OCLC 1145793678.
- Wallace, Caroline V. (2015). "Exhibiting Authenticity: The Black Emergency Cultural Coalition's Protests of the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1968–71". S2CID 191163065.