“From Post-Black to the Afropolitan: The Studio Museum’s ‘F-Shows’ and Discourses on Black Art” in The Routledge Companion to African Diaspora Art History, ed. Eddie Chambers (London: Routledge, 2024)
This chapter chronicles the impact of The Studio Museum in Harlem’s series of “F-Show” exhibitions on discourses around Black art and identity in the twenty-first century. Conceived originally by Thelma Golden, the exhibitions Freestyle (2001), Frequency (2005-06), Flow (2008); Fore (2012-2013), and Fictions (2017-18) are credited with launching the careers of emerging Black artists, writers, and curators while also charting key discursive tendencies and shifts regarding race, representation, and curatorial practice. The chapter considers three key facets through which the series’ art historical importance can be assessed: First, it positions Freestyle as a curatorial intervention into the prevailing genre of the identity-based exhibition of the 1980s and 1990s; Second, it parses the provocative term “post-black” that has cemented Freestyle’s place in the historiography of African Diaspora art. Third, it charts the expanded conversations around globalization, African art, and Black identity, placing primary focus on Flow. The chapter, as a whole, reflects on the Studio Museum’s self-positioning as a key axis point within the international and transhistorical formations of African Diaspora history, art, and culture.
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