What is BLACKSTRACTION?
Blackstraction is a term I coined to describe a unique and evolving approach to abstract painting emphasizing the physicality and inherent qualities of the medium while drawing inspiration from diverse cultural practices and perspectives. While not exclusively limited to Black artists, it is titled to honor Black artists pioneering the style.
Coining the term was the result of research that began in 1980. A creative writer working as a model at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC, I began looking at language as art which led me to see poetry as the original formalist abstract art: all meaning is based on relationships created with words contained in the body of the work.
I began experimenting with painting and drawing to study abstract painting as language.
I started looking at all kinds of paintings to understand how materials are used. I began reading about what painting is, what art is and how the art world evolves. I found European styles of painting correspond to the introduction of studio methodology.
How and what artists painted began to change drastically after the photograph. Until then, paintings were two dimensional and mostly flat, with impasto used to emphasize details. In the Industrial Age, artists began using it to alter how we see and perceive images. Impressionism, Fauvism, Expressionism and Constructivism all inching away from painting realistically developed during this time.
Late in the 19th century, Modernism arrived. European exposure to African and Oceanographic art opened the way for Cubism, Surrealism, DaDa, Bahaus and other styles that propelled painters fully into imaginary realms. Collage, assemblage, and intellectual discourse (thanks to Marcel DuChamps) joined the techniques that were used.
The next important developments happened after World War 2.
Abstract expressionism gave us all over painting, Art Brut common materials like fiber and nontraditional techniques like stitching, and Spatialism three dimensionality. While the painting itself remained a mostly flat two dimensional object, pouring, staining, scraping, cutting and stitching were then used by artists exploring what painting can be. Depth was incorporated into the picture plane. These three styles lay the foundation for Blackstractionism.
In the 60s and 70s. artists expanding and delving deeper into abstraction used the techniques above to experiment with both the image and how the image is constructed. Action Painting, Color Field, Op Art, Hard Edge and other styles followed the trail of expressionism. Spatialism led to shaped canvas, cloth and other alternatives to canvas and to droppping stretchers altogether. Relaxing the rigidity of traditional painting visually and physically ushers in Minimalism and Blackstractionism- both dealing with the structural possibilities of painting. While Minimalism embraced design, industrial materials and commercial execution, Blackstractionists were focused on labor intensive experiments involving both aesthetic and physical properties of painting with depth.
Blackstraction focuses on transforming abstract paintings from two dimensional canvases into three dimensional (sometimes scupltural) objects that can be seen from multiple perspectives, including in relief. This method views depth as an integral component of the painting itself, not an illusion. Formal internal interplay of shapes, colors, and textures within the work are emphasized rather than as a reference to external realities. Drawn from diverse cultural perspectives, the work often employs craft techniques, pushing the boundaries of traditional painting practice.
This perception of contemporary painting is not defined by its commercialization through the fine art market. It re-contextualizes the canon outside tradition and current trends. Early Blackstractionists include Jack Whitten, Sam Gilliam, Howardena Pindell, Frank Smith, Lynda Bengalis, Harmony Hammond, Sylvia Snowden, Joe Overstreet, Al Loving, Nancy Crow, and Suzanne Jackson, amongst others.
Jack Whitten described his work in 1983 as "... a precise and continuous development of experimentations dealing with the possibilities of paint, using various processes towards defining a new spatial perception in painting..."
In the genealogy of painting in Washington, Blackstraction arises from the Color School- influenced by Minimalism through the presence of Alma Thomas, Anne Truitt, Robin Rose and others and by AfroCobra through the presence of Frank Smith, Jeff Donaldson and James Phillips. Interesting to note how Gilliam and Thomas are often cited with the Color School instead of being recognized as pioneers of Blackstraction and Minimalism, respectively.
Washington artists currently working in the style include Gail Shaw-Clemons, Adjoa Burrowes and Claudia "Aziza" Gibson-Hunter. We show collectively as Women of an Undetermined Age (WOAUA.) Our debut exhibit was here at Bowie. Our most recent was in 2022 in Washington at Honfleur Gallery titled "Color + Form = Blackstraction*."
Donald Judd, one of the most well-known minimalists as well as a prolific and influential critic of his peers, consistently denied three-dimensional painting was a movement.
He dismissed Truitt's columns in 1963 as tomblike with uninteresting color. Between 1959 and 1975 he did not once review the work of Whitten or Gilliam or Loving or Pindell or Overstreet who were his contemporaries exhibiting the work he talks about in New York.
In his famous 1965 essay, "Specific Objects," Judd was unknowingly describing blackstraction when he wrote, "...The new work exceeds painting in plain power, but power isn't the only consideration, though the difference beween it and expression can't be too great either.... This work which is neither painting nor sculpture challenges both. It will have to be taken into account by new artists."
As Whitten noted in 1980, "Clement (Greenberg) would never accept the possibility of a Black man leading..."
He's speaking of one critic but it could have been the entire art industry then or now, as today, that same industry seeks to add diversity by monetizing artists like Gilliam and Whitten without fully recognizing their contributions to the canon. 25 years into the 21st century, Frank Stella is practically a household name for anyone interested in abstract art, while the effect of Gilliam's draped canvases has yet to be critically and intellectually evaluated for the influence that act exerted over all the work that follows.
The practice of three-dimensional painting is not widely asknowledged as a cornerstone for working today yet is gaining favor in the art market as the initating artists pass away leaving undervalued estates. Blackstraction is a framework for discussion of these artists that recognizes the full extent of their contributions.
I called this work Blackstraction because I trace its beginnings to the European response to Indigenous art and to confront the art world protocol of belittling, absorbing and erasing advances made in studio practice by and because of Black, outsider and other minority artists. Blackstraction provides a platform for discussion around the work these artists executed in a way that acknowledges the full extent of their contributions as three dimensional painting remains basically unexplored and is gaining favor in the art market. Its history must not be lost.
This vunerable foundation is preserved in plain sight by use of my term.
Spread the word: BLACKSTRACTION
blackstraction (blak-strak'sh-n) n. a) the objectification of abstract painting using depth in the picture plane b) an emotive non-representational work of art stressing formal internal relationships using Africa/American/Asian art practices at times employing craft techniques and three-dimensional presentation blackstractionist n. a artist engaging therein
blackstraction (blak-strak'sh-n) v.t. to paint or make markings with color on diverse surfaces that relate to each other and their environment in two and three dimensions. blackstractioned, blackstractioning
Blackstractionism (blak-strak'sh-niz-m) n. Fine Arts a) a style of emotive non-representational painting which appeared in the United States in the late 20th century employing craft techniques and sometimes three-dimensional presentation b)theory and practice of blackstraction
*Color + Form = Blackstraction Artists' Talk: https://youtu.be/KYRc4hUniF0?si=T7K5E7XPW-KWD75q
(c) Sheila Crider 2026 All rights reserved.
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