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Joe Overstreet

Exposition Art Blog Joe Wesley Overstreet - American Contemporary Art

Joe Wesley Overstreet (1933 – 2019) was an African-American painter from Mississippi who lived and worked in New York City for most of his career.In the 1950s and early 1960s he was associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement. During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, he became known for works such as Strange Fruit and The New Jemima, which reflected his interest in contemporary social issues and the Black Arts Movement. He also worked with Amiri Baraka as the Art Director for the Black Arts Repertory Theatre and School in Harlem, New York. In 1974 he co-founded Kenkeleba House, an East Village gallery and studio. In the 1980s he returned to figuration with his Storyville paintings, which recall the New Orleans jazz scene of the early 1900s. His work draws on a variety of influences, including his own African-American heritage, and has been exhibited in museums and galleries around the world.

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Joe Overstreet

1972

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We Came from There to Get Here (1970). Joe Overstreet.

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We’ve been sharing this teaching resource with educators to raise their awareness of artist Joe Overstreet and encourage discussion of art as a catalyst for Black joy and power. Power Flight is one of my favorite artworks to discuss with students because it invites conversations about Pan-Africanism and Black liberation through Overstreet’s use of color, composition, and title. I invite my students to ask, What does it mean to be Black and free? Why have some been resistant to support Black liberation?

While many adults remain resistant to these discussions their fear does a disservice to our young people by limiting their opportunities to examine history of the liberation efforts of diasporic African peoples for inspiration of imagining their own liberation. This resource is a starting point for those who haven’t had the conversation.

Posted by Keonna Hendrick, School Programs Manager Joe Overstreet (American, 1933-2019). Power Flight, 1971. Acrylic on canvas with metal grommets and white rope. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John de Menil, 72.165. © artist or artist’s estate

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Joe Overstreet

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Kenneth Showell, Besped, 1967, sprayed acrylic on canvas, gift of Mari and James A. Michener, 1968.

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Julie Mehretu Your hands are like two shovels, digging in me (sphinx) Ink and acrylic on canvas 2021—22

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Julie Mehretu - Bare, 2020 - Palazzo Grassi, Venezia by ©danielred2

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"Trans is Against Nostalgia" by Taylor Johnson

Every day I build the little boat, my body boat, hold for the unique one, the formless soul, the blue fire that coaxes my being into being.

Yes, there was music in the woods, and I was in love with the trees, and a beautiful man grew my heartbeat in his hands, and there was my mother’s regret that I slept with.

To live there is pointless. I’m building the boat, the same way I’d build a new love— looking ahead at the terrain. And the water is rising, and the generous ones are moving on.

O New Day, I get to build the boat! I tell myself to live again. Somehow I made it out of being 15 and wanting to jump off the roof

of my attic room. Somehow I survived my loneliness and throwing up in a jail cell. O New Day, I’ve broken my own heart. The boat is still here, is fortified in my brokeness.

I’ve picked up the hammer every day and forgiven myself. There is a new language I’m learning by speaking it. I’m a blind cartographer, I know the way

fearing the distance. O New Day, there isn’t a part of you I don’t love to fear. I’m holding hands with the poet speaking of light, saying I made it up

I made it up.

Art: Julie Mehretu, Sun Ship (J.C.), 2018, ink and acrylic on canvas, 274.3 x 304.8 cm