Acts of Art and Rebuttal in 1971

This publication documents a pivotal moment in American art history through its examination of the 1971 exhibition Rebuttal to the Whitney Museum Exhibition: Black Artists in Rebuttal, a watershed protest show organized by the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition at Greenwich Village’s artist-run Acts of Art gallery. Through careful analysis of twenty paintings, prints, and collages—including several works from the original exhibition by artists such as Benny Andrews, Betty Blayton-Taylor, and Vivian Browne—alongside rich archival materials and Oakley N. Holmes Jr.’s historically significant documentary footage, the catalogue illuminates the complex networks of artistic and political solidarity that emerged among Black artists in New York during the late 1960s and early ’70s. 

The publication positions the original Rebuttal show, mounted in response to the Whitney Museum’s refusal to appoint a Black curator for their survey Contemporary Black Artists in America, as a crucial node in understanding how organizations like the Spiral group, the Studio Museum in Harlem, Weusi, and Where We At collectively challenged institutional exclusion and articulated diverse aesthetic positions ranging from social satire and figurative expressionism to Yoruban-inspired symbolism and lyrical abstraction. Drawing upon previously unpublished correspondence, exhibition ephemera, and contemporary interviews, the catalogue offers unprecedented insight into the interconnected cultural politics of Greenwich Village, the Lower East Side, and Harlem during this transformative period, all while answering Benny Andrews’s original call to provide art historians with “a handle to grasp” this significant historical moment.

Published by Hunter College Art Galleries, New York, 2018

Essays by Howard Singerman and Sarah Watson

Designed by Natalie Wedeking

Edited by SNAP Editions

Fully illustrated, 104 pages