Dindga McCannon

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Dindga McCannon
Born
Dindga McCannon

(1947-07-31) July 31, 1947 (age 76)
NationalityAmerican
Known forArt, murals, printmaking, teaching, illustration, fiber art, writing
Websitedindgamccannon.world
External videos
video icon “Outspoken: Dindga McCannon, May 7, 2018
video icon The Artist's Voice: Dindga McCannon, Beverly Smith, and Barbara Smith, ICA/Boston, October 16, 2018

Dindga McCannon (born: July 31, 1947) is an African-American artist, fiber artist, muralist, teacher author and illustrator.[1] She co-founded the collective Where We At, Black Women Artists in 1971.[2]

Early life and education[edit]

McCannon was born and raised in Harlem and was inspired to become an artist at the age of 10. She is self-taught and works intuitively. Calling herself a mixed-media, a multimedia artist she works at "fusing my fine art 'training' with the traditional women's needlework taught to me by my mother, Lottie K. Porter, and grandmother Hattie Kilgo — sewing, beading, embroidery, and quilting into what is now known as ArtQuilts."[3]

Career[edit]

Dindga McCannon has been an artist for 55 years. In addition to her work as a quilter author, and illustrator, Dindga considers herself a costume designer and muralist and a print maker. Her work involves women's lives, portraits, and history.

In response to sexism and racism in the art world, artists in the 1960s and 1970s created collectives as a way to fight oppression. In the 1960s McCannon was a member of Weusi Artist Collective. This is how McCannon became interested in the Black Arts Movement.[4] The Weusi Collective was interested in creating art that evoked African themes and symbols, as well as highlighting contemporary black pride.[5] In 1971, concerned to represent her experience as a Black woman artist and single mother,[2] she hosted the first meeting of the Where We At group of black women artists, a group started with Kay Brown and Faith Ringgold, in her apartment. It grew into a group pf women who supported each other, taught workshops and exhibited in one of the first group shows of professional black women artists in New York City.[6][7][2]

McCannon's interest in black arts and women's work met in her creation of dashikis, which then led her to create wearables and quilts.[4]

In 2015 she was a presenter at the Art of Justice: Articulating an Ethos and Aesthetic of the Movement[8] conference at New York University presented by the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute in Collaboration with the Department of Art and Public Policy, New York University; Institute of African American Affairs, New York University; and Institute for Research in African American Studies, Columbia University.

Her image is included in the iconic 1972 poster Some Living American Women Artists by Mary Beth Edelson.[9]

Artworks[edit]

McCannon has a quilt (titled "Yekk's Song") in the permanent collection of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.[10] In January 2020, McCannon's oil painting "The Last Farewell" was auctioned for $161,000 as part of Johnson Publishing Company's bankruptcy proceedings. This work was part of their private collection, which also included works by Henry Ossawa Tanner and Carrie Mae Weems.[11]

Revolutionary Sister, a mixed-media work created in 1971, was created in response to a lack of revolutionary women warriors. The work depicts a powerful and colorful sister, created in part with items from the hardware store. McCannon speaks about this piece as a Statue of Liberty figure.[7][12] It is in the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Museum.[13]

Commissions[edit]

McCannon has also been commissioned to create various pieces of art.

  • 1985: United Community, 50 ft by 6 stories, 25 Furman Ave, Brooklyn, NY, Dept of Cultural Affairs
  • 2000: Amazing Life of Althea Gibson, 60 inches by 120 inches art story quilt, Disney Inc for ESPN Zone, 42nd Street and Brady, NYC
  • 2001: Winning the Vote, Art Quilt on the Pioneers of Women's voting history America, Scholastic Magazine
  • 2008: Zora Neale Hurston, B.O.S.S. (Barnard Organization of Soul Sisters), Columbia University, NY

Notable works in public collections[edit]

Awards[edit]

  • 2023 - Anonymous Was A Woman (AWAW) - Individual Artist Grant
  • 2005 – N. Y. F. A. Fellowship – Crafts
  • 2007 – Urban Artists Initiative, Harlem Arts Alliance
  • 2008 – Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance – Individual Artists Grant 2009 – Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance – Individual Artist Grant

Books[edit]

McCannon has written and illustrated two books. Peaches, published by Lothrop, Lee & Shepard in 1974 and by Dell in 1977, tells the story of a young black girl growing up in Harlem, her life with her family and her ambition to be an artist.

Wilhemina Jones, Future Star, published by Delacorte in 1980, has a similar theme, with a young black girl growing up in Harlem in the mid-1960s who dreams of pursuing an art career and leaving the oppressive atmosphere of her home.

McCannon has also illustrated books for others: Omar at X-mas by Edgar White (published by Lothrop, Lee & Shepard), and Speak to the Winds, African Proverbs, written by K. O. Opuku (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1972).[22]

In 2018, McCannon published an illustrated cookbook called Celebrations. The opening reception was held at Art For the Soul Gallery in Springfield, Massachusetts.[23]

Memberships[edit]

McCannon was a member of two artists' collectives, Weusi and Where We At (a black woman's collective from the 1970s).[24]

Further reading[edit]

  • Richardson, Clem (September 6, 2012). "Community Works teams with a bevy of Harlem institutions to display a quilt of Uptown history and culture". New York Daily News.
  • Farrington, Lisa (2011). Creating their own image : the history of African-American women artists (Print book : English ed.). Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199767601. OCLC 712600445.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Cotter, Holland (2017-04-20). "To Be Black, Female and Fed Up With the Mainstream". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-04-05.
  2. ^ a b c Gipson, Ferren (2022). Women's work: from feminine arts to feminist art. London: Frances Lincoln. ISBN 978-0-7112-6465-6.
  3. ^ Harlem Open Artists Studio Tour Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ a b "Articulate — Dindga McCannon". Articulate. Retrieved 2020-02-18.
  5. ^ Brown, Kay (2012-07-11). "The Weusi Artists". Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art. 30 (1): 60–67. doi:10.1215/10757163-1496471. ISSN 2152-7792. S2CID 191335047.
  6. ^ Farrington, Lisa E. (2005-01-01). Creating their own image: the history of African-American women artists. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 019516721X.[permanent dead link]
  7. ^ a b "Curator Catherine Morris runs us through Brooklyn Museum's show, We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women". www.itsnicethat.com. Retrieved 2020-02-18.
  8. ^ "Nov. 7th | The Art of Justice Conference". cccadi.org. Archived from the original on 2015-11-09. Retrieved 2015-11-11.
  9. ^ "Some Living American Women Artists/Last Supper". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 22 January 2022.
  10. ^ Black Threads: An African American Quilting Sourcebook by Kyra E. Hicks, page 158.
  11. ^ Dudek, Mitch (2020-02-04). "Johnson Publishing Co. art auction fetches nearly $3 million, doubling expectations". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2020-02-08.
  12. ^ "Symposium: We Wanted a Revolution - Interview - Dindga McCannon with Catherine Morris". YouTube. 28 April 2017.
  13. ^ "Brooklyn Museum". www.brooklynmuseum.org. Retrieved 2020-02-18.
  14. ^ "Mercedes". StudioMuseum. Studio Museum in Harlem. 13 August 2021. Archived from the original on 7 July 2022. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
  15. ^ "Revolutionary Sister". Brooklyn Museum. Archived from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
  16. ^ "Empress Akweke". Brooklyn Museum. Archived from the original on 1 May 2023. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
  17. ^ "West Indian Day Parade". Brooklyn Museum. Archived from the original on 3 February 2023. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
  18. ^ "Woman #1". NGA. National Gallery of Art. Archived from the original on 1 May 2023. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
  19. ^ "Badass Women Who Inspire Me to Soar". NGA. National Gallery of Art. Archived from the original on 1 May 2023. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
  20. ^ "Charlie Parker and Some of the Musicians He Influenced". PhillipsCollection. The Phillips Collection. Archived from the original on 1 May 2023. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
  21. ^ "A Week in the Life of a Black Woman Artist". Brooklyn Museum. Archived from the original on 26 October 2022. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
  22. ^ Dindga McCannon[permanent dead link] World Catalog
  23. ^ "Events". Art for the Soul Gallery. 2017-03-12. Archived from the original on 2019-01-19. Retrieved 2019-04-05.
  24. ^ Steinhauer, Jillian (10 September 2021). "The World Catches Up With Dindga McCannon". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 January 2022.


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