The Best Black Art Books of 2022

Discovering the Work of El Anatsui, Firelei Báez, Richard Hunt, Marilyn Nance, Henry Taylor, Black potters, Haitian artists, and More

Two recently published books take a look back at significant moments in Black art history. “Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces,” released on the occasion of a major exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, chronicles the influential period of a pioneering, Black woman-owned gallery that served as a community space and experimental platform from 1974 to 1986. “Marilyn Nance: Last Day in Lagos” sheds light on a largely unseen body of work—photographs capturing FESTAC ’77, the month-long international arts festival that brought more than 15,000 Black people to Nigeria. Both volumes are included in Culture Type’s Best Black Art Books of 2022. The list showcases a diverse range of illustrated publications recognized for their exceptional design, imagery, editorial strategy, and scholarship. In-depth monographs on El Anatsui, Firelei Báez, and Richard Hunt delve into the practices of some of today’s most compelling and thoughtful artists. Additionally, catalogs dedicated to major retrospectives of Nick Cave, Faith Ringgold, and Henry Taylor, as well as a survey of Haitian artists, have also been featured. (Titles listed in the order of their wide-distribution publication dates.):

“Mickalene Thomas,” Authored by Kellie Jones and Roxane Gay (Phaidon Press, 288 pages) © 2021. | Hardcover, Published Jan. 5 2022

Mickalene Thomas

Mickalene Thomas creates impactful images of Black women, crafting monumental paintings with intricate, layered surfaces adorned with rhinestones and glitter. While many books have explored Thomas’s work in the context of exhibitions, this is the first comprehensive monograph focusing on her full spectrum of work based in Brooklyn, N.Y. The remarkable volume features over 200 color images, showcasing work from 2000 to 2021. Page after page celebrates the individuality, sexuality, agency, and diverse beauty and body types of Black women. Thomas’s composed portraits are influenced by Western art history, 70s-era fashion and interiors, Romare Bearden, Matisse, Picasso, African sculpture, and the studio portraits of Malian photographers Malick Sidibé and Seydou Keïta. Her influences are varied, but the work is unique and entirely her own. Kellie Jones contributes a comprehensive scholarly analysis of Thomas’s complete body of work, spanning paintings, collage, photography, video, and installations. The book begins with a profile of the artist written by Roxane Gay. “I make kick ass images,” Thomas declared. “They’re wild. They’re somewhat disruptive… They’re authentic. No one else can make the work I make. I’m making a mark on history.”

“Mickalene Thomas’s multimedia and multidisciplinary practice is rooted in the brilliance of her palette, the luminosity of her surfaces, the complexity of her compositions—its ode to flatness, its ode to medium. The shifting and dynamic expanses of Thomas’s picture planes employ color as architectonic form that constructs her surfaces with intention.” — Kellie Jones

“Isaac Julien: Lessons of the Hour – Frederick Douglass,” Edited by Cora Gilroy-Ware and Vladimir Seput, with interview by Jennifer A. González, and contributions from John Hanhardt, Jonathan Binstock, Celeste-Marie Bernier, Deborah Willis, Henry Gates, Paul Gilroy, Vron Ware, Susan Solt, Kass Banning, and Warren Crichlow (DelMonico Books/MAG/Tang/Isaac Julien Studio, 263 pages). | Hardcover, Published Feb. 1, 2022

Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure©

A number of books have been written about Jean-Michel Basquiat and various aspects of his work—three in the last six weeks alone (“Seeing Loud, Basquiat and Music,” “Of Symbols and Signs,” and “Art and Objecthood”). This book is unique because it was not written or edited by curators, scholars, or his contemporaries, but by his family. His two younger sisters (Lisane Basquiat and Jeanine Herveaux) and stepmother (Nora Fitzpatrick) created it to accompany the extensive exhibition they organized: “Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure,” at the Starrett-Lehigh Building in New York. The catalog features previously unseen art from The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat, with the family providing detailed captions and insights about the works. The book also showcases the contents of the artist’s Great Jones Street studio, along with family photographs, memories of the artist, and related memorabilia. It also includes a mention of Basquiat being a junior member of the Brooklyn Museum as a child, illustrated with his membership card. It portrays how he wanted to see Black people depicted and how he painted his pantheon of Black heroes as royalty. Jeanine Herveaux highlights his critical view of how Black people were portrayed in the media and arts.

“El Anatsui: The Reinvention of Sculpture,” authored by Okwui Enwezor and Chika Okeke-Agulu (Damiani, 359 pages). | Hardcover, Published June 14, 2022

El Anatsui: The Reinvention of Sculpture

Ghanaian-born, Nigeria-based El Anatsui is recognized as one of the most innovative sculptors of our time, particularly for his use of discarded liquor bottle caps to create monumental draped works that blend sculpture, textiles, abstraction, and assemblage. Following their 2009 book “Contemporary African Art Since 1980,” Okwui Enwezor and Chika Okeke-Agulu, co-founders of NKA: Journal of Contemporary African Art, decided to create a monograph of Anatsui. The book provides a comprehensive account of the artist’s entire body of work, from his early ceramics to his celebrated metal bottle cap works, and offers insight into how decolonization and a modern African worldview influenced his artistic vision.

“`

Nick Cave: Forothermore

Nick Cave is known for creating imaginative and electrifying work that addresses injustice. The exhibition “Nick Cave: Forothermore” surveys the entire scope of the artist’s career, presenting sculpture, installations, video, rarely seen early works, and 25 Soundsuits. The accompanying catalog is fully illustrated with beautiful images of individual works, installation views, and performances. The title of the exhibition reflects the artist’s commitment to creating space for marginalized communities, especially working-class communities and queer people of color.

Promise, Witness, Remembrance

The exhibition “Promise, Witness, Remembrance” was inspired by the life of Breonna Taylor, and was developed in conjunction with her mother, Louisville activists and mental health professionals, national scholars, relatives of victims of police murder, and artists like Amy Sherald and Theaster Gates. The catalog fully illustrates the exhibition and provides multiple access points to the process and the art through visual documentation and the voices of the organizers and artists.

‘Ssites’ in “Richard Hunt,” Foreword by Courtney J. Martin, with an interview by Adrienne L. Childs, and contributions from John Yau, Jordan Carter, LeRonn Brooks, Jon Ott (Gregory R. Miller & Co., 368 pages) | Hardcover, Published Sept. 6, 2022

Chicago sculptor Richard Hunt creates abstract pieces that often evoke the figure and explore African American history and culture. He describes the forms as “volumetric.” “Richard Hunt” is a fully illustrated, comprehensive review of his seven-decade career and the first in-depth account of his life and work. Hunt became the first African American sculptor to have a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1971. His work is in the collections of numerous museums, and he has produced around 160 public artworks across the United States. This publication presents over 350 images that showcase his extensive body of work, offering insight into his background, methods, and influences. Courtney J. Martin wrote the foreword and Adrienne L. Childs conducted an interview with Hunt, shedding light on his life and work, accompanied by essays from Jordan Carter, LeRonn Brooks, and John Yau.

“In the Black Fantastic,” Authored by Ekow Eshun (MIT Press, 304 pages). | Hardcover, Published Sept. 6, 2022

“In the Black Fantastic” showcases the work of 11 living artists who use myth, science fiction, and Afrofuturism to challenge the social constructs of the contemporary world. Through painting, sculpture, photography, installation, and multimedia, the contributors—Nick Cave, Sedrick Chisom, Ellen Gallagher, Hew Locke, Wangechi Mutu, Rashaad Newsome, Chris Ofili, Tabita Rezaire, Cauleen Smith, Lina Iris Viktor, and Kara Walker—express themselves and their visions of Black possibility. Designed by Rush Jackson Studio, the image-driven catalog features scholarly essays and brief texts that span multiple disciplines such as visual art, film, and literature.

“Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina,” edited by Adrienne Spinozzi, with contributions from Simone Leigh, Michael J. Bramwell, Vincent Brown, Katherine C. Hughes, Ethan W. Lasser, and Jason R. Young (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 200 pages). | Hardcover, Published Sept. 27, 2022

“Hear Me Now” documents an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, showcasing the exquisite work of David Drake, an enslaved potter who signed and dated his large-scale jars and enhanced them with engraved poetic verse, all while it was illegal for him to be literate. The book sheds light on the masterful craftsmanship of Drake and his fellow Black potters in Old Edgefield, South Carolina, placing their contributions in the context of American history.“`html

Marilyn Nance: Last Day in Lagos

Marilyn Nance’s “Last Day in Lagos” is a comprehensive photographic account of FESTAC ’77, a profoundly significant Black cultural event in the 20th century. The book captures more than 15,000 artists, musicians, writers, and cultural figures from various nations who gathered for the historic month-long event, the Second Festival of Black Arts and Culture in Lagos, Nigeria, from Jan. 15 to Feb. 12, 1977. Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Nance, the official photographer for the U.S. delegation, draws from her extensive archive to create this small-scale treasure (about 6 x 8 inches) filled with black-and-white images, most of which were previously unseen. The book also includes brief essays and an extensive interview conducted by Oluremi C. Onabanjo with Nance, providing insights into how she got the opportunity to attend, her experiences, and what she captured.

“If you want to see what it looked like to have 17,000 Africans gathered together from across the continent and the diaspora living, sharing, thinking, and performing together for thirty days in what was essentially a temporary Pan African nation. Then this book is for you. — Marilyn Nance

Ghetto Gastro Presents Black Power Kitchen

One of this year’s best art books can be classified as a “cookbook.” This eclectic, visually rich volume captures the multidisciplinary platform of Ghetto Gastro, the Bronx-based culinary collective of Jon Gray, Pierre Serrao, and Lester Walker. Through Black food and Black culture, Ghetto Gastro inspires discussions about race, history, and food inequality. The book features 75 “mostly plant-based, layered-with-flavor recipes” along with compelling storytelling, striking photography, interviews with individuals such as Thelma Golden, Emory Douglas, Theaster Gates, and the mothers of the co-authors, as well as numerous works of art by a variety of artists, including Kerry James Marshall, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Paul Anthony Smith, Genevieve Gaignard, Henry Taylor, and David Drake, to name a few.

“““html

“Hurvin Anderson,” introduction by Courtney J. Martin, with contributions from Catherine Lampert, Roger Robinson, Jeff Alford, and Jordan Bosher (Rizzoli, 320 pages). | Hardcover, Published Oct. 25, 2022

Hurvin Anderson

A comprehensive book, “Hurvin Anderson” presents more than two decades of vibrant interior and exterior scenes created by a highly esteemed Black artist. Blending abstract and representational elements, British artist Hurvin Anderson depicts immersive landscapes and spaces with familial, cultural, and communal significance, including barber shops, country clubs, and swimming pools, influenced by his Jamaican heritage and experiences in the UK. Anderson’s work has received praise and critical acclaim. He was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2017, and his pieces rank among the most valuable by a living Black artist at auction. The fully illustrated volume showcases about 120 works from 1997 to 2021, featuring an introduction by Courtney J. Martin and 15 poems by Roger Robinson. Additionally, an extensive essay by Catherine Lampert provides an overview of Anderson’s career, detailing the contours of his background, development of his practice, and roots of his recurring themes.

“Henry Taylor, B Side,” Edited by Bennett Simpson, foreword by Johanna Burton, interview by Hamza Walker, with contributions by Wanda Coleman, Charles Gaines, Harmony Holiday, Bob Kaufman, Walter Price, Frances Stark, and Karon Davis (DelMonico Books/The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 237 pages). | Hardcover, Published Nov. 1, 2022

Henry Taylor: B Side

The exhibition catalog “Henry Taylor: B Side” was published on the occasion of Henry Taylor’s 30-year retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the artist’s largest exhibition to date and the first career survey presented in his hometown of Los Angeles. A self portrait by Taylor graces the cover—the artist as Henry V, Taylor as the artist king. The painting is one of many portraits and candid moments illustrated in the book, offering an in-depth view of Taylor’s universe and the richly colored, loosely rendered, bluesy approach to figuration for which he is known. The selections include paintings of family, friends, fellow artists, athletes, historic figures, and Taylor’s neighbors, whom he painted during the pandemic; his Camarillo Drawings (circa 1985-95), sketches the artist made of patients when he worked at Camarillo State Mental Hospital, shown in a museum for the first time; and painted and collaged objects, such as cigarette packs, cereal boxes, and a variety of other kinds of boxes. More than 160 works dating from circa 1985 to 2022 are featured and further illuminated by essays and a two-part conversation between Taylor and Hamza Walker, from 2017 and 2022.

“In the old days of the 45 rpm vinyl single, the B side was often a toss off minor key experiment…Needless to say, Taylor’s exhibition is full of A-sides, too—paintings that are powerful, considered, and beloved–even as it contains rarities. But one thinks this isn’t the artist’s point. He may intend B Side in an allusive sense. B Side as in the side not always heard or seen. B-side as in the back side or Black side.” — Exhibition Curator Bennett Simpson

“`
“Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces,” edited by Thomas (T.) Jean Lax and Lilia Rocio Taboada in collaboration with Linda Goode Bryant, with interview by Thelma Golden, and contributions from Eric Booker, Brandon Eng, Kellie Jones, Yelena Keller, Marielle Ingram, and Legacy Russell (Museum of Modern Art, New York/The Studio Museum in Harlem, 183 pages). | Softcover, Published Nov. 1, 2022

Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces

“Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces” was created to accompany an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The exhibit celebrates an influential gallery space that provided support to pivotal artists early in their careers, such as David Hammons, Senga Nengudi, Lorraine O’Grady, and Howardena Pindell. Founded by Linda Goode Bryant in 1974, Just Above Midtown (JAM) was a response to the lack of opportunities for black artists to exhibit their work in New York City galleries and museums. Despite limited resources, Bryant established a space of their own with nothing but vision, determination, and credit cards. The fully illustrated catalog includes images of artists and artwork from JAM, along with documentary photos, archival documents, and essays by Kellie Jones and exhibition curator Thomas (T.) Jean Lax. For the first time, an extensive timeline chronicles the exhibitions, film screenings, performances, and other programming at JAM’s three locations. The publication also features oral histories with members of the JAM community, and quotes from these interviews are highlighted throughout the book. The volume opens with a conversation between Bryant and Thelma Golden, titled “Can JAM be JAM at MoMA.”

“JAM was an autonomous Black space because it was about our ideas, our visions, our creativity, the things we made, the things we felt, the relationships we created that supported us as individuals and collectively.” — Linda Goode Bryant

“Black Orpheus: Jacob Lawrence and the Mbari Club,” Edited by Kimberli Gant and Ndubuisi Ezeluomba (Yale University Press, 228 pages). | Hardcover, Published Nov. 15, 2022

Black Orpheus: Jacob Lawrence and the Mbari Club

The exhibition “Black Orpheus: Jacob Lawrence and the Mbari Club” presents Jacob Lawrence’s less well-known Nigeria series (1964-65), shedding light on his connections to Africa and his associations with contemporaries from the Global South. It also introduces the Mbari Artists & Writers Club in Nigeria and its publication, Black Orpheus (1957–67). Edited by co-curators Kimberli Gant and Ndubuisi Ezeluomba, the fully illustrated catalog features nine essays exploring Lawrence in Nigeria, the history of Black Orpheus, Brazilian artists in Black Orpheus, women in the Mbari Club, modern Nigerian art, and Leslie King Hammond’s insights about African American artists in Africa (1853-1977), among other topics.

“`html

“Firelei Baez: to breathe full and free,” edited by David Norr, interviews by Thelma Golden and Eva Respini, with contributions from Carla Acevedo-Yates, Mark Godfrey, and Legacy Russell (Gregory R. Miller & Co., 255 pages). | Hardcover, Published Nov. 29, 2022

Firelei Baez: to breathe full and free

“Firelei Baez: to breathe full and free” is the first major book focused on multidisciplinary artist Firelei Báez, known for her large-scale map paintings. Báez, who is from the Dominican Republic and based in New York, incorporates her Dominican and Haitian heritage into her work, which includes mythic figures, imagined realms, and diasporic histories. The book features individual paintings, more than 150 works on paper, and installation views of various projects, including “Firelei Báez: Bloodlines” at the Pérez Art Museum Miami (2015-16), her Watershed commission at ICA Boston (2021), and Museum of Modern Art window installation (2018-19). In addition to Báez’s own insights, the book includes contributions from Mark Godfrey, Carla Acevedo-Yates, and Legacy Russell, as well as engaging conversations with Báez led by Thelma Golden and Eva Respini.

FIND MORE Bookshop connects readers to local, independent bookstores. Explore Culture Type’s Best Black Art Books of 2022 on Bookshop