While many of the artist-led protests of the 1960s and 1970s unfolded as internal art world matters,

While many of the artist-led protests of the 1960s and 1970s unfolded as internal art world matters, these efforts were later drawn into a broad cultural backlash against the progressive gains of the Black Power, Civil Rights, Ecology, Gay Rights, and Women’s Movements. During the 1980s, artists and activists fought on multiple fronts against growing conservatism in what became known as the “culture wars.” Black women led their fellow artists in protest, questioning conservative viewpoints while continuing to struggle against gender- and race-based discrimination.Living through the cultural shifts of that decade, these artists were increasingly skeptical of power structures and authority. They examined how images and language, whether in art, media, or advertising, shape and often distort the representation of identity. Using their own subjectivity and personal experience, they deconstructed how dominant political and cultural narratives undermine and misrepresent women and communities of color.Often combining photography and text, Lorraine O’Grady, Lorna Simpson, and Carrie Mae Weems were active participants in this critical discourse, part of what became known across multiple disciplines as postmodernism. Photographers Coreen Simpson and Ming Smith documented the African diaspora, from Harlem to Côte-d'Ivoire. Dancers, filmmakers, and theater performance artists—including Ayoka Chenzira, Blondell Cummings, Julie Dash, and the Rodeo Caldonia High-Fidelity Performance collective—pushed these critiques in a new direction.While the artists of the 1980s used different strategies than some of their predecessors, they were united in their commitment to self-determination for black women and an end to oppression on all fronts.Photo: Lorna Simpson (American, born 1960). Rodeo Caldonia (Left to Right: Alva Rogers, Sandye Wilson, Candace Hamilton, Derin Young, Lisa Jones), 1986. Photographic print, 8 x 10 in. (20.3 x 25.4 cm). Courtesy of Lorna Simpson. © 1986 Lorna Simpson -- source link

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