Notes on the Precious Few A.D.

Abstract

Beginning with his years at Fisk University (1971-1975), the author makes special reference to the work of Aaron Douglas as being the fire that ignited his interest in art. Discussion of Douglas is followed by the historical circumstances that gave birth to the “precious few.” This small group of Black male artists was born into a segregated America. They witnessed the struggle for justice firsthand and therefore carry the torch of a political agenda that promotes high abstract thinking. They are the precious few because they were spared the genocide of Vietnam War, which killed and maimed many would-be cohorts. As a result, precious few are separated on one hand by a decade of loss from their pioneering abstract elders and on the other by a decade of identity politics played out by their image-making successors. The precious few are a pivotal group between the two.