Multiplicity - Blackness in Contemporary American Collage

by Kathryn E. Delmez

Multiplicity presents over 80 major collage and collage-informed works that reflect the breadth and complexity of Black identity. Featuring an intergenerational group of 52 living artists, Multiplicity explores the varying ways collage is employed and how the technique suggests diverse conceptual concerns such as cultural hybridity, notions of beauty, gender fluidity, and historical memory. By assembling pieces of paper, photographs, fabric, and salvaged or repurposed materials, these artists create unified compositions that express the endless possibilities of Black-constructed narratives despite our fragmented society.

Featured artists include such well-known figures as Mark Bradford, Lauren Halsey, Kerry James Marshall, Wangechi Mutu, Howardena Pindell, Tschabalala Self, Lorna Simpson, Mickalene Thomas, and Kara Walker. In addition to scholarly essays, the publication contains short biographies of each artist written by Fisk University students. 

Kathryn E. Delmez is senior curator at the Frist Art Museum in Nashville, TN.

Frist Art Museum, 2023, hardcover, 9.76  x 11.26 inches, 264  pages.