Culture Talk: Director Sam Pollard on His New HBO Documentary ‘Black Art: In the Absence of Light’

Trailer for “Black Art: In the Absence of Light.” | Video by HBO   THE OPENING SCENE OF Sam Pollard‘s documentary “Black Art: In the Absence of Light” is half-century-old footage of NBC’s Tom Brokaw talking with David C. Driskell (1931-2020) on the Today Show. The interview is about Driskell’s seminal exhibition “Two Centuries of Black American Art” a survey of more than 200 works by 63 artists. An artist, scholar, and curator, Driskell was chair of the art department at Fisk University in Nashville, when he began organizing the show at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where it opened in 1976. Brokaw asked why Driskell had a problem with describing the presentation as an exhibition of “Black art.” “When one says Black art it more or less isolates the Black artist from the mainstream of American art and even though this has happened throughout the years, where you have critical acclaim, historical analysis etc., the Black artist has not attempted to set himself apart. He has tried to be part and parcel of the mainstream,” Driskell said. “But aren’t you setting him apart, in effect, by putting the show together with just Black artists?” Brokaw asked. “Only […]