March 2012 Featured Book
EyeMinded: Living and Writing Contemporary Art
by Kellie Jones '81
"Kellie Jones' superb book, EyeMinded, traces the relationship between the visual and the social in contemporary art and, by so doing, teaches us how to see." - Liana Giorgi, New York Journal of Books.
- Learn more about the author (view alumni profile)
- Listen to the interview with Kellie Jones and Lizzie Barker
- Read an excerpt
- Read a review
- Join the discussion
A daughter of the poets Hettie Jones and Amiri Baraka, Kellie Jones grew up immersed in a world of artists, musicians, and writers in Manhattan's East Village and absorbed in black nationalist ideas about art, politics, and social justice. The activist vision of art and culture that she learned in those two communities, and especially from her family, has shaped her life and work as an art critic and curator.
Featuring selections of her writings from the past twenty years, EyeMinded reveals Jones's role in bringing attention to the work of African American, African, Latin American, and women artists who have challenged established art practices. Reflecting Jones's curatorial sensibility, this collection is structured as a dialogue between her writings and works by her parents, her sister, Lisa Jones, and her husband, Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr.
EyeMinded offers a glimpse into the family conversation that has shaped and sustained Jones, insight into the development of her critical and curatorial vision, and a survey of some of the most important figures in contemporary art.