
African Fractals, from Human_3.0 Reading List
<p>Over the course of eighteen months in 2015 and 2016, Chicago-based artist Cauleen Smith produced a series of 57 drawings, each representing a specific book that she has read. Together, these drawings propose a reading list, a new canon of humanistic literacy so urgently needed here and now.</p> <p>The personal impact of reading is conveyed through Smith’s choice of media; the time and effort to create drawings by hand reflects the special power of holding and reading a physical book. As her primary discipline is film, the decision to make a series of drawings is especially significant. In these objects Smith reveals intellectual touchstones essential to her worldview, but she also provokes us to consider which of these books is critical to our collective experience: Have you read these books? What do they mean to us now? What would you add to this list?</p>
Catalogue
- Year
- 2015
- Dimensions
- 30 × 21.5 cm (11 13/16 × 8 1/2 in.)
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Artist
- Cauleen Smith
Artist

Painting
Cauleen Smith is an American born filmmaker and multimedia artist. She is best known for her feature film Drylongso and her experimental works that address the African-American identity, specifically the issues facing black women today. Smith is currently a professor in the Department of Art at the University of California - Los Angeles.
Full artist profile →More
More by Cauleen Smith
Monument Eternal, from Human_3.0 Reading List
2016 · Graphite and brush and colored inks on wove graph paper
Inferno, from Human_3.0 Reading List
2016 · Graphite and brush and colored inks on wove graph paper
Ain't I a Woman, from Human_3.0 Reading List
2016 · Graphite and watercolor with traces of glitter glue on wove graph paper
Grapefruit, from Human_3.0 Reading List
2016 · Graphite and brush and colored inks and watercolor on wove graph paper
The Black Jacobins, from Human_3.0 Reading List
2016 · Graphite and watercolor with touches of brush and colored inks and acrylic paint on wove graph paper
Harriet Tubman, from Human_3.0 Reading List
2016 · Graphite and and brush and colored inks with touches of acrylic paint on wove graph paper
Record
Verified by WattsOS- Artist
- Cauleen Smith
- Year
- 2015
- Dimensions
- 30 × 21.5 cm (11 13/16 × 8 1/2 in.)
- Watts ID
- WW-2015-134754
Source
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Source
- aic
- Reference
- View at source
- Status
- verified





