Edward Lucie-Smith, Race, Sex, and Gender in Contemporary Art, Art Books International/Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1994

From the flyleaf of the book:

“One of the most significant developments in the art world of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s has been the rise to prominence of art made by minority cultures. Race, Sex, and Gender examines the controversial challenges these groups present to today’s artists and critics. Works by African-Americans, feminist, homosexuals, and Latino-Hispanics  - once considered marginal – have come to transform contemporary art. As this so-called minority art has moved into a more dominant position, museums - once official symbols of culture – have formed a more secure alliance with the avant-garde. The result is that “minority” art has become, in effect, our most major concern.

In this provocative volume, art historian Edward Lucie-Smith seeks to determine how these different groups came to acclaim, and how they have revolutionized the kind of art shown in museums and galleries. Cindy Sherman, Robert Mapplethorpe, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Nancy Spero, Hannah Wilke, Larry Fuente, Chéri Samba, and Martin Puryear are among those artists whose work is pictured and discussed as Lucie-Smith probes issues of racial identity, sexual orientation, and gender politics…”

Chapter Six, Racially Based Art in Britain, includes two reproductions of work by Eddie Chambers, How Much Longer… 1983, mixed media, 4’ x 8’/1.2 x 2.4m, Collection of Sheffield City Museums and Art Galleries, and Untitled (on Marcus Garvey), mixed media, 5’ x 4’/1.5 x 1.2m, Collection of the Artist. The reproductions appear alongside text on Eddie Chambers, including “A new generation of Afro-Caribbean artists, born in Britain, is producing a very different sort of work – cruder, more violent, openly militant. Two of the best-known protagonists are Eddie Chambers… and Keith Piper… who are also close associates. They first met when attending Lanchester Polytechnic, and throughout their careers they have been energetic organizers, devoting considerable time and energy to promoting radical black art in addition to being practicing artists.

Chambers has often been preoccupied with black history.” See pages 88-90.