Freida High W. Tesfagiorgis
4121 HC White (608) 263-2338 (608) 263-7198 high@wisc.edu
Profile:
B.S. Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL
M.A., M.F.A. - University of Wisconsin-Madison
Ph.D. work at University of Chicago“In Search of a Discourse and Critique/s that Center the Art of Black Women Artists“ is a seminal work for which she is most known, having been published four times: Theorizing Black Feminism/s (1993), Stanlie James & Abena Busia, (ed); Black Feminist Cultural Criticism: Keyworks in Cultural Studies (2001), Jacqueline Bobo (ed.); Gendered Vision, 1998 (Salah Hassan, ed.); and Feminist Art Theory (2001), Hilary Robinson (ed.). She coined the term, “Afrofemcentrism, “ in 1984, subsequently expounding it in "Afrofemcentrism: The Work of Elizabeth Catlett and Faith Ringgold," Sage: A Scholarly Journal For Black Women, Volume IV, No. 1, Spring 1987; revised and published in The Expanding Discourse: Feminism and Art History (1992), Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard (ed.) .
She subsequently replaced Afrofemcentrism with black feminism to expand the ideological and geographical limitations of the former. A subsequent publication reveals that difference: "Interweaving Black Feminism and Art History: Framing Nigeria" in Contemporary Textures: MultiDimensionality in Nigerian Art (1999), Nkiru Nzegwu (ed.). Another key work is "Chiasmas: Art in Politics/Politics in Art (Chicano/a and African-American Image, Text, and Activism of the Nineteen Sixties and Seventies,"Voices of Color in the Americas, Phoebe Ferris-Duphrene (ed.), Humanities Press (1997). Among shorter works are: "El Salahi" (Sudan); "Valente Malangatana" (Mozambique); "Erharbor Emokpai" (Nigeria); "Iba N'Diaye" (Senegal/ Paris); "Vincent Kofi" (Ghana), St. James Guide to Black Artists (1997), Tom Riggs (ed).Exhibitions: Gibbes Museum of Art (Charleston, SC); Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art (Wichita, KS); Portland Museum of Art (MN); Museum of Fine Arts (Houston, TX); Elvehjem Museum of Art (Madison, WI); Polk Museum of Art (Lakeland, Fl); Minnesota Museum of American Art (St Paul, MN); Kennedy Museum of American Art (Athens, OH); Museum of Art, (Charleston, SC) (again after opening at Spelman College); National Arts Club (New York, NY); Studio Museum in Harlem (NY); Madison Art Center (Madison, WI); Leigh Yawkey Museum of Art (Wausau, WI); Milwaukee Art Museum (Milwaukee, WI); Grand Rapids Art Museum (Grand Rapids, MI); National Afro-American Museum, (Columbus,OH); National Center of Afro-American Art (Roxbury, MA); Schenectady Museum (NY); Fine Arts Museum of the South (Mobile, AL); Burpee Art Museum (Rockford, IL) University and college museums and galleries include some of the following: Herbert Johnson Museum, Cornell University, Ithaca (NY); Camille Cosby Humanities Center, Fine Arts Gallery (Atlanta, GA); Art Gallery, Bradley University (Peoria, IL); Montgomery Art Gallery, Scripps College (Pomona, CA); Art Gallery, Alabama A&M University (Normal, AL); Cardinal Stritch College (Milwaukee, WI); Rosenthal Gallery, Fayetteville State University (NC); Art Gallery, Alverno College (Milwaukee, WI); University of Louisville (Louisville, KY); Art Gallery, University of Wisconsin (Milwaukee, WI); Art Gallery, Malcolm X College (Chicago, IL); Art Gallery, Kentucky State University (Frankfort, KY); Afro-American Arts Institute, Indiana University (Bloomington, IN); Afro-American Cultural Center, Purdue University (Lafayette, IN); Art Center, Depauw University (Greencastle, IN); Governors State University (Park Forest, IL); Art Gallery, Rockford College (Rockford, IL); Trisollini Gallery, Ohio University (Athens, OH).
Other select local and global locations include: San Francisco Bay Area Civic Center (CA); South Side Community Art Center (Chicago, IL); Peltz Gallery (Milwaukee, WI); Art Gallery, Atlanta Life & Mutual Insurance Co.(Atlanta, GA); Wright Art Center (Beloit, WI); Museo Arte Contemporanea di Gibellina (Palermo, Italy); America House (Berlin, Germany); National Gallery (Dakar, Senegal); 6e Concours International de la Palme D'or des Beaux Arts, Palmares, Monte-Carlo, etc.Publications about High's art: Bearing Witness: Contemporary Works by African American Women Artists (Jontyle Robinson, 1996); St. James Guide to Black Artists (1997), Tom Riggs (ed); Gumbo Ya Ya: The Art of African American Women Artists (Leslie Hammonds, 1995); The Art of Black American Women: Works of Twenty-Four Artists of the Twentieth Century (Robert Henkes, 1993), International Review of African-American Art (December 1990); Colored Pictures: Race and Visual Representation by Michael Harris (forthcoming 2003).