Cinque Gallery
| Company type | Artist-run gallery |
|---|---|
| Industry | Art gallery |
| Founded | 1969 |
| Founder | Romare Bearden, Ernest Crichlow, Norman Lewis |
| Defunct | 2004 |
| Headquarters | New York City , United States |
Area served | Primarily Black artists and artists of color |
The Cinque Gallery operated in New York City from 1969 until 2004, established by Romare Bearden, Ernest Crichlow, and Norman Lewis during the era of the Black power movement. Its primary mission was to create opportunities for emerging and overlooked artists—mainly Black—to present and advance their artistic practices. Functioning largely through volunteer efforts, Cinque organized solo exhibitions, group shows, traveling displays, and initiated an artist residency program first featuring collagist Nanette Carter.
Throughout its 35 years, the gallery presented figurative and abstract works by approximately 450 artists of color, gaining recognition for its inclusive representation. Distinguished participants included figurative painter Jacob Lawrence; artist Michael S. Kendall; abstract painter Frank Bowling OBE RA; Caldecott Award-winning illustrator Tom Feelings; animator Edward H. Love; sculptor Valerie Maynard; muralist Hale Woodruff; National Medal of Arts honoree Jack Whitten; and master printmaker Robert Blackburn.
As a creative space managed by artists and deeply connected to the Black Arts Movement, Cinque extended its reach by also featuring marginalized Asian and Hispanic artists, thereby expanding its influence beyond African American art circles.
History
The gallery’s inception was a direct response to the 1969 exhibition Harlem on My Mind at New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art, which included documentary photography but notably excluded Black fine artists. Its name pays tribute to Sengbe Pieh, also known as Joseph Cinqué, who led the 1839 revolt aboard the Spanish slave ship La Amistad.
Cinque's roots trace back to the Spiral collective (1963–1965), which engaged with questions surrounding "What is Black art?" This group featured co-founders Romare Bearden and Ernest Crichlow as well as artists such as Hale Woodruff and Charles Alston. The late 1960s marked a period of increasing cultural and financial self-determination within New York’s art community, leading to the formation of institutions like the Brooklyn Museum Community Gallery and the Studio Museum in Harlem. By the 1980s, Administrative Director Karen Hatcher alongside co-founder Crichlow underscored the gallery’s practical role in equipping young Black artists with administrative, political, and social insights. The gallery ceased operations in 2004.
In 2019, the Romare Bearden Foundation commemorated Cinque’s 50th anniversary with an event at the Harlem School of the Arts. Two years later, in 2021, the Art Students League of New York paid tribute to its heritage through Creating Community: Cinque Gallery Artists, highlighting many former exhibitors. Since 2017, guest curator Susan Stedman has been compiling an oral history of the gallery, supported by archival materials housed at the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art.
Artists
(Selected prominent artists; not exhaustive.)
- Michael S Kendall (painter)
- Charles Alston
- Emma Amos
- Benny Andrews
- Romare Bearden
- Dawoud Bey
- Camille Billops
- Robert Blackburn
- Betty Blayton
- Frank Bowling
- Vivian Browne
- Nanette Carter
- Elizabeth Catlett
- Ed Clark
- Ernest Crichlow
- Melvin Edwards
- Tom Feelings
- Sam Gilliam
- Ray Grist
- Cynthia Hawkins
- Robin Holder
- Richard Hunt
- Bill Hutson
- Mohammad Omer Khalil
- Hughie Lee-Smith
- Norman Lewis
- Daniel LaRue Johnson
- Robert Kelly
- Wifredo Lam
- Jacob Lawrence
- Ed Love
- Whitfield Lovell
- Alvin D. Loving
- Valerie Maynard
- Richard Mayhew
- Howard McCalebb
- Algernon Miller
- Norma Morgan
- Otto Neals
- Ademola Olugebefola
- Debra Priestly
- Mavis Pusey
- Faith Ringgold
- Chris Shelton
- Ann Tanksley
- Mildred Thompson
- Charles W. White
- Jack White (sculptor)
- Jack Whitten
- Benjamin Leroy Wigfall
- Frank Wimberley
- Hale Woodruff
See also
- African-American art
- Black Arts Movement
- Harlem Renaissance
- List of American artists before 1900
- List of American artists 1900 and after
- List of African-American visual artists
- The Quilts of Gees Bend
- Studio Museum of Harlem
External links
- The Art Students League 2021 Cinque interview series available on YouTube
- The Romare Bearden Foundation official website
- Cinque-related discussions and interviews presented by the Romare Bearden Foundation and Harlem Cultural Collaborative on YouTube
Related books
- Cahan, S. E. (2016). Mounting Frustration: The Art Museum in the Age of Black Power. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 360 pages.
- 1969 establishments in New York City
- 2004 disestablishments in New York (state)
- Art museums and galleries established in 1969
- Art museums and galleries disestablished in 2004
- Defunct art museums and galleries in New York City
- Art museums and galleries in the United States
- Artist-run centres
- African-American art
- African-American artists
- 20th-century American artists
- 20th-century African-American artists
- 21st-century American artists
- 21st-century African-American artists