New Talent with Antwaun Sargent

Art writer, curator, fashion figure and man about town, Antwaun Sargent discusses the May/June 2021 issue of Art in America which focuses on New Talent. In the 1950s and 60s, Art in America ran a series of regular features and issues that sought to identify up-and-coming artists whose work would be lasting and meaningful for the future. Instead of approaching the idea of New Talent as a singular benchmark, Sargent talks about how he took the approach of assembling a group of artists and writers who could better show the multiplicity of what New Talent means. Sargent argues against the idea of equating the idea of New Talent with youth. Instead, this issue features artists ranging from painters Deborah Roberts and Amy Sherald to photographers Tyler Mitchell and Clifford Prince King and artists working in different media like Precious Okoyomon or Allana Clarke or Qualeasha Wood. Above all, the issue brings new voices into the conversation about art. “We talk about audiences all the time,” Sargent says, “but we’re still allowing all of that to be defined by a very limited number of folks. This magazine is an opportunity to push back against some of those notions—about what a critic can be, about what an art writer can be.”