Arthur Jafa: MAGNUMB

The Arthur Jafa, MAGNUMB, book is an essential overview of Jafa's sweeping, dynamic and disquieting video portraits of Black American life.

Though he has worked in film and music for decades, American video artist Arthur Jafa only garnered acclaim in the art world in 2016 for his video work Love Is The Message, The Message Is Death. Composed of found images and videos, his oeuvre revolves around Black American culture, the history of slavery, and ongoing structural and physical violence against Black Americans.

This essential overview presents Jafa’s best-known works, such as Love Is The Message, The Message Is Death and its 2018 follow-up piece The White Album, alongside never-before-seen projects and essays by notable scholars.

Filmmaker and artist Arthur Jafa (born 1960) grew up in Mississippi, where his lifelong fascination with found imagery manifested in his childhood hobby of assembling binders of photographs culled from various sources. As a cinematographer and director of photography, Jafa has collaborated with Stanley Kubrick, Solange Knowles and Spike Lee, among many others. His work on Julie Dash’s 1991 film Daughters of the Dust won him the Best Cinematography award at Sundance. At the 2019 Venice Biennale, he was awarded the Golden Lion for The White Album. Jafa lives in Los Angeles.

 

Title: MAGNUMB
Publisher: Louisiana, 2021
Artist: Arthur Jafa
Graphic Design: Studio Claus Due
Format: Softcover
Size: 216 pages
ISBN: 9788793659353