HANK WILLIS THOMAS

2008 Monograph Click here to purchase The book begins with a deeply personal and interpretive re-telling of the senseless murder of young Songha Willis, the artist's cousin, who was robbed at gunpoint and murdered outside a nightclub in Philadelphia in 2000. It then charts Hank Willis Thomas's career as he grapples with the issues of grief, black-on-black violence in America, and the ways in which corporate culture is complicit in the crises of black male identity. The concluding section presents Unbranded, in which Willis Thomas examines advertising and media representation of African-Americans. With his characteristic pointedness and dark humor, Willis Thomas shows in Pitch Blackness why he is considered one of today's most compelling emerging artists. Hank Willis Thomas is the first recipient of the Aperture West Book Prize. Pitch Blackness was made possible, in part, by the generous support of Sondra Gilman and Celso Gonzalez-Falla, and the LEF Foundation.