Erotic Folk / Outsider Art by Asa "ACE" Moore circa 1935 Early Visions of Black Sexuality

Asa "Ace" Moore African-American outsider artist who created erotic and sexual works in ink and pencil during the 1930s. Certainly in private. Personal visions of his own, and produced during a time when even African-American's questioned their own beauty.  As such, these are likely among the earliest depictions of sexuality and eroticism by a Black artist in the United States.  It took as long as 1974 for Vogue Magazine to put an African-American model on their cover, and even Hefner resisted until 1971. Racism was so extreme and brutal in the 1930s, images of Black sexuality were virtually unknown. In 1968, when James Brown sang "Say it Loud, I'm Black and Proud" he was literally convincing his own race of their worth...and that was 30 years after these drawings were created.  Some are far too risque to allow here...but Mr. Moore created at least 38 works.  Some appear on the Museum of Uncut Funk site HERE

Drawings by Asa "Ace" Moore circa 1935 Collection Jim Linderman