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This exhibit tells the story of the African-American artists' quest for creative recognition in their chosen art forms. The story follows these artists via their early exposure to European art and genre paintings and respectfully following these rules in their learned crafts. Later, there is a fusion shown, using the European, African, and American cultural context in these artists' works. The exhibit is a visual presentation, along with historical text covering the early and recent achievements of these artists involved in the Visual Arts. Over 60 personalities are on display with biographical facts and information. Many examples of their creations are also represented. Included are: painters, sculptors, muralists, engravers, portraitists, print makers, illustrators, photographers, woodcut printers, lithographers, folk artists, and cartoonists. Books, pictures, photos, magazines, museum catalogs, visual crafts, [etc.] are on display. Library resources and established museums as focal reference art centers are included to enhance the viewers scope in seeking additional information on this subject. A bibliography is available upon request. The exhibit will be on view from February through
April 1996, in the main lobby of the B. Davis
Schwartz Memorial Library.
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When we look at the early identification of African-Americans involved in the Visual Arts, we see a small cadre of artists closely aligned to the production of works in the strict tradition of European or English classicism. The rules were clearly defined for the artists, and cultural expression was not the acceptable standard for visual creations produced by early African-American artists. Those few African-Americans had to sublimate their expression and stick closely to what was defined as art. Therefore, it was not a surprise to see the first African-American artists defined as slave artisans with skills as iron workers, cabinet makers, quiltmakers, even silversmiths and stoneware vessel makers. The majority of these artists were using their Afrocentric talents for creating useful items needed by their masters or for their own households when allowed. The African-Americans' talents as visual artists were later identified as painters of white families' portraits and, in rare cases, portrait painters of well-to-do "free persons of color." These early American African-American artists enjoyed a degree of status, and many bought their freedom using their artistic talents as acceptable barter. Having a marketable and acceptable skill pleased the white clientele and provided a living for the early African-American visual artists. SCIPIO MOORHEAD of Boston, G.W. HOBBS of Baltimore, JOSHUA JOHNSTON of Baltimore, JULIEN HUDSON of New Orleans, ROBERT M. DOUGLASS JR. of Philadelphia, PATRICK HENRY REASON of Philadelphia, and WILLIAM SIMPSON of Boston were among the early identifiable portraitists of prominent black and white subjects from 1773 until 1887. Being a visual artist required talent, but, for the African-American artists, talent was not enough. This was nineteenth century America, and race determined who could be trained in the arts. There were no special schools or places where African-Americans could freely exhibit their talents for art. These talented artists were excluded from the academies, associations, and teaching institutions available to white artists. In rare cases, beneficent white families broke the rules and provided knowledge, direction, and resources to budding African-American talents in the visual arts. Many of these white patrons were among the abolitionists of this period in American history. After the Civil War, a host of African-American visual artists started to be recognized. From 1865 to the start of the 1920's, most of these artists produced works which could be acceptable to museums, patrons, or local salons or studios. They therefore created paintings, drawings, and sculptures in the classical and romantic traditions of scenes depicting nature, history, familiar places, distinguished personalities, and prominent families of wealth. The art world of this period was narrow, and African-American artists had to compete for recognition and earnings from pieces of art requested by their commissioners or patrons. Therefore, African-American artists such as EDWARD MITCHELL BANNISTER, GRAFTON TYLER BROWN, NELSON A. PRIMUS, EDMONIA LEWIS, HENRY OSSAWA TANNER, and META VAUX WARRICK FULLER had to produce pieces of art appealing to the judges of that art. For the most part, these African-Americans were seeking recognition and a place in the international world of art. Certain American cities began to produce recognizable talents. Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Providence, New York, Hartford, and New Orleans were among the growing places where African-Americans could receive training -- but within the limits of what was acceptable as worthy of distinction in a market dominated by European influences. Most African-American artists could not afford to release their creative energy in the direction of purely social protest art or expressive impressionistic moods in art. African-American artists seeking this freedom of expression later discovered that Rome, Munich, and especially Paris were places where they could find new vistas of respect as just artists, who happen to be African-Americans. PARIS was THE PLACE for learning, observing, and experimenting with their talents and theories of Art. Europe was no longer remote but a place of longing for all African-American artists. |
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Even though the African-American artists were gaining respect in Europe, they also longed for a better connection to their works and experiences as American artists. That break came in the early 1920's. The movement was called the NEGRO or HARLEM RENAISSANCE. This resurgence of literature, knowledge, and the arts coming out of New York was powerful. A fertile and acceptable door had been opened to African-American musicians, writers, poets, intellectuals, entrepreneurs, and VISUAL ARTISTS. The opportunity was now available to grow and show off their best talents. From 1919 to about 1929, HARLEM, NEW YORK became the capitol of cultural activity for African-Americans. This period in American history was extremely uplifting to African-Americans as a people. Personalities and individuals connected their expressions in writings, music, and visual artworks as they related to the political, social, and economic conditions of being black in America. Among the surfacing notables were:
These names became synonymous with African-American creativity, but Dr. Locke, a Philadelphia native and magna cum laude graduate of Harvard in 1907, was the driving force behind the artists of this era. He was a PHI BETA KAPPA member and the first African-American RHODES SCHOLAR. He studied GREEK and PHILOSOPHY at Oxford in England from 1907-1910 and continued as a scholar at the University of Berlin from 1910-1911. He received his Ph.D from HARVARD in 1918. He was on the faculty of HOWARD UNIVERSITY in WASHINGTON D.C. from 1912-1953. From his travels and studies, Dr. Locke gained a broader view of African culture. This view helped him in becoming the spokesperson behind the acceptance of African-Americans as creative artists. He was an advocate and explainer of African-American culture. His 1925 book entitled, THE NEW NEGRO, was written with the intention of broadening our knowledge and understanding of the works involving African-American poets, writers, dramatists, musicians, and visual artists. He later published, in 1940, THE NEGRO IN ART, which was aimed at identifying the artistic genius of an array of African-American visual artists, including the wide-spread depiction of blacks in countless other works in the Art world. By 1926, another stage in the developmental history of African-American visual artists came about. It was the establishment of the HARMON FOUNDATION. The Harmon Foundation became an anchor for promoting the works of African-American artists. WILLIAM E. HARMON, a real estate magnate, became the chief philanthropist and patron in the support of African-American artists and culture. Harmon's interest in African-American artists reflected "his interest in promoting justice and social commitment." The "deprivation of black Americans, he reasoned, was a national problem, not simply a burden on blacks alone." The HARMON FOUNDATION existed from 1922 to the end of 1967. It was an extremely vital organization for keeping the African-American artists working, learning, and creating expressions in the VISUAL ARTS. The Harmon Foundation's financial awards and exhibitions helped to encourage the perpetuation and acceptance of African-American pieces of art by wider audiences across the United States. |
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The GREAT DEPRESSION OF 1929 brought to the ARTS a slow demise of artistic backings such as the HARMON FOUNDATION. Even though the FOUNDATION ended its support in 1967, the important Annual Awards Competition ended earlier in 1933. Visual artists such as SELMA BURKE, AUGUSTA SAVAGE, JOSEPH DELANEY, ROMARE BEARDEN, BEAUFORD DELANEY, LOIS MAILOU JONES, HORACE PIPPIN, ALAN ROHAN CRITE, JACOB LAWRENCE, ELDZIER CORTOR, NORMAN LEWIS, and HUGIE LEE-SMITH blossomed in the heart of these hard times of the 1930's. Support and recognition for the visual artists was forthcoming and grew via the United States government under FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT and the NEW DEAL. He established, in December of 1933, the first federal PUBLIC WORKS OF ART PROJECT (PWAP) under the division of the U.S. TREASURY DEPARTMENT. This created Arts work project was ineffective, and only a few artists received commissions, mostly as MURALISTS for State and Federal buildings. After four and a half months, the PWAP ceased to function. It was later, in 1935, that President Roosevelt created the WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION (WPA). The WPA provided a less restrictive environment for all American artists, but this helped the African-American visual artists to surge to newer heights. Art took on a new meaning. HUMAN and SOCIAL CONDITIONS could be expressed. POLITICS and ART fused, and historical and current social injustices were allowable manifestations in the creation of art pieces. PHILADELPHIA, BOSTON, WASHINGTON, D.C., and SAN FRANCISCO became meccas for a large number of African-American visual artists. The WPA of 1935 gave these artists the necessary time to develop their acclaimed skills. The first in a series of experienced African-American visual artists under the WPA went on to become the first university professors of ART. The WPA also helped in the creation of less restrictive art forms coming from African-American artists. MIXED MEDIA, ABSTRACT ART, CUBISM, and SOCIAL REALISM were now acceptable and desirable creative expressions. When the artists of the WPA began to swell in numbers, they united and formed the HARLEM ARTISTS GUILD in 1935. This beginning helped to organize groups of artists into unions which allowed them to share in available places for exhibiting their works. Churches, storefront, and community-based fundraising efforts came on the scene, and finally it became in vogue to celebrate the creations of the African-American Visual Artists. The Harlem Artists Guild therefore became a catalyst and model for the support and development of other COMMUNITY ART CENTERS in larger cities across America. These centers now provided studio space plus free classes in a variety of expanded visual art forms. DRAWING, SCULPTING, PRINTMAKING, PAINTING, POTTERY, QUILTING, WEAVING, and PHOTOGRAPHY were some of the skills developed by promising visual artists. But, by 1938, the WPA was in trouble, and the HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS called it costly and that the art projects were "fraught and subversive." By the end of 1939, the entire WPA and arts projects division were terminated, and many African-American artists had to give up on the labor of producing creative pieces of art. The 1940's and 1950's were not easy times for the African-American visual artists. Only the acceptable, critically acclaimed few were able to work and produce lucrative pieces of art. Patrons of the arts were still mostly white and wealthy. Good reviews and widespread exhibitions were the only avenues for survival for the African-American visual artists. The ART GALLERIES during this period were extremely selective as to WHO and WHAT were going to be shown in their galleries. In the beginning, only the selected acceptable works of JACOB LAWRENCE, ROMARE BEARDEN, and HORACE PIPPIN entered the exclusive world of THE GALLERY SCENE. Very few African-Americans before 1960 received the invitational embrace to show their works in well known galleries. |
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The 1960's and 1970's ushered in the beginning of many nationwide social and political changes for African Americans in general. The CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT, the ASSASSINATIONS of JOHN F. KENNEDY, MARTIN LUTHER KING JR, and ROBERT KENNEDY brought to the African American visual artists a high degree of consciousness and commitment to capturing startling and changing events and transposing these expressions into paintings and photographs. The struggle for EQUAL RIGHTS in AMERICA created another focus and slanted the visual artists' conceptions of art as a means of social and political expression. The NOW was on CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ART. The climate in America presented a high degree of uncertainty, and the emphasis on AFRO in American life and in art brought in artistic creations fused with many unexplained abstractions which took on a surrealistic quality. Many mixed media collages having bold geometric forms with abstract and metaphysical themes suddenly appeared in art. Before the 70's ended, the African American visual artists had acquired a full range of mixed lessons coming from their environmental encounters and their experimentation with free expressions. This was also a time of rapid explosion in support coming from many newly established COMMUNITY ART CENTERS and a host of GALLERIES created exclusively for the showing of works by African American visual artists. Many more African American visual artists also took on Afrocentric themes and subjects dealing with the human conditions of being African Americans. This was also a time when some of the well known and established African American visual artists began to teach and even establish UNIVERSITY ART DEPARTMENTS at many of the HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES and UNIVERSITIES. The 1980's and 1990's saw several major happenings in the world of the African-American visual artists:
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( * indicates a link to the artist's official site )
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Although many of the African-American visual artists stayed away from Afrocentric themes in their creations, the seeds were transplanted and later developed among these artists. African art represented a part of daily living, ceremonial rituals, and personal utility. Wood, bronze, ivory, gold, metal, cloth, and copper were some of the media used as symbols of expressions which could often be translated into possessions of power, spirituality, or leadership. Useful artistic creations are also obvious: such as chairs, spoons, bowls, cups, knives, and multicolored wearing apparel and jewelry. African art belonged to the people; it was an extension or an expression coming from the people. The importance of African art was appreciated as items of beauty and possessions of wealth by European travelers long before the African-Americans could focus on these items of creativity. It is not known whether the fear of nonacceptance of creations covering Afrocentric themes was the problem or the direction of training required of the African-American visual artists. Many of the modern artists, such as PICASSO or MATISSE, were later documented as "modern artists who had studied African sculpture because they were fascinated by the possibilities of utilizing its design concepts, not because it was the work of black African artists." African-American sculptors, RICHMOND BARTHE (1901-1989) and LOIS MAILOU JONES (1905-1998) were two of the first African-American visual artists to specify their creations as influences of African art. BARTHE'S two sculptures, the BLACKBERRY WOMAN (1932) and the AFRICAN DANCER (1932), were purchased by the WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART for its own collection in New York. JONES' creation of LES FETICHES (1938) was considered one of the earliest directed art pieces toward African influences. She chose and studied the different AFRICAN MASKS before undertaking her creative task. JONES also "advised students to go to Africa to see such artworks in their social and religious context." Today, the African influence in the visual arts is widespread. PARSON'S SCHOOL OF DESIGN in New York City is an example of far reaching vision of accepting and fusing African Art into American Art. |
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The widespread use of the African mask has been for centuries the focal point of initiation rites, funerals, dances, authority symbols, protection symbols, and spiritual embodiments among the African people. Each mask represents an expression or idea which is manifested into the final design. Sometimes a mask is deliberately carved out to look rough or fierce and at times "ugly." When an African mask is completed, it represents a unified idea which could be connected with the earth or with an unknown. The beauty of the African mask lies in the
multiplicity of its expression. Examples would be a
round pout-mouth conveying sadness, visible teeth
conveying cheerfulness, or spiral antelope horns
representing war. Grotesque faces are used to
ridicule, intimidate, and even threaten the viewer.
Some masks, such as this reproduction from DAN,
LIBERIA, were used in symbolic sacred ceremonies and
initiation rites for young men going into secret
societies. This mask is used in dance and acts as a
guardian of power against illness. The cowrie shells
and hairlike beard represent dignity, power, and
energy.
Nigeria, Court of Benin This replication of the original mask presents an idea of what the royal artwork of Benin City looked like during the 15th century. The original mask is made of hand-carved ivory and is located in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Collection, New York City. Historians believe the original piece to be a woman: the mother of the king during the time the Portuguese colonized West Africa. The story goes that it was the ceremonial mask worn by the king and was used as a hip attachment. |
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From the collection of the late Professor John Turner of the C. W. Post Campus' History Department. The Snow Cone Man was presented to Professor Turner by one of his students. Not much is known about the hand-painted sculpture. The Snow Cone Man captures a special group of people who were roving peddlers selling snowballs or snow cones with multiple flavored syrups during the hot summers of Southern America and in the Caribbean and West Indies. |
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Portraitist and Painter (1765-1830) In the history of early America, the art world was full of unknowns due to the lack of sufficient documentation, especially with dates and names inscribed on specific works of art. Joshua Johnston, as a portraitist and painter of the late 1700's and early 1800's, was included in this ongoing search for more verification by art historians. The link to Johnston as an African American portraitist comes from pieces of information gathered for over 20 years by Dr. J. Hall Pleasants, an expert on early American MARYLAND artists. Records of early listings of JOSHUA JOHNSTON (sometimes listed as JOHNSON) came from an old BALTIMORE, MARYLAND city directory of 1796. An 1817 directory listed JOSHUA JOHNSTON in the "FREE HOUSEHOLDERS OF COLOR" section. Dr. Pleasants has identified 34 paintings in the style of Joshua Johnston. One picture portrait of SARAH OGDEN GUSTIN is unsigned, but she holds a book with "JOSHU JOHNSON" painted on the heading. In a revealing advertisement in the BALTIMORE INTELLIGENCER, dated December 19, 1798, JOSHUA JOHNSTON is advertised as a PORTRAIT PAINTER and as a "self-taught genius." In 1940, LIFE MAGAZINE, in its ART section, did a story entitled, "AMERICAN PAINTINGS, CARNEGIE HOLDS GREAT SURVEY." Among the listed examples of American artists are COPLEY, STUART, [etc.], including the recognition of JOSHUA JOHNSTON and his portrait painting of THE JAMES MCCORMICK FAMILY, done about 1805. It is said that JOHNSTON "is believed to be the first painter of his race in the U.S." By 1815, the free black population of Baltimore, Maryland outnumbered the slave population, and Joshua Johnston was instrumental in doing portraits of these free African Americans. His PORTRAIT OF A CLERIC (ca.1805, in oil) is now in the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, and the portrait of REVEREND DANIEL COKER of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (ca.1817) is now in the American Museum in Bath, England. Today, the Maryland Historical Society has a record of 80 portraits attributed to Joshua Johnston. His fame and talent were comparable to the other white portraitists of his day, such as CHARLES WILSON PEALE. Parts of his mysterious life are still being unraveled here in 1996.
Portrait
of Sea Captain John Murphy
at the National Museum of American Art |
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Engraver of Portraits (c.1773) Scipio Moorhead was a slave of the Reverend John Moorhead of Boston, Massachusetts. Scipio's talents for drawing were advanced by Sarah Moorhead, the wife of the Rev. Moorhead. Sarah Moorhead was a teacher of art and drawing. The recognition of Scipio's work came about through the documented inscription of the black poet, PHILLIS WHEATLEY. Phillis left behind a pencilled note, "To S.M., a young African painter, on seeing his works," in a copy of her 1773 edition of POEMS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, RELIGIOUS AND MORAL. Phillis later wrote, "Scipio Moorhead, Negro servant to the Rev. Moorhead of Boston, whose genius inclined him that way." Scipio Moorhead later engraved a portrait of Phillis Wheatley which appeared on the cover page of her books of poetry. That famous scene shows Phillis with a quill pen writing at her desk in colonial American dress. Very little else is known about Scipio Moorhead. His tribute to fame comes from his spirit to create as an early American visual artist without an avenue for recognition. |
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Painter and Portraitist (1823-1872) Robert S. Duncanson was born in Seneca County, upstate New York, in 1823. His mother was a free woman of African descent, and his father was a Canadian of Scottish descent. Duncanson was fortunate enough to understand his early connection to Canada and the Underground Railroad which led to Cincinnati, Ohio, the home of his mother's upbringing. Cincinnati, Ohio was a border state when Slavery was a burning issue in America. In Cincinnati, Duncanson was able to freely participate in the city's art education programs. The FREEDMAN'S AID SOCIETY OF OHIO raised money and sent Duncanson to Glasgow, Scotland to study painting in 1839. Upon his return to Cincinnati around 1842, his reputation skyrocketed, and he was exhibited in many of the museums around Cincinnati. His style of painting is characterized as that of the HUDSON RIVER SCHOOL. The romantic, soft, and naturalistic landscapes scenes were breathtaking. Duncanson, as an established artist, also dealt with the early photographic process known as DAGUERREOTYPE. He even did portrait painting and murals on a broad scale. Duncanson was known for his travels. Besides Cincinnati, he lived in and traveled to Detroit, Michigan, and depicted countless landscape scenes in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New England, and Scotland. As the AMERICAN CIVIL WAR (1861-1865) developed and ended, Duncanson's position as a free man of color became very much a part of his consciousness. Due to his light complexion, he was sometimes confused as being a white artist. Nevertheless, Duncanson's outstanding work caught the eye of the critics and his fellow talented colleagues. One author said that "Duncanson lived in a period of great change, and being mulatto, he undoubtedly faced many social and professional disappointments." Duncanson left behind an array of superb works. In 1972, the Cincinnati Art Museum was able to exhibit 35 of his preserved works. Among his creations are:
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Artist and Painter (1828-1901) Edward Bannister was born in Nova Scotia, Canada, but, due to the deaths of both his parents at an early age, he was forced to grow up fast. Shortly after his birth, the British abolished slavery in all of its provinces; therefore Bannister lived as a free Black and was able to freely develop his propensity for art by studying the larger views of the established visual artists. He later traveled to Boston and New York as a seaman. He loved to visit libraries, museums, and art galleries. Bannister saw the beginning stages of daguerreotype and its implications for photography as an established art form. He became an early painter of photographs. His marriage to Christina Carteaux, a prominent New York businesswoman, enabled and encouraged him to paint full time as an established artist. Bannister was able to have his own studio where he developed his talent for choosing a style of art based upon the Barbizon style of painting which used mostly serene landscapes and scenes taken from nature. Bannister's position in Boston helped him to become a painter and advocate of rights for the Union black soldiers during the Civil War. His commissioned portrait of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw was created and hung in the State House in Boston. By 1870, Bannister and his wife moved to Providence, Rhode Island. His creation of UNDER THE OAKS in Providence won him the first prize at the world 1876 CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION held in Philadelphia. Bannister never took formal art training, and he attributed his talents to religious beliefs in almighty God. Bannister was highly respected in Providence. He was one of the founders of the PROVIDENCE ART CLUB which later helped to develop the prestigious RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN. Bannister was definitely a giant among the visual artists of his day. Some of his notable works include:
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Sculptor (1845-ca.1909) The amazing talent of Edmonia Lewis can only leave one speechless. She was born on July 14, 1845 in the village of Greenbush in Rensselaer County, New York. Her father was African-American, and her mother was part Native American from the Mississauga Tribe of the Chippewa Nation. When her parents died early on in Edmonia's life, she was raised as a Mississauga Indian with the culture and values of the Chippewa Nation. By 1858, Edmonia left her Native American environment for a life at the preparatory department at Oberlin College in Ohio. Oberlin College was the Mecca for staunch abolitionists and Christian advocates. Edmonia was a live-in boarder with the Reverend John Keep, a theologian at Oberlin. She was also there when, on October 1859, JOHN BROWN and two African-Americans from Oberlin were involved in the HARPER'S FERRY arsenal raid. While continuing her studies at Oberlin, young Edmonia was falsely accused in two cases involving students linking her to college infractions. She was forced to leave Oberlin, but she was never expelled. Her talents were already recognizable, therefore she moved to Boston and started her first lessons in modeling clay under the tutelage of sculptor, Edward Brackett. Edmonia Lewis was determined to become a recognizable sculptor. Her big challenge came when, upon the death of Colonel ROBERT GOULD SHAW, the leader of the all black Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Regiment at FORT WAGNER, South Carolina, she completed a marble bust from her memory and his photograph. Edmonia Lewis, who now worked near the inspirational black artist EDWARD M. BANNISTER, also sold plaster reproductions of Shaw, with the consent of his family, to help raise funds for the underpaid black Union Soldiers. At the end of the Civil War, Lewis went to Italy to study and work with other sculptors and artists involved in the purist reproduction of the Neoclassical art forms. In ROME, Lewis was able to meet many prominent American writers. Among them were Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Edmonia Lewis was destitute but determined to produce works of art in marble. After two years of work in ROME, she completed FOREVER FREE in marble (1867-68) and shipped it to America and had to literally beg for the cost of the marble and shipping fees from her American friends and aids. Edmonia Lewis was determined to buck the "odds" -- she was a woman and a black artist -- nevertheless, she endured. Edmonia Lewis' greatest fear was that people would say she did not create those works of art. This fear made her undaunted, and she drew curious onlookers to her studio as she did all the physical, heavy work as a woman sculptor. Edmonia Lewis' last known exhibition was in the UNITED STATES CENTENNIAL EXPOSITION in Philadelphia in 1876 and Chicago in 1878. No record of her death was ever recorded, and different sources report various dates from 1890 to after 1911. There is also some disagreement as to whether she was born in 1845 or 1843, with a few sources even claiming 1840 or 1844. Her works include:
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The Life of an Artist (1859-1937) Henry O. Tanner was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1859. He came from a devoutly religious home, for his father was a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. When Henry was seven, Bishop Tanner moved his family to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he was a minister at the famed MOTHER BETHEL A.M.E. CHURCH. Henry was exposed to religion and learned the strength of family life coming from it in daily living. At age seventeen, he toured the 1876 CENTENNIAL ART EXHIBIT in Philadelphia. He saw the works of British, French, Italian, and Middle Eastern painters. Among the Americans, he passed the works of GILBERT STUART, CHARLES WILSON PEALE, JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY, and WINSLOW HOMER. He also suddenly came across the inclusion of works done by two African American artists at the EXHIBITION. They were EDMONIA LEWIS' DEATH OF CLEOPATRA and EDWARD M. BANNISTER'S prize winning landscape, UNDER THE OAKS. Tanner's father had hoped and encouraged his son to follow in the A.M.E. ministry, but Tanner had to turn to his own wishes, and he decided that indeed it was now possible to be an artist. At age twenty-one, Tanner entered the PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS. Here he was able to gain the necessary rudiments for his future artistic development. THOMAS EAKINS, who later became one of America's foremost photographers and artists, was Tanner's first inspirational teacher and mentor. Tanner was also impressed with EAKINS' portrayal of African Americans in his artwork as natural and dignified subjects. EAKINS also taught Tanner how to use his talent in drawing and using color contrast and photography for art study purposes. Tanner credited the painter, THOMAS HOVENDEN, and his sensitive treatment of race as a subject in several of his paintings, but especially THE LAST MOMENTS OF JOHN BROWN and THEIR PRIDE, which inspired him to continue art as a chosen field of work. Tanner discovered early on in his career that an artist had to sell his creations in order to live. He therefore created drawings and illustrations specifically for sale in the book and magazine market. By 1889, Tanner had moved to Atlanta, Georgia and opened his own photography studio. Within one year, the studio was a failure, and he took a job as the first art instructor at CLARK UNIVERSITY in Atlanta. With the help of Clark University trustee, Bishop Joseph Hartzell, Tanner was able to continue his quest and dream of painting religious scenes in Rome and Palestine. On his trip abroad, Tanner stopped over in PARIS, FRANCE. The richness of the LOUVRE and ACADEMIE JULIEN, plus the openness and freedom of PARIS impressed Tanner so much, he decided to make it his home. After only one year in PARIS, Tanner developed typhoid fever and was near death. He was forced to return to America and to his family for care. Tanner's reflection on his reverence of what he knew of being an African American with integrity and dignity with strong cultural values became his inspiration for one of his most famous paintings, THE BANJO LESSON, completed in 1893. The following year, he completed THE THANKFUL POOR in 1894. Tanner later spoke as an artist, "he who has the most sympathy with his subject will achieve the best results." Tanner wanted desperately to return to PARIS, therefore he sold sixteen of his works in order to raise his travel money. THE BANJO LESSON and THE THANKFUL POOR were among the saleables. THE BANJO LESSON was later purchased by Robert C. Ogden and given to HAMPTON UNIVERSITY. THE THANKFUL POOR was purchased by John T. Morris, who allowed it to be circulated on loan to the PHILADELPHIA SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF. (After 75 years, it was located in a closet of the school. It was put up for auction at SOTHEBY'S in 1981, and William and Camille O. COSBY bought the painting for $250,000. This was the highest price ever paid for a work of art by an African American artist.) By 1895, Tanner had decided to pursue his longing for fulfillment in painting religious and biblical subjects, and, with the money earned at the 1894 sale, he returned to PARIS. In Paris, Tanner produced DANIEL IN THE LION'S DEN (1895) and THE RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS (1896). The LAZARUS painting earned him a gold medal from the Salon du Societe des Artistes Francais in Paris (Summer 1896). With this recognition, Tanner received the financial backing from several PATRONS of the Arts. Tanner was finally able to travel to increase his visual technique in his works. He went to NAPLES, ROME, VENICE, ALEXANDRIA, CAIRO, JERUSALEM, and JORDAN. In his travels, he produced:
Tanner's paintings won him hundreds of world prizes and honors. His works were sought after and shown at the ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM, TOLEDO MUSEUM OF ART, PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART, LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART, METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, LUXEMBOURG MUSEUM, THE LOUVRE, and countless private COLLECTION SHOWS. He was one of America's first African American painters to be exhibited in the LONDON EXHIBIT OF 1914, which featured the works of distinguished American artists such as WEST, STUART, WHISTLER, HOMER, and COPLEY. Tanner had established himself as an artist among artists. His name and prestige drew students from afar to see this man, an African American Man at the center of the art world. W.E.B. DUBOIS called him the "DEAN" of American black artists in his CRISIS MAGAZINE. Students of art such as PALMER HAYDEN, WILLIAM H. JOHNSON, AARON DOUGLAS, and HALE A. WOODUFF visited and received encouragement and artistic advice from Tanner at his Paris residence. By 1934, Tanner had outlived his wife, father, mother,
sister, and younger brother. Three years
later, in 1937, he died in his sleep in his Paris apartment at the
age of 78.
Tanner's Legacy was one of conviction and expression on
the faith of mankind. It was evident in the works of
art he left behind.
Henry Ossawa Tanner (completed in 1893) It is said that this painting showed some influence by the American painter Thomas Eakins. Eakins was one of Tanner's teachers and his mentor when he studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in the year 1880. Tanner wanted to show a positive image of the African-American in this work by capturing a moment of dignity in the touching scene of the elder teaching the boy how to play the banjo. Tanner also chose the banjo because of its African origin and its being the most popular musical instrument used by the slaves in early America. (369k graphic) |
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Sculptor, Ceramicist, Illustrator, Teacher (1874-1967) Many visual artists who deserve recognition as worthy contributors to the arts have been ignored or either sparcely cited in many standard reference books and research bibliographies. One of those neglected names was that of Isaac Scott Hathaway. This exclusion was recently brought to light by Kendrick Moore, curator of the Isaac Scott Hathaway Collection, now a resident of Oklahoma City and formerly a resident of Louisville, Kentucky. Isaac Scott Hathaway, sculptor and career visual artist, was one of three children born to the Reverend and Mrs. Hathaway of the Christian Church in Lexington, Kentucky in the year 1874. Isaac's mother died when he was only age three. Isaac and his two sisters, Fannie and Eva, were reared by their grandmother. Isaac Scott Hathaway's childhood was filled with questions. When he was age nine, he asked his father - while touring a museum stocked with busts of famous white Americans - where was the bust of his hero, the famed Frederick Douglass? His father had to explain to Isaac that there were no trained Negro sculptors involved in molding prominent Negro people as yet. Isaac answered, "I am going to model busts of Negroes and put them where people can see them." That determination stood fast, and Isaac Hathaway was determined to learn what was needed to become an artist and a sculptor. Isaac went to Chandler College in Lexington, Kentucky and Pittsburg Normal College in Pittsburg, Kansas where he studied ceramics. In an effort to learn more about art and sculpture, Isaac enrolled in the Art Department of the New England Conservatory of Music. He also continued his studies at the Cincinnati Art Academy in Cincinnati, Ohio. Additional studies were done in Ceramics at the State University of Kansas at Pittsburg, Kansas and in the College of Ceramics of the State University of New York at Alfred, New York. Isaac used his diversified education and art background in the lessons he taught as an elementary school teacher in Kentucky. His education in the arts and his creative genius helped him in preparing visual plaster of paris models for his classroom science lessons, including one he molded into an intricate human skeleton. Soon the work and name of Isaac Hathaway gained notice, and many of his peers advised him to develop a company which could distribute "sculptural products on a national scale." Isaac Hathaway did just that. His company became known at first as the Afro Art Company, but later he changed it to the Isaac Hathaway Art Company. Hathaway was able to fulfill his life's dream by producing the busts of many famous and prominent African-Americans for distribution to schools and public places. Among his busts were: Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglass, Richard Allen, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, George Washington Carver, and C.C. Spaulding, to name a few. Isaac Hathaway, besides his creative busts, utilized other formats for his creations. He molded plaques and masks of prominent white and black figures which could be hung on walls of colleges, churches, and places of business. Hathaway also did extensive sculptures in bronze metal upon request by commissioners in government and academe. By 1915, the talents of Isaac Hathaway had elevated him to a position of high esteem and demand as an artist. He was among the first to introduce the art of ceramics into the college curricula at dozens of universities in the United States. He was the founding member of the Department of Ceramics at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama where he stayed from 1937-1947. On August 7, 1946 President Harry S. Truman authorized a commission by the U.S. Mint of a fifty cent piece "to commemorate the life and perpetuate the ideas and teachings of Booker T. Washington." Isaac Hathaway was chosen as the designer of the Booker T. Washington coin, thus becoming the first African-American to design a U.S. coin. (As a historical note, Selma Burke is often credited with this distinction, but the Roosevelt Dime, also issued in 1946, was based on a sculpture she had created two years earlier that was not specifically commissioned by the U.S. Mint.) Isaac Hathaway was also chosen as the designer of the George Washington Carver commemorative fifty cent piece back in 1951. Isaac Hathaway once said that he believed "that the art of a people not only conveys their mental, spiritual, and civic growth to posterity, but convinces their contemporaries that they can best portray in crystallization their feelings, aspirations, and desires." Isaac Hathaway certainly lived by these convictions. He died in 1967 at age 93. |
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Painter (1882-1959) Ellis Ruley was born in Norwich, Connecticut. He did construction work as a laborer for most of his adult life. He started to paint in the year 1939 by using ordinary house paint to create images of popular culture and popular scenes which he came upon via the movies or in his bucolic surroundings. Ruley's artwork had a touch of the exotic which enabled him to produce expressive paintings of familiar impressions but from different perspectives. The San Diego Museum of Art, in cooperation with the Ford Motor Company, now has a traveling exhibit, "DISCOVERING ELLIS RULEY," which is now at the MUSEUM OF AMERICAN FOLK ART in New York City (March 2 - April 28, 1996). Shown here: JUNGLE GIRL AND LION, oil based house paint on poster board, not dated. |
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Painter (1888-1946) Horace Pippin, a self-made creative artist, was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, in the year of 1888. His early boyhood was spent in Goshen, New York, where his father was a laborer and his mother a domestic. Pippin always enjoyed drawing, particularly of objects or images he saw in his surroundings. Pippin's father died when he was fifteen, therefore, he quit school to take care of his mother who was in ill health. When she died in 1911, Pippin moved to Paterson, New Jersey, as a moving and storage company worker. He later took a job as a shoe molder for the American Brakeshoe Company. By 1917, America was engaged in the EUROPEAN WAR (World War I). Pippin volunteered for the Army unit and was assigned to the 15TH ALL BLACK INFANTRY REGIMENT, after receiving his army training at FORT DIX in New Jersey. Pippin's unit was transferred to served under the FRENCH FORCES in 1918 as part of the 369th Infantry. Corporal Pippin was a squad leader, and, during one of the heavy German artillery barrages, he was seriously wounded in his right shoulder. His entire Regiment received the French Croix de Guerre for honorable distinction for their war efforts. Pippin was hospitalized in France for five months. Rehabilitation therapy did little to restore Pippin's use of his injured shoulder, but it made him focus more on strengthening the use of his right hand. On his return to America in 1920, Pippin moved to Westchester, New York, where he married Jennie O. Featherstone, a widow with a small son. Pippin was full of memories about his life in the military and his living as an African-American in the 1920's. He desperately wanted to develop his interest in the area of painting, but his weak shoulder only allowed certain mobility. By 1929, Pippin devised a method of using a hot iron poker for gouging out composed creations into wood panels. He then filled in the panels with colorful paints. As shown in the photograph, he held his right hand in place with the use of his left hand. By 1931, his first major work, THE END OF THE WAR: STARTING HOME, was completed. Pippin continued to work on his paintings for eight years. In 1938, Holger Cahill, curator of the New York Museum of Modern Art, was alerted to Pippin's unusual talent by Dr. Christian Brenton of the Westchester Art Center and the notable illustrator, N.C. Wyeth. Four of Pippin's works were immediately accepted by Cahill and shown at the New York Museum's 1938 exhibition called the MASTERS OF POPULAR ART. This important acceptance lead to a call for several One Man Shows featuring his works. Several museums and foundations also wanted to acquire the works of HORACE PIPPIN. How could this be happening? Art critics called this "new find" the work of an "AUTHENTIC" American voice. Because Pippin had no specialized training, such as those African-American artists trained in the academic or European influences, he was regarded as a purest in his creations. Later curator, Judith Stein of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, called his works a "SPIRITUAL SELF-PORTRAIT." Before his death in 1946, Pippin had produced 137 known paintings, including his burnt wood panel paintings. His works encompassed: war scenes, events of people in different genre, small town typical scenes, animal scenes, and religious images. Pippin once said, "PICTURES JUST COME TO MY MIND; I THINK THEM OUT WITH MY BRAIN, AND THEN I TELL MY HEART TO GO AHEAD." Horace Pippin was offered free training by several art institutions, but his zeal to produce art creations his way shied him away from formal training. In 1944, Horace Pippin's wife, Jennie, was committed to the state mental hospital at Norristown, Pennsylvania, and his only son entered the military for active duty during the next great war, World War II. For the next two years of his life, Horace Pippin kept busy and produced an enormous collection of paintings. It is said that they are "autobiographical," for they came from his vision of what his world was like. Horace Pippin died of a stroke on July 6, 1946. His wife died at Norristown ten days later. In 1994, The Museum of American Art of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia organized a touring exhibit entitled, I TELL MY HEART: THE ART OF HORACE PIPPIN, which toured from January 21, 1994 - April 30, 1995. |
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Woodcut Printer, Illustrator, Muralist (1899-1979) Aaron Douglas was born on May 26, 1899 in Topeka, Kansas. Aaron was encouraged at an early age by his mother to continue his creative interest in art. His drawings and paintings were welcomed on the walls of the Douglas' home. His most serious decision in becoming an artist came from his exposure to the African American painter, HENRY OSSAWA TANNER, and his CHRIST AND NICODEMUS painting done in the year of 1899. Aaron Douglas seemed to have embraced the art world at the right moment. He graduated with a B.A. in FINE ARTS from the University of Nebraska in 1922 and later graduated from Teachers College of Columbia University in 1944. During the heyday of the HARLEM RENAISSANCE, the name of Aaron Douglas was preeminent as an artist among his colleagues and the leading writers and leading intellectuals of the day. Because he was able to reproduce illustrations for books and magazines, his services were in high demand. Douglas taught art at Lincoln High School in Topeka for two years, but his goal was to utilize his talents in the revival of artistic opportunity available in New York. Douglas was accepted as the illustrator for Dr. Alain Locke's new book, The New Negro, published in 1925. He became well known for Cubist-type black and white rhythmic illustrations. A good example was his GOD'S TROMBONES illustrations for JAMES WELDON JOHNSON'S book of poems and sermons in verse. Douglas' talents allowed him to become a successful muralist also. He was commissioned to do the murals for the 1920 opening in the CLUB EBONY in Harlem. In 1929, he traveled to Chicago to create a mural for the SHERMAN HOTEL'S COLLEGE INN BALLROOM. At the end of 1930, Douglas created another mural for FISK UNIVERSITY in Nashville, Tennessee. With the handsome fees for his murals, Douglas and his wife, Alta, went to PARIS, France, where he expanded his knowledge of painting and sculpture. He also met the writer, J.A. RODGERS, and painter, PALMER HAYDEN. Douglas also got a chance to meet with his lifelong idol: painter HENRY OSSAWA TANNER. On his return to the United States in 1928, Douglas became the first president of the HARLEM ARTISTS GUILD. The GUILD was successful in helping to get African-American artists the necessary acceptance into the arts project under the U.S. Government's WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION (WPA). For his efforts, Douglas became known as the "DEAN" among his fellow artists. From 1939 to 1966, Douglas took on a position as a professor of art at FISK UNIVERSITY in Nashville, Tennessee. He later became department head before he retired in 1966. Aaron Douglas wanted to infuse his ideas and Afrocentric expressions into his creations. This break from the traditional display in his art was not well received and, initially, not understood by his critics. Before Douglas died in 1979, he was recognized for making it acceptable for future African-American artists to express in their creations movements and depictions from their experiences as African-Americans. Some of his notable works include:
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Sculptor, Teacher (1900-1995) Selma Hortense Burke is indeed a piece of history. Ms. Burke's contributions to the arts as a personality and mentor to other artists cannot be equaled. Her life's work reached back to the Harlem Renaissance and continued up until her death on September 2, 1995 at age 94 in New Hope, Pennsylvania. Selma H. Burke was born in 1900 in Mooresville, North Carolina. She was one of ten children born to Neal Burke, a Methodist Minister, and Mary Jackson Burke, an educator and homemaker. Selma became interested in art when she discovered that by modeling clay taken from the river bed near her parent's farm house she could make all kinds of figures and artistic objects. Her desire and interest in the arts took root immediately. Even though Selma Burke wanted to become an artist, she was persuaded by her parents to enter the field of nursing. She went on to study nursing at Saint Agnes Training School for Nurses, Raleigh, North Carolina, and later extended her studies at Women's Medical College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she completed her training in 1924. The field of nursing lasted only a short while for Selma Burke. Upon the tragic death of her first husband, Durant Woodward in 1929, Ms. Burke took a job in New York as a private nurse for the wealthy heiress of the Otis Elevator Company where she stayed for four years. The Harlem Renaissance was at its peak, and the stock market crash came in 1929, but Selma Burke had discovered the richness of New York and a new opportunity in seeking out her life long goal in becoming an artist. She worked her way through New York's Art Student's League and took art courses at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY. By 1935, she had met her second husband, the noted poet, writer, and author, Claude McKay. This relationship helped her to broaden her horizons and knowledge of the arts and literature encompassing Europe and Africa. In 1936, Selma Burke won a Boehler Foundation Fellowship which helped her to travel in Europe. While there, she studied ceramics under Michael Powolny in Vienna, sculpture under Aristide Maillol, and painting with Henri Matisse, the painter and her mentor, in Paris, France. Selma Burke came back to the United States and worked under Roosevelt's arts program with the WPA. She ended her marriage to Claude McKay by 1940 and married Herman Kobbe, an architect (which lasted for 15 years when he died in 1955). Selma Burke finished her MFA with the help of a scholarship and a Julius Rosenwald Award at Columbia University in 1941. Selma Burke did a short stint in the navy during World War II, but she was injured and thus returned to her art endeavors. In 1943, she won an international competition and was chosen to design a portrait of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. After some unsuccessful sketches from photographs, Selma Burke asked "Roosevelt could he sit in person." Roosevelt did sit for Ms. Burke on February 22, 1944. The completed work became a 3'6" by 2'6" bronze plaque with a profile of Roosevelt which included the inscription of the Four Freedoms:
Selma Burke believed in passing on what she had learned as a skilled visual artist. From 1940 up until the late 1970's, she taught art and sculpture at Livingston, Swarthmore, and Haverford Colleges. In 1940, she became the founder of the Selma Burke School of Sculpture in New York City, and, later in 1968, she established the Selma Burke Art Center in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. The A.W. Mellon Foundation selected Ms. Burke as a hired consultant from 1967-1976. Her works of art have been exhibited in countless museums around the world. Among her numerous honors is the Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Visual Arts presented by President Jimmy Carter in 1979. In 1989, she was among the Essence Awards honories for the Arts. One of her last shows was at the Malcolm Brown Galley in Shaker Heights, NY. Fifteen of her stone and bronze sculptures were on view - among them, her plaster Falling Angel. Selma Burke is cited in extensive bibliographies and biographical reference sources. Her notable works include:
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Expressionistic Portraitist and Artist (1901-1979) Beauford Delaney was born in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1901. He and his younger brother, Joseph, born 1904, both started out drawing at an early age. Beauford moved to Boston, Massachusetts when he was a teenager. He studied at the Massachusetts Normal Art School, the South Boston School of Art, and the Copley Society. Beauford lived an unsettling life as an artist and was in constant need of funds to continue his work and studies. Beauford was known for his commanding high spirit and charm. He therefore attracted lots of friends and patrons willing to support his free spirit as an expressive artist. Beauford managed to meet, sketch, or paint a host of celebrities. By 1929, Beauford had moved to Harlem, New York. The HARLEM RENAISSANCE was in full bloom. Beauford got to know COUNTEE CULLEN, W.E.B. DUBOIS, LOUIS ARMSTRONG, DUKE ELLINGTON, ETHEL WATERS, HENRY MILLER, and JAMES BALDWIN, to name a few. Beauford did work as part of the Harlem Artists Guild and worked at the studio of CHARLES ALSTON. It was at GREENWICH VILLAGE where he got to feel totally at home with the people and other artists. In the late 1950's, Beauford was able to reach PARIS, FRANCE due to the beneficence of a friend. Although many of Beauford Delaney's works were close to being classified as abstract art, he never fully wanted this distinction. Beauford Delaney's life and struggle as an aging American artist living in Paris ended at age 78 from alcoholism and Alzheimer's Disease on March 26, 1979. The "Dean of African-American Artists Living in Europe" was buried in his favorite place -- PARIS, FRANCE. Some of his notable works include:
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Sculptor (1901-1989) Richmond Barthe's early life was spent in the towns of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, St. Martinsville, and New Orleans, Louisiana. In his early days, Richmond took to drawing and painting watercolor scenes. By age 22, he traveled to Chicago and began formal art training at the SCHOOL of the ART INSTITUTE in Chicago. Under the influence of ARCHIBALD J. MOTLEY, JR. and Charles Schroeder, Richmond decided that his talent and spiritual direction were more suited to becoming a sculptor. Richmond Barthe felt at ease with modeling figures and faces from clay. Barthe captivated the art world by producing sculptures and busts of African American subjects as never before seen. His creative approach to African Americans as portraits in stone and bronze received numerous acclaims in the art world. For over sixty years, Richmond Barthe produced works reflecting portraits and racial situations of African Americans. His subjects were mixed from movement (THE BOXER, 1943) to pioneers such as George Washington Carver (1946) and Booker T. Washington (1946). Two of his sculptures: The BLACKBERRY WOMAN (1932) and the AFRICAN DANCER (1933), were purchased by the Whitney Museum of American Art. His 1939 exhibit at the Arden Galleries in New York helped him to get recognition and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1940 and 1941. With all his fame, Richmond Barthe never reached the financial security necessary and commensurate with his great work as an African American sculptor. With the help of the actor, James Garner of The Rockford Files, and Esther Jones, Barthe's final days of his life were made easier. After Richmond Barthe's death in 1989, James Garner turned over the remaining works of Barthe to the Museum of African American Art in Los Angeles and the Schomberg Center in New York. Some of his notable works include:
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Painter, brother of Beauford Delaney (1904-1991) Joseph Delaney, the younger brother of Beauford Delaney, for some unknown reason, never reached the popularity of his older brother Beauford. Joseph later commented that "Beauford and I were complete opposites; me, an introvert, and Beauford, an extrovert." Joseph worked at many odd jobs, but, by 1930, he also decided to become an artist. Joseph learned a lot when he came to New York to study at the ART STUDENTS LEAGUE. He met JACKSON POLLOCK there, but it was THOMAS HART BENTON'S profound impression of fostering American life via realistic scenes of people and landscapes that stuck in Delaney's mind. BENTON'S inclusion in his work of African-Americans also made Delaney feel a part of the American scene. Joseph Delaney enjoyed being an artist who could be free to create and paint scenes of people and life around New York, but, as the AMERICAN DEPRESSION worsened, he, like many artists of that day, developed survival techniques. Joseph Delaney took on commissioned works and did hundreds of portraits of the rich and famous. By 1936, he taught art under the auspices of the COLLEGE ART ASSOCIATION. He also worked on a project with the Metropolitan Museum called the INDEX OF AMERICAN DESIGN. The charge of the museum was to paint and record American decorative art from the colonial days to 1900. Some of Joseph Delaney's most productive works were created in the late 1940's and through the late 1960's. Upon the death of his brother, Beauford, in 1979, Joseph went to Paris. He later brought back to America many of Beauford's works. Joseph left New York and returned to his hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee an ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE at the University of Tennessee in 1985. He died in Knoxville in 1991. Some of his notable works include:
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Muralist, Sculptor, and Painter (1907-1977) Charles Alston's contributions to the visual arts spanned over fifty years. He was born in Charlotte, North Carolina. His father, Primus Priss Alston, was a prominent Episcopalian minister and educator in Charlotte. Charles' early experience with creative arts started when he modelled animals and other creations from the red clay around his home. At age fourteen, Charles' talents emerged as art editor at DeWitt Clinton High School in New York City. In 1925, he entered Columbia University where he earned his B.A. and later a Master of Fine Arts on a Arthur Wesley Dow Fellowship. His first creative project was an illustration of Langston Hughes' Weary Blues. Alston's stellar achievements included his works as a teacher of young African-American boys. One of his star pupils was JACOB LAWRENCE, one of America's foremost artists. Alston's works included his experiences and contact with Dr. Alain L. Locke the historian, Diego Rivera the Mexican Muralist, and his interest in the Post-Impressionist and Cubist movements. Alston's Afrocentric murals designed for New York City's Harlem Hospital created a public controversy, but, with community support, they were eventually installed. Alston's work took on many expressions and included paintings, sculptures, cartoons, and murals. His paintings have been purchased and hung in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Some of his notable works include:
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Painter and Illustrator (1910- ) Allan Crite is a native of Plainfield, New Jersey,
but his parents moved the family to Boston,
Massachusetts when Allan was still a young boy.
Allan's interest in art centered around his wanting to
capture the dynamics of the people and places located
in his community of Roxbury, Massachusetts. Crite
received his formal art training at Boston University,
the Massachusetts School of Art, the Boston Museum of
Fine Arts School, and at Harvard University. Crite was
a role model and professional who helped to direct up
and coming artists on the importance of depicting local
or "neighborhood" scenes in their artistic
creations. Crite wanted to show the vitality and
importance of life in the city. He also depicted in
his works themes of "joy" and
"sorrow" as they relate to daily living in
the black community. By the late 1930's, Crite
directed his talents to creating religious scenes. One
of his greatest works, THREE SPIRITUALS, was
later published in a book under the title, THREE
SPIRITUALS FROM EARTH TO HEAVEN (1948). Some of
his works can be found in the Chapel at M.I.T., Grace
Church, Martha's Vineyard, and Holy Cross Church in
Morrisville, Vermont. His paintings of
"neighborhood" scenes are now prized as
historical records for the city of Boston. |
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Artist and Painter (1914-1988) Romare Bearden was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, but his early childhood was spent in Harlem, New York. His exposure to living in the big city was later reflected in his artwork. He attended Boston University but later transferred to New York University and graduated in 1935. Because of his mother's prominence as a founder of the Negro Women's Democratic Association, Romare decided to use his talents as a political cartoonist for the BALTIMORE AFRO-AMERICAN while studying with the ART STUDENTS LEAGUE of Baltimore. As a student, he studied under the world renowned George Grosz, painter and cartoonist. After serving in the U.S. Army, Bearden used his G.I. Bill to study in Paris, France. He became an acquaintance of Matisse and Miro and started to study literature, philosophy, and world art. Bearden, upon his return to the United States, began working as a cartoonist and songwriter. During the 1960's, he became very socially conscious of the status of African-Americans and the events of the Civil Rights Movement. Romare Bearden took one step forward and decided to take his need to express his artistic talent by using the COLLAGE. It is said that "Bearden's revolutionary use of the COLLAGE led to his recognition as a modern master." His works appeared in major shows at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and he exhibited in galleries throughout Europe, Japan, and the U.S.A. In 1987, he was awarded the NATIONAL METAL OF ARTS by President Ronald Reagan. Before he expired in 1988, Romare co-authored with Harry Henderson, A HISTORY OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN ARTISTS, FROM 1792 TO THE PRESENT, published by Pantheon Books, New York (see exhibit case). Some of his notable works include:
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Sculptor and Printmaker (1915- ) Elizabeth Catlett would not separate her art from the people. She felt she had to express her talents via the reality and struggle of her people. She therefore brings to the art world a social consciousness in the reflections of her art pieces. Elizabeth Catlett was born in Washington D.C. She passed a competitive exam for entry to the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1932, but was refused into its school of art due to her race. She therefore entered Howard University and studied for one year under LOIS MAILOU JONES to become a textile designer. She changed her major to PAINTING when she discovered what concepts and messages could be conveyed in this form of art. The concepts which were conveyed in the Mexican Muralists were the turning point in her dedication to Socialist expressive art. Upon graduation with honors from Howard University in 1937, Elizabeth Catlett went on to the State University of Iowa. At IOWA, she studied under GRANT WOOD (artist of AMERICAN GOTHIC and DAUGHTERS OF REVOLUTION). Wood encouraged her "to paint what we knew most intimately." Catlett was the first student to receive a M.F.A. degree from the State University of Iowa in 1940. Her master's thesis, MOTHER AND CHILD, won the AMERICAN NEGRO EXHIBITION in Chicago in 1940. In her career and travels, Elizabeth Catlett was able to spread her knowledge and increase her fame. Her work was exhibited around the world in Mexico City, Paris, Prague, Tokyo, Beijing, Berlin, and Havana. Her outdoor sculptures were being set up in Jackson, Mississippi, New Orleans, Louisiana, Washington D.C., and New York City. She served as chairman of the Art Department at DILLARD UNIVERSITY in New Orleans. At the same time, she married the respected African-American artist, CHARLES WHITE. She and Charles White later taught art at HAMPTON INSTITUTE in Virginia in the early 1940's. Out of the Hampton experience came JOHN BIGGERS, one of America's top African-American artists. The sharing of ideas concerning the direction of African-American artists and art was often communicated with artist and professor, HALE WOODRUFF of SPELMAN COLLEGE in Atlanta, Georgia. Elizabeth Catlett's expressive art pieces won her eight major prizes for her exhibited works. The AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT of the 1960's eventually convinced Catlett to settle permanently in Cuernavaca, Mexico. After her divorce from Charles White, she married Mexican artist, FRANCISCO MORA. Today she is considered one of Mexico's top artists. Some of her notable works include:
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Painter, Artist, Lithographer, and Printmaker (1916- ) Cortor was born in Richmond, Virginia, but his parents moved to Chicago a year later in 1917. Cortor's early interest in comic strips made him aware of communication via drawing. His discovery of the Chicago Defender's "Bungleton Green," a black com |
