Studio/ Summer 2009 The Studio Museum in Harlem Ma∂azine/ Summer 2009 James VanDerZee / Barefoot Prophet / 1929 / Courtesy Donna Mussenden The Studio Museum in Harlem Ma∂azine / 2009–10 02 What’s Up / Hurvin Anderson / Interview: Hurvin Anderson and Thelma Golden / Encodings / Portrait of the Artists / We Come With the Beautiful Things / Collected. / StudioSound / Harlem Postcards / 30 Seconds off an Inch / Wardell Milan: Drawings of Harlem 22 Sign of the Times 24 Collection Imagined 26 Facts + Figures 28 Elsewhere / Yinka Shonibare MBE / Project Room 1: Khalif Kelly: Electronicon / design for a living world / Stan Douglas: Klatsassin / Chakaia Booker: Cross Over Effects / Momentum 14: Rodney McMillian / Pathways to Unknown Worlds: Sun Ra, El Saturn & Chicago’s Afro-Futurist Underground, 1954–1968 34 Icon / Ernie Barnes 38 Feature / Islands of New York by Accra Shepp 44 Feature / Correspondence: Toomer & Johnson 46 Commissioned / Nina Chanel Abney 48 Feature / In the Studio 50 Icon / Robert Colescott 52 Feature / Expanding the Walls 54 Target Free Sundays at the Studio Museum 57 Education and Public Programs 61 New Product / Coloring Book 64 Development News / Spring Luncheon / Supporters 2008–09 / Membership 2009–10 72 Museum Store / More-in-Store: T-shirts Galore! Aishah Abdullah / Underdog / 2009 / Courtesy the artist 3 Studio 01/ Hurvin Anderson 02/ Hurvin Anderson Peter’s 1 Barbershop 1 What’s Up 2007 2006 Courtesy Government Courtesy Bridgitt Hurvin Anderson Arts Collection, London and Bruce Evans Peter's Series 2007–2009 July 16–October 25, 2009 The Studio Museum in Harlem is proud to present the shop was not only a place to get a haircut, but also a social first solo U.S. museum exhibition of the work of London- space in which to meet and talk with one’s friends and based artist Hurvin Anderson. Born in 1965 in Birming- neighbors. ham, United Kingdom, to parents of Jamaican descent, Anderson engages the formal traditions of landscape For Anderson, the barbershop functions as a personal painting and abstraction. He explores his own relationship space loaded with imagery, and also houses intertwined to the Caribbean through depictions of complex personal political, economic and social histories. “Peter’s Series” spaces and memory. takes as its subject one of the last-known of these spac- es—a small attic that was converted into a barbershop Continuing Anderson’s fascination with and exploration of where the artist’s father went for haircuts. Finding the places imbued with social history, meaning and memory, space both complex and ambiguous, Anderson explored this exhibition presents seven paintings from “Peter’s the technical exercise of recreating it many times. At first Series” (2007–09) and nine works on paper. These works intrigued by the physical features of the attic, Anderson reimagine spaces created by Caribbean immigrants dur- focused on the architecture of the room in early paintings, ing the 1950s and 1960s. At that time, barbershops and providing multiple perspectives of the space, like a series other places for personal services often were opened in of portraits. Working from photographs, memory and people’s homes and functioned as sites for both social imagination, Anderson painted and repainted the space, gatherings and economic enterprise. The shop owners and even repainted a painting of it, continually reducing and their customers were among a significant wave of the interior architecture to its basic colors and simple immigrants to the United Kingdom from the Caribbean geometric forms. In later paintings, he centralizes an Commonwealth countries after World War II. The barber- anonymous figure in the barber’s chair, further negotiating between functional space and shared experience, while also providing a voyeuristic glimpse of a private moment. Anderson studied at the Wimbledon College of Art and the Royal College of Art in London, United Kingdom. His first solo gallery show was in 2003 and in 2006 he was the artist in residence at Dulwich Picture Gallery in London. Earlier this year, Anderson had his first solo museum show at the Tate Britain. Organized by Thelma Golden, Hurvin Anderson: Peter's Series 2007-2009 continues the Studio Museum’s commit- ment to the presentation of new work by international artists of African descent, in solo presentations of work by artists such as David Adjaye, Meschac Gaba, Issac Julien, Chris Ofili and Yinka Shonibare MBE, and in group exhibitions such as Africanne (2002), Africa Comics (2006) and Flow (2008) . Hurvin Anderson: Peter’s Series 2007-2009 is supported, in part, by a grant from The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation. 01 02 5 Studio 01/ Hurvin Anderson 02/ Hurvin Anderson Peter’s 2 Peter’s Series: Back Interview 2007 2008 Courtesy Lodeveans Courtesy Fern and Hurvin Anderson and Thelma Golden Collection, London Lenard Tessler TG The barbershop is a recurring theme in your work. For me this was the first time it became a purely technical Why? exercise—just dealing with the paint. I could play spatial HA When I started Peter’s I, I didn’t imagine it would turn games and make the space more than what it was, it al- into a series of eight works, but in working through each most becomes a maze and feels like it could be outdoors. painting, the barbershop became such a complex and Everything has been reduced to simple geometric forms. ambiguous place that I felt compelled to return to it again and again. I was initially intrigued by the space because With Peter’s: Sequel, I wanted to remake Peter’s II by mak- there was much to uncover; the space had such a curious ing it from memory. The idea of repainting something and history. In the back of my mind I also knew that the figure returning to the first version of the space intrigued me. from my photographs would eventually have to make I also knew the space better, so I knew how to draw out an appearance. But how and when this figure would be what I wanted to extract. In Peter’s (Pioneer) IV I took this brought into the picture was unclear to me. further and brought in more figurative detail. However, I was always plagued by the idea that I was giving too much TG How much of the inspiration for these away. The barbershop to me is fundamentally a personal works comes from memory and how much from space, someone else’s private space, and I feel protec- imagination? tive towards it, so the series is also about my process of HA They both play a part, memory starts things off and negotiating this sense of invaded privacy. imagination tends to keep them moving and fills in the gaps. In the back of my mind, as the series progressed, I was thinking about the need to address the figure in the chair. TG How did the series develop? After dealing with the complexities of representing the HA Peter’s I and Peter’s II were made at the same time. In 02 barbershop itself, the last three paintings focus on the 01 the first painting there are more details and texture. As I client and the viewer’s relationship to him. Without the started to paint the cabinet with the wooden veneer, the figure, the function of the space is unclear and the nature Thelma Golden Can you describe the inspiration for stools, bottles, clocks and music speakers, these objects of the room remains ambiguous. The appearance of the this new body of work? came together to create a record of a real space. I could figure introduces a shift of emphasis. Upon completing Hurvin Anderson ”Peter’s Series” examines a small attic have kept adding more figurative details, but I wanted to the eighth canvas it became clear to me that the custom- that had been converted into a barbershop. When people hold back. I wanted to erase a sense of nostalgia by remov- er had become the central subject of the paintings. from the Caribbean first arrived in Britain in the 1950s, ing or abstracting details. they often set up their own services and places of enter- TG Do you think of your interior paintings as different tainment. This attic barbershop doubles as a place for a Peter’s III was different; it was about the treatment of the from the landscapes? trim and a place in which to socialize. For me it is not only a paint. It pared back the space even further, reducing it to its HA Most of the time I am not differentiating between land- personal space loaded with imagery, but it also bears the physical framework. This painting was a test. I knew all the scape and interior, I am just considering the significance stamp of political, economic and social history. moves before I even began and just started laying the paint of each space, for example the “Country Club” series down. First I painted a thin, diluted layer of cobalt blue and (2002–08) or the “Welcome” series (2003–07), both One day I went to pick up my father after his haircut. While let it dry. Then I taped and covered over all the walls. This al- of which use the formal device of fencing or a grill as a I was waiting for him I took some photographs. At first it lowed me to drag the white translucent paint from the top means of distancing the viewer. Like “Peter’s Series”, was the physical space itself that intrigued me, the attic of the canvas to the bottom, thereby painting in the ceiling they deal with complex locations that have a personal seemed to have a presence; it seemed like somewhere and the floor.