ȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢ ȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢȢJanuary 16, 2015 INDEXES ON Newsstand Rate $1.75 Published by The Bee Publishing Company, Newtown, Connecticut PAGES 46 & 47 Represent: 200 Years Of African American Art BY STEPHEN MAY sculptors and photographers. The collection dates PHILADELPHIA, PENN. — One of the most back to acquisition of a Tanner painting in 1899. important developments in American art museums Consulting curator for the show is art historian in recent years has been increasing collection of art- Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw. Organizing curator is work by African American artists. The civil rights John Vick, a curatorial assistant at the museum. movement stimulated new interest in their work, Timothy Rub, the museum’s director and chief and black museums were established as these executive officer, stresses the timely significance of artists gained credibility and acceptance in main- the current exhibition at a time when “race remains stream art circles. Slowly, but surely, art historians a key topic of conversation in the United States…” and museums have brought to public attention the Between the Seventeenth and Nineteenth accomplishments of black artists, many of whom Centuries, African American art in the South took overcame enormous racial obstacles to become tal- ( continued on page 8C ) ented interpreters of a broad range of stories, sub- jects, styles, mediums and traditions. Elizabeth In this stern but vulnerable likeness, sculptor Broun, director of the Smithsonian American Art John Woodrow Wilson said he wanted viewers Museum, which holds 2,000 African American to recognize in this contemplative expression works — the largest such collection in the world — the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr’s energy has observed that “Once ignored or too narrowly and strength, as well as his weariness and per- considered, African American art is finally under- sonal struggles. This charcoal drawing was stood as an essential part of America’s culture.” used in designing an 8-foot-tall bronze portrait A good example of the historic development and of the civil rights leader in a Buffalo park. A continuing growth of African American art in a pres- 125th anniversary acquisition, purchased with tigious museum are the holdings of the Philadelphia funds contributed by the Young Friends of the Museum of Art. “Represent: 200 Years of African Philadelphia Museum of Art in honor of the American Art,” on view January 10–April 15, show- 125th anniversary of the museum and in cele- cases 75 works by 25 significant black painters, bration of African American art, 2000. “Libraries Are Appreciated” by Jacob Lawrence (1917–2000), 1943. One of the great stars to emerge from the Harlem Renaissance, Lawrence achieved national recognition for his narratives of African American life and history, notably the iconic “The Great Migration” series, com- pleted when he was in his 20s, which traces the movement of African Americans to the North. Later, he painted many works dignifying ordi- nary black workers, from carpenters to construction workers, and others striving to get ahead. In this work, set in the New York Public Library at 9 West 124th Street, he depicted three figures reading books, suggesting a thirst for knowledge that will enable them to succeed in life. The Louis E. Stern Collection, 1963 ©2014 the Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. At Philadelphia Museum Of Art 8C — Antiques and The Arts Weekly — January 16, 2015 “Smoking My Pipe” by Samuel “Mr Prejudice” by Horace Pippin “Squirrel” by William Joseph Brown Jr (1907–1944), (1888–1946), 1943. The best known Edmondson (1874–1951), “Hands” quilt by Sarah Mary Taylor Philadelphia, 1934. Perhaps among untutored African Tennessee, date unknown. (1916–2000), Mississippi, winter 1980, buoyed by help from New Deal art American painters, Pippin sur- One of the most remarkable 83¼ by 78 inches. Quilts, longtime cre- programs, Brown, in this jaunty mounted a painting arm crippled self-taught artists in the col- ations of black female craftspeople in self-portrait, presents himself as a in World War I to create works of lection is Edmondson, who the South, are represented in the pipe-smoking, bow-tied young great visual sophistication and used cast-off materials like Philadelphia Museum by a dazzling artist and confident, fashionably emotional impact. He gained granite curbstones to create array of brilliant colors and varied dressed man about town. In reali- national attention for genre scenes, highly appealing animals. patterns, including some by the ty, he was struggling to make a liv- landscapes, still lifes, and religious Edmondson also fashioned famed Gee’s Bend, Ala., quilters. ing during the Great Depression. and historic scenes. In “Mr sculptures of ordinary folk in Taylor traced her left hand on a sheet Public Works of Art Project, on Prejudice” he took on the issue of the world of work and divine of paper, which was then cut out and long-term loan to the Philadelphia discrimination faced by black men beings in the world of faith, used as the pattern using fabric Museum of Art from the Fine Arts returning from military service in such as Christ on the Cross shapes from old dresses. The Ella Collections, US General Services World War I. Gift of Dr and Mrs and angels. Gift of Marguerite King Torrey collection of African Administration. Matthew T. Moore, 1984. and Gerry Lenfest, 2005. American quilts, 2006. Represent: 200 Years Of African American Art ( continued from page 1C ) The standout work in the exhibition for many will the facts of nature, but to effect a mood. His biblical be Henry O. Tanner’s compelling “The scenes, at once unusual and powerful, clinch the form of quilts, wrought-iron figures and ceramic Annunciation,” 1898, in which a spectacular column Tanner’s standing as the preeminent Nineteenth vessels that often resonated with comparable crafts of light (standing for Gabriel, the angel of annuncia- Century African American painter. in Africa. tion) floods a room with golden light and spotlights The flourishing of black pride, creative innovation The exhibition begins with rare examples of fine Mary, who sits uneasily on the edge of a couch. and interest in artists’ African roots in the 1920s and and decorative arts crafted by free and enslaved After being Thomas Eakins’ only African American 1930s Harlem Renaissance made it a period of artists before the Civil War, including early student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine African American cultural renewal with a profound Nineteenth Century silhouettes made by Moses Arts and study in France, Tanner relocated perma- effect on the direction of black artists. It was guided Williams, who worked in Charles Willson Peale’s nently to Paris in 1892, seeking to escape discrimi- by Howard University philosopher Alain Locke, who Philadelphia museum, and a large storage jar with nation in his homeland. His early work focused on encouraged modern but distinctively African Bible excerpts inscribed across the lip by South genre scenes of African American life, notably “The American achievement and a return of black artists Carolina potter David Drake. Banjo Lesson” and “The Thankful Poor.” Before the to their African origins. Joshua Johnson (circa 1763–circa 1824), a black turn of the century Tanner also created the wildly Among the major painters of the movement: Aaron portraitist from Baltimore, is often considered successful “The Resurrection of Lazarus,” 1896, and Douglas, Palmer Hayden, William H. Johnson, Jacob America’s first person of color to make a living as a a heartfelt “Portrait of the Artist’s Mother,” 1897. Lawrence and Archibald Motley Jr. Important sculp- painter. Apparently self-taught, he created naïve but From France, Tanner traveled widely in the Holy tors included Richmond Barthe and Augusta Savage. charming likenesses of Baltimore’s white, wealthy Land, recording his observations of people and archi- An often overlooked star, Douglas (1899–1979) elite that are represented in the museum collection. tecture, along with scenes from the Bible. With painted shadowy, evocative murals that contrasted Although he lacked formal training, Robert S. expressive use of light and subtle, restrained colors the myth and reality of black life in the South. He Duncanson (1821–1872) was hailed in his day as the in simplified compositions, Tanner sought not to copy also painted in a Cubist manner, as in the museum’s “best landscape painter in the West.” Born in “Birds in Flight.” Canada, he traveled extensively around the Midwest The incomparable William H. Johnson (1901–1970) and Europe, living primarily in Cincinnati, where he was an academically trained expressionist painter turned out portraits of the local gentry and romantic, who returned from Europe and employed a colorful, pastoral, landscapes that put one in mind of Thomas deliberately primitive style to convey the African Cole and the Hudson River School. American experience. Canadian-born Edward M. Bannister (circa Self-taught artist Horace Pippin (1888–1946) over- 1828–1901) settled in Detroit and set out to disprove came the crippling of his painting arm in World War a New York Herald Tribune comment in 1867 that I by developing means to create appealing primitive “the Negro seems to have an appreciation of art, compositions that offered glimpses of wartime bat- while being manifestly unable to produce it.” He tlefields and African American life. In “Mr rarely dealt with social injustices suffered by African Prejudice,” he depicted slavers, Ku Klux Klan mem- Americans, choosing instead to paint idealized land- bers and other racists seeking to undermine free- scapes and seascapes influenced by the French doms for which African Americans had fought. Barbizon School, as well as portraits and biblical The greatest of all African American artists, Jacob scenes. His “Under the Oaks” won a medal at the Lawrence (1917–2000), blended abstract and figura- 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, but tive art with vibrant flat color and sharp contours to Bannister was temporarily refused entry to the convey the universal quest for freedom, justice and gallery where it hung because of his race.