Nasher Museum of Art
formerly
Duke University Museum of Art
Durham, NC
919-684-5135
http://www.nasher.duke.edu/
Southern Gate: African American Paintings
from the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
August 21, 1999 through June 30, 2002
Seven major paintings by African American
artists from the National Museum of American Art are on loan to the Duke
University Museum of Art for two years. An exhibition of these twentieth-century
masterpieces, entitled Southern Gate: African American Paintings from
the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, can be seen in the North Gallery.
The
paintings on exhibition at DUMA represent some of the best-known and most
intriguing African American artists of the century. The works range in date
from 1927 to 1967. The earliest is a portrait by Laura Wheeler Waring (1887-1948),
a Philadelphia-based artist. Waring, along with two other artists included
in the NMAA loan, Palmer C. Hayden (1893-1973) and William H. Johnson (1901-1970),
regularly participated in exhibitions sponsored by the Harmon Foundation,
which supported African American visual arts in the 1920s and early 1930s.
Hayden's work, A Janitor Who Paints (ca. 1939-40), is one of the
artist's most recognizable works and displays another aspect of work life
in black Harlem than was popularized by other artists of the Harlem Renaissance.
One of the artistic highlights in the NMAA group is William H. Johnson's
Sowing, an important oil-on-burlap painting from around 1940-41.
Born in South Carolina, Johnson trained and spent much of his career in
Europe, although he continued to exhibit in the United States. (left:
William H. Johnson, Sowing, ca, 1940, oil on burlap, 38 1/2 x 45
1/4 inches, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Gift
of the Harmon Foundation, 1967.59.1002)
A surrealistic composition by the Chicago artist Eldzier
Cortor (1915 - ), Southern Gate, (1942-43) merges 
southern literary gothicisms with black folk culture;
the title of this work has been adapted for the entire exhibition. Harlem
Saltimbanques is by Charles Sebree (1914-1985), another painter from
Chicago; he graduated from The Art Institute of Chicago and was part of
the art scene on the city's South Side before eventually moving to Washington,
DC. Design Made at Alrlie Gardens (1967), by the famous North Carolina painter
Minnie Evans (1892-1987) shows tile artist's colorful visionary abstractions;
although she had been painting her religious visions since the mid-1930s,
she did not exhibit her work publicly until l961. Dreams #2 (1965) is by
Jacob Lawrence (b. 1917), arguably this century's most renowned African
American artist and narrative painter. (right: Jacob Lawrence, Dreams
No. 2, 1965, tempera on fiberboard, 35 3/4 x 24 inches, National Museum
of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation,
1986.6.95)
Dr. Richard J. Powell, Professor and Chair, Department
of Art and Art History, Duke University, and author of Black Art and Culture
in the 20th Century, among others, selected the paintings from the National
Museum of American Art in Washington, DC, which will be closed while its
historic building is undergoing renovation. The extended loan of these seven
works from the NMAA has been made possible from a grant from The Mary Duke
Biddle Foundation.
The Museum of Art is located on the East Campus of Duke
University. Please see the museum's websiite for hours and fees..
For further biographical information on selected artists
cited in this article please see America's
Distinguished Artists, a national registry of historic artists.
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The
paintings on exhibition at DUMA represent some of the best-known and most
intriguing African American artists of the century. The works range in date
from 1927 to 1967. The earliest is a portrait by Laura Wheeler Waring (1887-1948),
a Philadelphia-based artist. Waring, along with two other artists included
in the NMAA loan, Palmer C. Hayden (1893-1973) and William H. Johnson (1901-1970),
regularly participated in exhibitions sponsored by the Harmon Foundation,
which supported African American visual arts in the 1920s and early 1930s.
Hayden's work, A Janitor Who Paints (ca. 1939-40), is one of the
artist's most recognizable works and displays another aspect of work life
in black Harlem than was popularized by other artists of the Harlem Renaissance.
One of the artistic highlights in the NMAA group is William H. Johnson's
Sowing, an important oil-on-burlap painting from around 1940-41.
Born in South Carolina, Johnson trained and spent much of his career in
Europe, although he continued to exhibit in the United States. (left:
William H. Johnson, Sowing, ca, 1940, oil on burlap, 38 1/2 x 45
1/4 inches, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Gift
of the Harmon Foundation, 1967.59.1002)