Transcendence:

Sculptors Making Prints

The Cochran Gallery
LaGrange, Georgia
March 22, 2019
 Transcendence:
Sculptors Making Prints
The students of the Museum Studies class at LaGrange
College would like to thank Wes and Missy Cochran for
the opportunity to research and curate this exhibition.
The Cochrans welcomed us to choose works from their
collection for the show, thereby providing a unique
opportunity. We are grateful for this valuable educational
experience.

We are honored to present Transcendence: Sculptors Making

Prints, an exhibition of prints made by artists known
primarily for sculpture. Despite differing styles of
expression, their shared commonality in producing prints
connects them in a number of ways. We have done
extensive research on the lives and backgrounds of the
artists, focusing on factors that may have influenced their
desire to make prints.

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 Sculptors generally create prints for several reasons.
Sculptures —especially larger pieces— often sell less readily
than two-dimensional works. Prints can therefore help to
support an artist financially. Prints are easier to ship and
transport to exhibitions. And chances of damage are fewer
for prints than for sculptures. A two-dimensional work,
moreover, might serve as a kind of maquette for a three-
dimensional work, thus becoming a means of working out
the form and proportions of a subject before transferring
the image into three dimensions.

Our sole criterion for selecting works was the artist’s

background in sculpture. We were therefore able to include
a diverse group of artists whose prints represent a wide
variety of styles and media. Although all the pieces are
contemporary, not all are Modernist in manner. Rather
the show features many styles and subjects, from political
activism to pieces inspired by Pop Art.

Written by Jasmine Renee Adams, Brittany Corley, Celeste Crowe,

Jessica Morgan, Puja Roy, Christine Alexis Williams
3
 Young Boy, 1938

4
Charles Alston (1907-1977)
Charles Alston was an African-American painter, sculptor,
illustrator, muralist, and teacher. He lived and worked
in New York City and was active during the Harlem
Renaissance. He was the first African-American supervisor
for the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art
Project. Alston designed and painted murals at the Harlem
Hospital and the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance
Building. In 1990, Alston’s bust of Martin Luther King, Jr.
became the first image of an African American displayed
in the White House. As a child, Alston copied his older
brother, Wendell’s drawings of trains and cars. He also
created clay sculptures of North Carolina. As an adult, he
reflected on his memories of sculpting with clay as a child,
“I’d get buckets of [clay] and put it through strainers and
make things out of it. I think that’s the first art experience
I remember, making things.” His mother was a skilled
embroiderer who took up painting at the age of 75, and
Alston’s father enjoyed drawing. Alston’s print Young Boy
depicts an African-American boy with high contrast
shading. The young boy is clearly tired, as revealed by the
dark lines underneath his eyes.

Written by Jessie Yeszkonis and Christine Alexis Williams

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 In the Garden #190, 1982

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Jennifer Bartlett (1941)
Jennifer Bartlett grew up in a town along the coast of
California. Her earliest works are heavily influenced by the
ocean. She later earned a BA in fine arts at Mills College
in California and an MFA in fine arts at Yale School of
Art and Architecture. Bartlett said that while at Yale she
truly stepped into her artistic self as she studied with other
artists, such as James Dine. Her college work often involved
a number of experimental processes, such as freezing
and smashing her sculptures. Bartlett finally settled on
everyday subjects, such as hallways, rooms, and houses.
Critics still praise her works for combining abstract and
representational styles in energetic and innovative pieces.
Bartlett works in large series, loosely related to a main
theme.

In the Garden #190, a screen print and woodcut, is from a

series of 200 drawings, prints, and paintings all dealing with
the same theme. The series includes scenes from a villa’s
garden in Nice, France, and her own garden in Boston. The
series includes a statue of a urinating boy, a swimming pool,
and cypresses. She wanted to capture different elements of
perspective, scale, and light conditions. The entire series
varies largely piece to piece. #190 depicts the statue at night
time, lending it an air of mystery and beauty.

Written by Jasmine Renee Adams

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 Kaohsiung Edition, 1984

8
Camille Billops (1933)
Born on August 12, 1933, in Los Angeles, Camille
Billops is a prominent African American printmaker,
archivist, sculptor and filmmaker. Initially she intended
to study occupational therapy and art at the University of
Southern California, but later transferred to California
State University, where she graduated in 1960. After her
time as an undergraduate, she began to study sculpture.
Billops is best known, however, for her work as a filmmaker.
Billops’ films are largely based on her personal experiences,
including a film entitled Finding Christa in which she
documents her reunion with a daughter she gave up for
adoption twenty years earlier.

The male and female figures present in Kaohsiung Edition

are similar to those seen in her other works: they represent
a common theme in her art, the relationship between
men and women. Billops does not shy away from the
messy side of familial relationships in her works, focusing
instead on the realistic struggles that she experienced in her
relationships. In this work a couple is dancing the tango,
both an image of love and the complex interplay between a
man and a woman.

Written by Celeste Crowe

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 Soul Sound, 1977

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Betty Blayton (1937-2016)
Betty Blayton was born on July 10, 1937, in Williamsburg,
Virginia. She earned a BFA in painting and illustration
from Syracuse University in 1959. Blayton was a founding
member of the Studio Museum in Harlem and served
on its board from 1965 to 1977. She co-founded and
maintained years of leadership positions at institutions
that brought the arts and arts education to neighborhoods
otherwise deprived of such spaces. Blayton’s drive enabled
the existence of The Studio Museum of Harlem, the
Children’s Arts Carnival and Harlem Textile Works. She
achieved the title of 1984 Empire State Woman of the Year
in the Arts, the 1989 New York State Governor’s Art Award
and the 1995 CBS Martin Luther King, Jr. Fulfilling the
Dream Award. “The themes of many of my paintings are
directly related to my study of metaphysical laws, which
govern the universe. These ideas relate to reincarnation and
the possibility of lives lived between lives, the acceptance of
spirit guides, the acceptance of the uses of one’s intuition
and the possibility that this life is one of many lives lived
here in Earth’s school, to teach us certain lessons. These are
the things that I have pondered and still often ponder when
I am working,” Blayton states about her creations.

Blayton is best known for her spiritual abstraction

paintings; transparent layering of shapes and color and
circular canvases. Some similarities exist in this particular
monoprint as well. This work features layered, aqueous
colors and elemental forms that invite viewers to reflect.
It also exemplifies her interest in color, texture, and form.
The richly colored conical structures disperse through out
the canvas in the pattern of sound waves, suggesting power
of sound as it breaks through metaphysical barriers of the
mind and soul.
Written by Puja Roy

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 Jih-t-Gn, 1980

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Vivian Browne (1929-1933)
Vivian Browne is well known for her paintings and
sculptures that depict deep feelings from the civil rights
movement. Born in Florida, she moved to New York
where she earned a number of art degrees. Her paintings
evolved into abstract depictions of the struggle of African
Americans and her ability to link nature and abstraction.

In Jih-t-Gn Browne creates a very dark landscape. The

twisted lines echo her sculptures of abstracted human
figures. Both have a haunting beauty that expresses pain
and oppression.

Written by Jasmine Renee Adams

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 Happy Shack, 1989

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Beverly Buchanan (1940)
Born in 1940, in Fuquay, North Carolina, Beverly
Buchanan grew up in South Carolina after being adopted
by Marion and Walter Buchanan. It was here that she
became inspired by the rural South, which later resurged in
her art. Buchanan did not begin her career as an artist at
an early age. Instead she studied medical technology and
graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Bennett College
in 1962. Her studies in this field continued as she acquired
an M.A. in Parasitology and an M.A. in public health. In
1971, however, she enrolled in an art class offered by the
Art Students League in New York City. After befriending
Romare Bearden and furthering her art during the next
decade, she decided to pursue artwork as a profession. At
this time, she moved to Macon, Ga, where she became
recognized as a prominent Georgia figure.

Buchanan’s work is largely inspired by her childhood and

life in the south. Throughout her life she was intrigued
by the makeshift homes of the poor and those owned by
sharecroppers and other farmers. Once in Macon, she
photographed specific structures to act as memory aids
for her work. The houses present in both her prints and
sculptures represent the resilience of their inhabitants. The
landscape and human interaction are an integral part of
southern life. This theme is ever present in Buchanan’s
Happy Shack sculptures made of reclaimed wood. Her 1987
print of the same name invokes the same feeling of raw
creativity.

Written by Celeste Crowe

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 Gossiping Gourds, 1983

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Selma Burke (1900-1995)
Selma Hortense Burke was born in Mooresville, North
Carolina. She received her formal educational training
from Winston Salem University and later graduated in
1924 as a registered nurse from St. Agnes Training School
for Nurses in Raleigh, North Carolina. After graduating
she moved to New York City, where she began to focus
on her artistic creations and became associated with the
Harlem Renaissance. Working in Harlem for the Works
Progress Administration and the Harlem Artists Guild,
Burke began teaching art appreciation and education to
New York youth. In 1940 she opened the Selma Burke
School of Sculpture in New York City and the following
year graduated with a Master of Fine Arts degree from
Columbia University. In 1942 she joined the Navy making
her one of the first African American women to enroll.
While in the Navy, Burke was commissioned to do a bronze
relief portrait of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
which was adapted by the mint and is currently on United
States dimes. Burke founded the Selma Burke Art Center
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1968 where she continued
to introduce art to inner-city youth. In 1979 Burke was
recognized by President Jimmy Carter for her contribution
to African American art history.

Burke’s print of Gossiping Gourds is a masterpiece disguised

under the simplicity of a common vegetable. Row after row
of green gourds and their connecting reflections depict the
underlying, hidden path of abolitionist societies that would
guide escaping slaves by the light of the Drinking Gourd,
also known as the Big Dipper. By finding the “drinking
gourd” in the sky, people traveling at night could always
find the North Star. Burke’s gourds represent freedom.

Written by Puja Roy

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 Flies in the Spider Web, 1974

18
Alexander Calder (1898-1976)
Alexander Calder is a sculptor best known for his mobiles.
He also created paintings, prints, miniatures, theatre sets,
jewelry designs, and tapestries. In his early life Calder
studied mechanical engineering before becoming a sculptor.
When he first started art school, he had a job sketching
the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus. The
theme became a fasciation and appear in his later works.
He began making mechanical toys before creating his
Cirque Calder, a miniature circus made of wire, cloth, string,
rubber, cork, and other objects.

His prints, such as Flies in the Spider Web, reflect the abstract
themes of his sculpture. As his sculpture moved towards
abstraction, so did his prints. His prints suggest movement
by geometric phases, as do his sculptures.

Written by Brittany Corley

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 Cartas, 1986

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Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012)
Elizabeth Catlett was born on April 15, 1915, in
Washington, D.C. Growing up with grandparents who
had been slaves, she was very aware of injustices against
black women. She was awarded a scholarship to attend
the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh—only
to have the offer rescinded because of her race. She then
became the first student to earn an MFA in sculpture from
the University of Iowa in 1940. The Regionalist painter
Grant Wood, a professor at the university at the time,
encouraged her to present images drawn from black culture
and influenced her decision to concentrate on sculpture.
Catlett highlighted the struggle of black people with her
art. Responding to segregation and the fight for civil rights,
Catlett’s depictions of sharecroppers and activists showed
the influence of Primitivism and Cubism. Throughout her
career, Catlett had been politically progressive, and sought
to improve the lives of African-American and Mexican
women and often used her art explicitly to advance their
cause. Moving from the United States to Mexico in 1946,
Catlett was eventually identified as an “undesirable alien”
by the U.S. State Department. For nearly a decade she was
barred from visiting the United States. Catlett died on April
2, 2012, in Cuernavaca, Mexico, at the age of 96.

The woman in Cartas is Whoopi Goldberg portraying

Celie Harris in the 1985 Steven Spielberg film The Color
Purple. The film was made in North Carolina’s Anson and
Union counties, and Elizabeth Catlett was commissioned
to participate in the promotional campaign for the film. In
the print, Celie is gazing at letters from her sister Nettie
that have been hidden from Celie for years and that tell of
Nettie’s life in Africa.

Written by Puja Roy

21
 Le Rendez- Vous, 1983

22
Marc Chagall (1887-1985)
Born in 1887 in what was then the Russian Empire, Marc
Chagall was one of eight children from a humble Jewish
family. After being introduced to drawing and painting
as a child, Chagall studied in St. Petersburg. Here he
was exposed to stage design, which gave his work a flair
for the dramatic and experimental. In 1910 he spent a
year and a half studying abroad in Paris. In his studies
he was surrounded by bohemians, poets and other future
artists. These figures had a great influence on his style as
they dared him to work bolder. With the onset of WWI,
Chagall worked briefly on more realistic imagery depicting
the local climate. He had become stranded in Vitebsk
during the war and rising political tension of the Russian
Revolution. Eventually, in 1922, he returned to Paris where
he began work on a number of illustrations, including a
series of scenes from the bible. As Hitler rose to power,
and things became increasingly harder for European Jews,
Chagall eventually immigrated to the United States where
he worked in New York. In his later years he resettled in
France where he continued to paint inspired by his love for
Paris.

Chagall’s art is typically whimsical, recalling childhood

fairytales. He was also largely influenced by his Jewish
heritage and the political upheaval that surrounded that
heritage. Chagall’s paintings draw from Surrealism and
Cubism, giving them a multifaceted quality. Le Rendez-
Vous shows an array of figures performing different tasks.
Typically, these figures represent Chagall himself as a curly-
headed man. In his later years (Le Rendez- Vous was created
two years before his death), Chagall was reflective of his
early life in Vitebsk and Paris, creating romanticized images
of youth.
Written by Celeste Crowe

23
 Akhmatova’s Monument, 1995

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Barbra Chase-Riboud (1939)
Barbra Chase-Riboud displayed a talent for art at an early
age and began attending the Fleisher Art Memorial School.
Chase-Riboud received a BFA from Temple University and
completed an MFA from Yale University. She created her
first bronze sculpture and exhibited her work while studying
in Rome. Chase-Riboud’s first solo exhibit was in Italy 1957
at the Galleria L’Obelisco at the Spoleto Festival of Two
Worlds.

Chase-Riboud combines durable and rigid materials such

as bronze and aluminum with softer elements such as silk
and textiles. To create her sculptures, Riboud manipulates
large sheets of wax before casting molds of the handmade
designs. Chase-Riboud’s lithograph Akhmatova’s Monument it
is clear to see the textures of rigid metals placed alongside
softer materials.

Written by Brittany Corley

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 Texas Mastaba, N.D.

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Christo (1935)
Christo is one half of a husband and wife artist duo.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude were known for their large
politically motivated installations. During his childhood
years, Christo was introduced to the academic world
through his mother’s profession, a professor at the Academy
of Fine Arts in Sofia, Bulgaria. Even at a young age he
showed interest in art and would eventually study three
years at his Mother’s school. Christo later moved around
Europe before eventually settling in Paris. Financially he
struggled harshly and made a living by painting portraits.
This was how he met his future wife, Jeanne. Once
married the couple began installing larger than life outdoor
sculptures that served as protest that art could be installed
anywhere, not just in museums.

Texas Mastaba is a print created directly from one of their

large installations. The sculpture was a temporary floating
mass of 7,506 oil barrels in the shape of an Egyptian
Mastaba. They were attempting to bring awareness to the
environmental effects of the oil industry.

Written by Jasmine Renee Adams

27
 Lincoln in Dali Vision, 1977

28
Salvador Dali (1905-1989)
Salvador Dali was born in Figueres, Spain. In his younger
years he studied art in Madrid and Barcelona. Dali became
a Surrealist painter inspired by Sigmund Freud’s research
on the subconscious. Dali induced a state of hallucination
to inspire images for his paintings. In these hallucinations,
Dali saw images and visions that would later become his
inspiration. Dali’s painting style took objects and deformed
them into bizarre shapes and figures. He then placed them
in bleak, sunlit landscapes that were like his homeland.

Dali’s print Lincoln in Dali Vision was based on the painting

Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea which at Twenty Meters
Becomes the Portrait of Abraham Lincoln. This print like many
of his sculptures and paintings played with the ideas of
disfiguring forms into a surrealist reality and then placing
in ours. He created a realm halfway between dream and
reality.

Written by Brittany Corley

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 The Man and The Big Blonde, 1982

30
Willem De Kooning (1904-1997)
A first-generation Abstract Expressionist, Willem de
Kooning is one of the most important artists of the 20th
century. Born in Rotterdam, Netherlands, De Kooning, was
an adventurous young man and his fate led him to board
the Argentina bound, British freighter, Shelley. He hopped
off during a docking at a Virginia port, and thus began the
young artist’s journey. De Kooning’s early work are abstract
still-lifes characterized by geometric or biomorphic shapes
and strong colors. By 1946, de Kooning had begun a series
of black and white paintings, which are important to the
history of abstract expressionism owing to their densely
impacted forms, their mixed media, and their technique.
His pictures typify the vigorous gestural style of the
movement fused Cubism, Surrealism and Expressionism.
De Kooning both distanced himself most clearly from his
fellow abstract painters and expressed this figurative interest
most memorably in his Woman paintings, a series in which
became a master at ambiguously blending figure and
ground in his pictures while dismembering, re-assembling
and distorting his figures in the process. “Flesh was the
reason oil paint was invented,” De Kooning said. After his
Women series, De Kooning pursued “non-objective lyrical
abstraction” until his death in 1997.

This print is an offset lithograph in colors on wove paper.

De Kooning maintained his signature style of fusing vivid
colors and aggressive paint handling with deconstructed
images of the female form in The Man and The Big Blonde.
The print depicts a male figure on the left, in sharp lines
of black and red. On the right, the viewer can see the clear
outline of a woman’s breast – which is perhaps the most
distinguished feature of this artwork.

Written by Puja Roy

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 Jerusalem Plant, 1979

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James Dine (1935)
James Dine, an American artist, graduated from Ohio
University in 1957 with a BFA in fine arts. Starting his
career in performance art, Dine quickly evolved into a
painter . His subjects often include everyday, mundane
objects. Many critics note the child like quality of each
piece. Dine began sculpting in the 1980’s. Each installation
consisted of an assemblage of tools used in ironworking, a
motif inherited from his father’s work. All of the tools were
formed into simple heart shapes and painted bright colors,
another staple of Dine’s art.

Jerusalem Plant is a print James Dine created as part of a

series in 1979. Instead of the normal bright colors, he
uses muted blues and greens. Red stands out against the
muted background, however, showing hints of his normal
color palette. Jerusalem Plant was printed a year before he
officially started sculpting. The image, however, appears to
be layered with leaves and foliage, much as his assemblage
pieces are layered with blow torches and wrenches. The
subject of the print is a mystery to critics. There is no such
thing as a “Jerusalem” plant. Instead he gave the title to an
ordinary house plant. Some believe the print has biblical
allusions, while others state that politics had a hand in the
title. Dine has not revealed the true meaning. Perhaps the
title adds another layer for the viewer to enjoy.

Written by Jasmine Renee Adams

33
 Chains, ND

34
Melvin Edwards (1937)
Melvin Edwards is an internationally celebrated artist
who shows the struggles of African Americans through his
sculpture and art. Edwards was first introduced to the idea
of abstraction in High School and he decided to follow the
career path as an artist. He graduated from the University
of Southern California, and would begin his teaching
career in 1964 at San Bernardino Valley College. Edwards
would teach in several different colleges before retiring
in 2002. Most of his courses consisted of sculpture and
exploring the art created in developing countries. He would
travel during his retirement to a number of countries in
Africa.

Edwards is known for his metal relief sculptures. He

collected a number of metal objects, such as chains, locks,
and scissors, and weld them onto a piece of metal. Critics
comment on the oppressive feeling that is conveyed and
how this relates to civil rights. In his piece, Chains, Edwards
copies his sculptural practices. The print appears to have
metal chains on a flat surface. The layers give it a depth of
a relief sculpture. Dark and somber grays and blacks give
an overwhelming oppressive quality to the composition.

Written by Jasmine Renee Adams

35
 Dreamless Romance, 1988

36
Sam Gilliam (1933)
Sam Gilliam is a Color Field painter of the Abstract
Expressionist movement. He began painting at age five,
encouraged by his teacher. In his later years he taught
art but only for a year. In the 1950s, Gilliam saw the
emergence of Abstract Expressionism which would later
play a key role in his art. His first paintings were figural
abstractions utilizing bold, dark colors reminiscent of
German Expressionist Emil Nolde. Another influence came
from Nathan Oliveira, who was a contemporary painter.
Around 1963 Gilliam abandoned this style and started to
work in clean-edged paintings with flatly applied areas of
color that were inspired by the Washington Color Field
painters. Gilliam then began experimenting in pouring
colors, folding and staining canvases which were inspired by
women hanging laundry out to dry.

Gilliam’s print Dreamless Romance would come from the

period in which he cut geometric shapes and rearranged
them on canvases like African American patchwork quilts
that he remembered from his childhood. Gilliam’s prints,
like sculptures show colorful abstraction and the layering of
objects and materials to emphasize the relationship between
the artwork and its environment.

Written by Brittany Corley

37
 Garden, 1990

38
Maren Hassinger (1947)
Maren Hassinger was born in 1947 in Los Angeles,
California. At an early age she showed a gift for art and was
exposed to both her mother’s interest in flower arranging
and her father’s architectural drafts. In 1965 she enrolled in
Bennington College and graduated with a BA in sculpture
in 1969. After a brief stay in New York, she returned to
Los Angeles to pursue an MFA in fiber from the University
of California, Los Angeles, graduating in 1973. Since
1997 she has been director of the Rinehart School of
Sculpture at Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore.
Wires and ropes are often a part of her creations, which
she shapes to approximate natural forms and plant life.
Hassinger has always been interested in nature and its
relationship to industry, and in her works the elegant curves
of vegetation come to life from material derived from the
manufactured world. Their abstracted qualities allow the
viewer to experience each sculpture or installation on an
individual level. Her experimentation extends beyond
materials and venues to encompass collaboration with other
artists, notably Senga Nengudi. “Hassinger uses,” says
Connie Choi of Hammer Museum, “the sensual and the
contemplative, understatement and evocation, to offer her
viewers an opportunity to discover, reflect, and connect.”

Hassinger’s love for nature is apparent in her prints as

well. Garden displays the simplicity of branches as they are
scattered within the symmetrical lines of the square frame.
The branches seem to seem to sway and move, adding
fluid movement and the possibility of a metaphorical
breeze to an otherwise still canvas. Hassinger uses minimal
abstraction to invoke multiple responses, calling forth
emotions that resonate deeply with each viewer.

Written by Puja Roy

39
 Untitled, 1980

40
Richard Hunt (1935)
Richard Hunt was born and raised in Chicago. From an
early age his mother exposed him to a number of different
art forms, such as opera and painting. Hunt expressed an
interest in art that his mother supported, but his father
tolerated. He was able to gain business sense from his
father, however, by working in his barbershop. Hunt would
study art at the Chicago Art Institute. His main interest was
in sculpture. Inspired by the surrealist art style, Hunt would
combine scrap metal from junk yards into organic forms.

Hunt’s Untitled carries over his sculpture technique. The

forms appear to be twisted metals or bridge parts formed
into an organic shape. The muted colors even give a rusty
effect reminiscent of old metal.

Written by Jasmine Renee Adams

41
 Love, 1982

42
Robert Indiana (1928-2018)
Robert Indiana was an American artist associated with the
Pop Art movement. After serving in the U.S. Air Force, he
studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, Skowhegan School
of Painting and Sculpture, and Edinburgh College of Art.
His print titled Love was created for a Museum of Modern
Art Christmas card in 1964. The design was also used on a
U.S. postage stamp. The word “love” was connected to the
Christian science church that Indiana attended as a child,
where the only decoration was a wall inscription “God is
Love.” The colors were inspired by his father, who worked
at a gas station during the depression. Indiana described
the colors as “the red and green of that sign against the
blue Hoosier sky.” There is a sculpture in Jerusalem by
Indiana of the same design, but in Hebrew. This Cor-
ten steel sculpture was created for the Israel Museum Art
Garden. The original sculpture was installed in 1970 at the
Indianapolis Museum of Art.

Written by Jessica Yeszkonis and Christine Alexis Williams

43
 Nose 8, ND

44
William Kentridge (1955)
Born in South Africa, William Kentridge is a contemporary
artist who works in both film and sculpture. In his early life,
Kentridge studied politics at the University of Johannesburg
and switched to art after three years. His main interest
was theater, specifically acting and design both of which
influenced his art. Kentridge was also inspired by satirists
such as Honoré Daumier, Francisco de Goya, and William
Hogarth. By the 1990s he had established an international
audience and a wide reputation.

Kentridge’s artworks are used in his filmmaking. Pieces

such as Nose 8 and his sculptures are influenced by his work
in the theatre. Nose 8 specifically is based on Kentridges
production of Dmitri Shostakovich’s The Nose, which is an
opera in which a nose becomes human-sized and runs off.
This explains why Kentridge drew the nose with legs riding
a horse. Kentridge’s sculptures capture objects representing
words or parts of words.

Written by Brittany Corley

45
 Entablature V, 1976

46
Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997)
Roy Lichtenstein was an influential artist of the late 20th
century. Born in New York City, he had an affinity for the
arts even as a young person. He attended Art Students
League where he studied painting and drawing with
Reginald Marsh. Lichtenstein is considered a co-creator
of the Pop Art movement, which challenged tradition
by drawing imagery from contemporary cultural aspects
such as comics and advertisements. He chose what one
commentator called ‘the “dumbest” or “worst” visual
item he could find and then went on to alter or improve
it.’ In 1961, Lichtenstein was accused of banality, lack
of originality, and even copying. His high-impact, iconic
images have since become synonymous with Pop Art,
and his method of creating images through a blend of
mechanics and hand drawing techniques have become
a guideline to understanding the significance of the
movement.

Lichtenstein produced two Entablature series during the

1970’s. This series consists of eleven prints: Entablature IV
to Entablature IX. An entablature is a horizontal section on
molding and bands located above columns on Classical
architecture. He used new and highly complex techniques
such as screenprinting, hand-cut stencils, photo-stencils,
and lithographs. This resulted in quality textures that gave
the illusion of the real, raised architectural ornamentation.
In Entablature V, Lichtenstein simplifies and stylizes them in
such a way that they seem to satirize the stern, steely aura
of techniques used by Minimalist artists in the 70s and 80s.
This print, with its monotonous flow and suggestion of
an uninterrupted continuation of the pattern beyond the
printed sheet clearly reflects Lichtenstein’s concern with the
detached atmosphere of minimalist, abstract art.
Written by Puja Roy

47
 Miss Lorraine, ND

48
Whitfield Lovell (1959)
Whitfield Lovell was born in the Bronx, New York, in
1959. As a child he was exposed to photography through
his father, an amateur photographer. This background
later influenced his own artwork. Lovell began to study
art while still in New York through programs at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum
of American Art. He then earned a BFA from Cooper
Union in 1981. During the 1990s Lovell began to collect
antique photographs of African Americans, using these
photographs as reference material for work.

While being African American, Lovell does not intend for

his art to serve as a commentary on the African American
experience. Instead he hopes to capture ancestors that
might otherwise be forgotten. In Western art history,
black figures are typically absent. Lovell’s portraits are an
attempt to remedy this lack of representation. While his
drawings are largely autobiographical, Lovell’s use of visual
symbols allows the viewer to identify with the figures as
well.

In his artwork, Lovell combines hand-drawn portraits

with architectural elements such as walls, fences and
barrels. He is particularly interested in wooden structures
and the inclusion of everyday objects as metaphor and
allegory. These works are then grouped and viewed as
an installation. The subject matter and material create a
haunting scene that draws on folk culture of the past. By
calling on these forgotten figures from the past, Lovell
allows them to be memorialized through his artwork.

Written by Celeste Crowe

49
 Goose Lake Series, ND

50
Alvin Loving (1935-2005)
Alvin Loving was an Abstract Expressionist painter
acknowledged for his contribution to the movement.
Loving first learned painting from his father who was a
trained artist. He studied art at the University of Illinois
and the University of Michigan. Loving is also known
for his geometric works that feature bright colors and
hard-edge lines. He worked in many other styles such as
fabric constructions, that deconstructed his canvases and
experimented with hanging the strips of canvas from walls
and ceilings before reattaching them by sewing, thereby
creating flowing fabric constructions. He also experimented
with paper collages after getting tired of fabrics. Paper
collages gave him a sense of freedom because he was
working in an unexplored style.

Loving’s Goose Lake Series, much like his sculptures, depicts

abstract lines and shapes with pops of color. Spiral lines are
encountered in both his prints and sculptures. The spiral
lines represent a wish of life and growth. He also aspires
that his prints and sculptures show his feelings regarding his
identity and his experience.

Written by Brittany Corley

51
 Unfinished Business, ND

52
Valerie Maynard (1937)
Valerie Maynard of Harlem is an activist artist describing
social inequality and advocating civil rights. She is a
sculptor, teacher, designer, and printmaker. She went to
the Museum of Modern Art, where studied drawing and
painting, then the New School for Social Research and
majored in printmaking. Finally, she received a master’s
degree in sculpture from Goddard College in Vermont.

Her sculptures, much like her printmaking, focus on civil

rights. Many of her sculptures are of African-American
portraits, much like her prints. This print, Unfinished Business,
depicts an African-American woman with her hands raised,
in praise, or defense.

Written by Christine Alexis Williams

53
 Jardine Series, 1978

54
Joan Miro (1893-1983)
Joan Miro was an influential Spanish artist in the 20th
century, combining abstraction and Surrealist fantasy. His
whimsical style came from the tension between his poetic
impulse and his vision of harsh modern life. His father was
a watchmaker and goldsmith, whose artisan background
was a great influence on his son, Miro’s artwork. Other
influences ranged from folk art and Romanesque church
frescos to 17th-century Dutch Realism. He eventually
started using more contemporary themes such as Fauvism,
Cubism, and Surrealism. Miro’s biomorphic forms, semi-
abstracted objects, and geometric shapes were expressed in
multimedia, ceramics, engravings, and installations.

His Jardine Series lithograph pictures a black and white

whimsical abstract image. The image could be seen a
sporadic creature, giving a happy, musical vibe to the
viewer. Towards the end of his career, Miro made over
four-hundred sculptures. They were also very whimsical,
ranging in various scales. His sculptures were almost like a
separate career, and near the end of his life, they were more
dominant than painting. Much like his paintings, he often
repeated the same shapes and figures.

Written by Jessica Yeszkonis and Christine Alexis Williams

55
 Reclining Nude, 1980

56
Henry Moore (1898-1986)
Henry Moore was the foremost British sculptor of the
20th century. His large-scale bronze and marble sculptures
depict monumental, abstract, and figural human and
animal forms. Moore is perhaps best known for his highly
conceptual and theoretical interpretive renditions of the
human figure, often portrayed in the reclining position. He
was influenced by Classical, Pre-Columbian, African art,
and by Surrealism. He launched his artistic career through
his exploration of the then-contemporary movement of
Primitive Art, bringing the influence of non-Western art
forms into a Modernist practice. Moore’s works are usually
suggestive of the female body and are generally pierced
or contain hollow spaces. He abandoned techniques such
as modeling and casting , choosing to work with materials
directly. “It is important that the sculptor gets the solid
shape, as it were, inside his head...he identifies himself with
its center of gravity,” he states. In 1977 Moore created the
Henry Moore Foundation to promote art appreciation and to
display his work. During his own lifetime Moore achieved
international critical acclaim – the first modern English
sculptor to do so. Evoking both the natural world and the
human body simultaneously in his work, Moore created a
picture of humanity as a powerful natural force.

Moore utilizes preliminary sketches of figures to plan

how to transform the shapes of objects that have inspired
him, into abstract and beautiful sculptures. In this print,
Moore portrays a nude female with features that rival the
stereotypical smooth curves and soft lines of a woman.
Instead, he seems to have drawn inspiration from ancient
Aztec sculptures. This drawing shows Moore’s emblematic
of the influence of non-Western art and his use of the
reclining figure, a motif that is central to his mature style.
Written by Puja Roy

57
 Untitled, 1979

58
Louise Nevelson (1899-1988)
Born in 1899, in Kiev, Russia, Louise Nevelson is hailed as
one of the leading sculptors of the 20th century. In 1905
her family immigrated to the United States, where she lived
in Maine for a time, before marrying Charles Nevelson and
moving to New York in 1920. Here she became interested
in art and enrolled in the Art Student League where she
studied Dramatic and Visual Arts. During her studies she
was exposed to prominent artists, as Picasso and Duchamp
who had particular influence on her own art. She spent
time studying abroad before returning to New York where
she became involved with the WPA, both as a teacher
and by assisting with various federal art projects. These
positions allowed her the opportunity to explore sculpture
further. It was not, however, until the late 1950s that she
developed her signature style.

The shapes seen in Untitled, as in much of Nevelson’s

work, are inspired by both the urban and the natural.
These muses are representative of her views on feminism,
competing cultures and the divine qualities of nature.
She was a pioneer of feminist art, demonstrating the
importance of women in abstract art, and breaking the
stigma regarding medium and subject matter that was
largely associated with men. When crafting Untitled,
Nevelson first created a maquette using red, green and blue
paper, allowing for the carefully torn edges and abstract
imagery.

Written by Celeste Crowe

59
 Striding Figure, 1971

60
Claes Oldenburg (1929)
Claes Oldenburg was born in Stockholm in 1929. He did
not, however, spend much of his young life in Sweden,
instead he traveled with his father, a diplomat. His
parents finally moved to Chicago where they settled in
1936. Oldenburg was richly inspired by life in Chicago.
He studied art history and literature at Yale, and later art
at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1950 he began work
as an apprentice reporter for the City News Bureau of
Chicago. Meanwhile, in his studio he worked on a number
of magazine illustrations. Oldenburg then moved to
New York, where he was exposed to the work of many
contemporary artists. This exposure led to experimentation
in performance art and subsequently to a desire to create
dramatic art that twisted the viewer’s conceptions. He
began working in a greater array of media and on a larger
scale. In the 1960s Oldenburg began work on a number
of public art works in collaboration with his soon to be
wife, Coosje Van Bruggen. For the next several decades
the two collaborated on several pieces meant to combine
performance art, sculpture and architecture.

Written by Celeste Crowe

61
 Mahogany Hall, 1989

62
Joe Overstreet (1933)
Born in Conehatta, Joe Overstreet moved from his native
Mississippi to California as a child. He studied at Contra
Cost College and the California College of Arts and in
the 1950s. He was a merchant mariner for several years,
during which he also did work as an animator for Walt
Disney Studios, before moving to New York City in 1958.
Overstreet fell in with the painting-centric crowd at the
Cedar Tavern. In the mid-1960s, he became active in the
Civil Rights Movement and the Black Arts Movement.
He worked with Amiri Baraka at the Black Arts Repertory
Theater in Harlem and in 1974, co-founded Kenkeleba
House, a gallery and studio dedicated to helping under-
recognized artists of diverse backgrounds, which exists to
this day. In the 1980s, Overstreet worked on a commission
to produce a series of 75 steel and neon panels for the San
Francisco International Airport. Over the next two years he
explored the possibilities of paint texture in large, stretched
canvas paintings that reflect his interest in sacred geometry.
In the early 2000s, his interest in transparency led him to
paint on steel wire cloth.

This particular print is reminiscent of Overstreet’s semi-

figurative Storyville series, which recalls the New Orleans
Jazz scene of the early 1940s. He incorporates what he
calls an “eye-catching ‘melody’” through use of bright
colors which change and shift in textured patterns from
the chandeliered ceiling to the abstract designs of the five
figures inhabiting the space with notes of presumably Jazz
music, flowing from various instruments. Even as the viewer
leaves the work, they will still be able to hear a lingering
tune in their minds.

Written by Puja Roy

63
 Kyoto Positive-Negative, 1980

64
Howardena Pindell (1943)
Howardena Pindell is a very accomplished artist who
has received a number of awards. Pindell was born in
Philadelphia where from a young age she showed an
aptitude for figurative art. She earned a BFA from Boston
University, and an MFA from Yale University. Pindell is
known for her abstract prints that consist of dot work
reminiscent of minimalist and pointillism. She later added
a 3D element to her paintings through punching out a
number of small paper disk and spreading it out across her
pieces. Her sculpture pieces were large collages created to
cope with her memory issues. While very intricate they still
hold a sense of minimalism.

Kyoto positive-negative is a print that Howardena Pindell

created while living in Japan. The simple design becomes
more intricate on closer inspection. Critics believe the
message behind the piece is one of equality as Pindell was a
key figure in African American and women’s rights.

Written by Jasmine Renee Adams

65
 Arrival of the Cavaliers (L‘arrivée du Chevalier), 1951

66
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Picasso was arguably the most significant figure in the
visual arts during the 20th century. His work has had
such an impact that even people who know little about art
recognize his name and even his works. Picasso was born
in Malaga, Spain in 1881. His father, who was also an
artist and art professor, noticed his son had a natural gift.
In fact, his father was so overwhelmed by his son’s ability
that he gave up painting. At thirteen, Picasso was admitted
to a school of fine arts in Barcelona. Although he attended
school in Madrid, he was discontent with the education
and he dropped out at sixteen. Throughout his early life,
Picasso followed the realistic style passed down by his father.
However, he soon evolved his own Modernist style. After
enduring poverty and overcoming it, he became influenced
by African sculpture with its highly stylized portrayal of the
human body, which lead to his development of Cubism.

Picasso’s lithograph Arrival of the Cavaliers is a linear

depiction of a medieval knight riding a horse towards a
castle, with peasants following behind. Elements such as
the knight’s hat and a woman waving a handkerchief add
a fanciful quality. Perhaps the simplicity of the lithograph
portrays a monotonous outlook on life, as though the arrival
of the knight is nothing significant.

Written by Jessica Morgan

67
 Untitled, 2002

68
Martin Puryear (1941)
Martin Puryear is a contemporary African American artist
best known for hand-crafted sculptures and prints. His
works contain metaphors that examine culture, history and
identity. Puryear uses materials such as wood, stone, tar,
bronze, and wire. He got his influence from volunteering in
the Peace Corps in West Africa, where he taught himself
the regions crafts. Puryear was also influenced by his studies
of ornithology, falconry, and archery.

Puryear’s prints and sculptures combine abstraction with

traditions in crafts and woodworking with shapes echoing
the natural world. His Untitled is a print of white lattice
lines that form a gourd shape, with three holes resting
on a black background. Puryear takes influence from his
sculptural work when creating this piece by using the lattice
lines which are usually seen in his wooden structures. In
this print Puryear gas borrowed the lattice lines from his
sculptures to create a kind of rounded nest.

Written by Brittany Corley

69
 Personage, 1975

70
Man Ray (1890-1976)
Man Ray (1890-1976), although he was born in America,
spent most of his artistic years in Paris. His childhood, in
the United States, was marked with anti-semitism since his
family were Russian Jewish Immigrants. Later in life, Man
Ray tried to hide his family past. Still, many critics consider
Ray’s style to be heavily influenced by his father’s work as
a tailor. Many of his sculptures consist of ordinary objects
that were modified, as for example a mannequin turned
into a coat hanger. His paintings echoed this quality in their
Cubanist-like mechanical appearance.

Personage is a lithograph created in 1975, only a year before

Ray’s death from lung cancer. Pictured in the print is a
figure cut up into basic shapes. The abstract appearance
shows the Cubist influence while the faceless figure
resembles a mannequin. A very ordinary object, a human
body, is simplified into simple shapes.

Written by Jasmine Renee Adams

71
 Artists Rights Today (with paper bag), 1976

72
Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008)
Milton Robert Rauschenberg was born in Port Arthur,
Texas on October 22, 1925. He began his adult life with
the study of pharmacology at the University of Austin
before he was drafted into the U.S. Navy, where he served
as a neuropsychiatric technician. He began his study of
art at the Kansas City Art Institute in 1947, continuing
in Paris and later in North Carolina. He allied himself to
the Expressionists using a variety of material, styles, and
techniques.

His lithograph and screen-print collage, Artist’s Rights

Today (with paper bag), shows a drastic contrast in color
and material compared to his elemental sculptures. The
lithograph’s dominant feature is the color red and synthetic
material, whereas his sculptures consist mainly of wood
and stone. Despite these differences, there seems to be a
common theme between the two media. They are both
abstract and expressionistic. Rauschenberg’s work is
unquestionably avant-garde because of the eccentricity of
the subject matter and the use of materials.

Written by Jessica Morgan

73
 No More War #1, 1984

74
Faith Ringgold (1930)
Born in Harlem, New York, in 1930, Faith Ringgold is
a prominent voice of Black women in the arts. She is
the founder of the Anyone Can Fly Foundation, and a
Co-Founder of Where We At, both groups that support the
inclusion of African Americans and women in art history.
The daughter of a seamstress, Ringgold was exposed to the
arts early in life. This background later influenced her work
in textile arts, specifically her story quilts, which she began
producing in the early 1980s. She worked closely with her
mother on these projects, exploring an array of other crafts
such as masks, dolls and mixed media paintings. Ringgold’s
work always showed strong support of the Civil Rights
movement, but this narrative was brought to a new light
in her quilts. In this work, she looked both to the historic
relevance of quilt making to the African American, and
familial storytelling traditions that she experienced. This
new medium allowed her to explore further these themes
and ideas through a compelling narrative that blurred the
lines between traditional art and craft.

No More War #1 is very closely tied to a story quilt of the

same name. This quilt features five camouflage panels
placed between two rows of printed text detailing the
accounts of African American soldiers. Each panel is a
different variation on the same camouflage pattern, which
is supposed to invoke the figure of a black male. No More
War #1 is reproduction of the first pattern in this sequence
of five. This work demonstrates the importance of each
element in Ringgold’s story telling narrative, while also
bringing to light her concerns about war and the treatment
of African Americans.

Written by Celeste Crowe

75
 For Artists, 1975

76
James Rosenquist (1933-2007)
James Rosenquist was born November 29, 1933, in North
Dakota. He became a renowned artist in the Pop Art
movement of the 1960s, together with Roy Lichtenstein
and Andy Warhol, among other artists. Each Pop artist
developed his own distinctive style. However, similar
features defined Pop Art. These shared features involved
the use of popular imagery and everyday objects and
commercial art techniques. Rosenquist began his artistic
career as a billboard painter. He used this skill and
incorporated photographs, popular periodicals, and print
advertisements. He recombined these to create his famous
compositions.

One such composition is For Artists, 1975. This collage

paints the perfect picture of what the Pop Art Movement
represents. The bold colors are in stark contrast to each
other. Rosenquist used familiar fragmented icons and
rearranged the so that the viewer is forced to look at
them in a different and strange way. Collage allowed
him to combine sculptures and two-dimensional work
into one piece. Collage is typically meant to be on a two-
dimensional plane; however, Rosenquist’s collage included
sculpture as well. Here, Rosenquist has taken these
sculptural objects and aligned them with a flat surface.

Written by Christine Alexis Williams

77
 Silver Linings: The Unknown, 1982

78
Betye Saar (1926)
Betye Irene Saar is from Los Angeles, California and is
extremely talented in the art of assemblage. Saar is known
for her multimedia collages, box assemblages, altars
and installations consisting of scavenged materials. She
states, “I am intrigued with combining the remnant of
memories, fragments of relics and ordinary objects, with
the components of technology. It’s a way of delving into
the past and reaching into the future simultaneously.” Saar
also incorporates her views on politics, racism, religion, and
gender into her artwork so that she may “reach across the
barriers of art and life, to bridge cultural diversities, and
forge new understandings.” Saar’s collections have been
exhibited in numerous locations. She has received many
awards of distinction including two National Endowment
for the Arts Fellowships (1974, 1984), a J. Paul Getty Fund
for the Visual Arts Fellowship (1990), and a Flintridge
Foundation Visual Artists Award (1998). Saar has been a
role model for generations of African-American women,
and continues to work and live in Los Angeles.

Betye Saar’s Silver Linings: The Unknown is an assemblage of

different types of layers and textures on handmade paper.
The print consists of many found objects that catch the
reflections of light, but also contrast with the deep shades
of emerald, blue, and purple. The most prominent of
figures include the red moon, the mask, the cloud, and the
fish on the bottom: a peculiar ensemble. Helen Harrison
of New York Times provides the description of the silver
lined cloud as “a dangerous thunderbolt rather than the
traditional omen of better times ahead.” Perhaps it is up to
the viewer to interpret this piece either as hopeful as its title
or foreboding and mysterious as its atmosphere.

Written by Puja Roy

79
 Black Butterfly, ND

80
John Scott (1940-2007)
Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, John Scott was an
African-American sculptor, printmaker, collagist, and
painter. His first experiences with art began when he
learned embroidery from his mother at a young age. He
earned degrees at Xavier University of Louisiana, where
he later taught for 40 years, and Michigan State University.
He is best known for his kinetic sculptures and woodcut
prints. His sculptures often represented the musical life style
of New Orleans, and his print, Black Butterfly, embodies the
whimsy of jazz, musical feeling. For his work, Scott drew
from the rich Afro-Caribbean culture and heritage of New
Orleans. Scott’s work is featured in many museums around
Louisiana, as well as in prestigious museums in Texas,
California, Maryland, and Tennessee. Sadly, Scott’s struggle
with pulmonary fibrosis led to his death in 2007, even after
receiving two double lung transplants.

Written by Christine Alexis Williams

81
 Red Haired Girl with Green Robe, 1982

82
George Segal (1924-2000)
A painter and sculptor, George Segal, came to be
recognized primarily for his life-size white plaster sculptures
made from casts taken from living models. He is associated
with Pop Art because of his references to mass culture;
His interest in rendering the human form, however, made
him a radical realist who reinvigorated classic modes
of sculpture. While plaster casts of antique busts had
existed for hundreds of years, Segal’s practice of dipping
bandages into plaster and applying them to a live model
was quite novel. As he put it, “For me to decide to make
a cast of a human being broke all the rules of fine art.”
The strength of his work lies in the universal significance
of human gesture and expression, evident in Segal’s public
monuments to the Gay Rights Movement and The Great
Depression, as well as the Holocaust. Unlike other Pop
Artists, Segal engages directly with the psychology of the
consumer. His figures provide a window onto the human
condition in a way that sets them apart from other Pop
Art inventions. His career was surveyed in a traveling
retrospective in 1997–98 organized by the Montreal
Museum of Fine Arts. In 1999, he received a National
Medal of the Arts from President Clinton.

This brightly colored, figurative abstract print is a sharp

contrast to Segal’s more common all white sculpture. It
incorporates nonetheless the occasional vibrant splash of
color that seems to accompany his work. The vivid hues of
red, green and blue along with exaggerated brushstrokes
hint at inspiration from Expressionism. The nude woman,
created with softer tints, emphasizes her femininity while
her actions boldly suggest that the viewer is partaking in an
unintentional voyeuristic act.

Written by Puja Roy

83
 Angriff, 1979

84
Frank Stella (1936)
Frank Stella was born in Malden, Massachusetts in
1936. As a young man he studied painting and history at
Princeton University before moving to New York in 1958.
The city proved influential in shaping Stella’s artistic style
and he was quickly recognized for his work. In his early
paintings he challenged traditional conceptions of space
and the picture plane, designing irregular canvas shapes
with polygon forms. During the mid-1960s, Stella began
to experiment with other media including printmaking,
sculpture and performing arts. This experimentation led
to new developments in his paintings as he began adding
high relief and sculptural details. Over time these paintings
developed into full three-dimensional works. He eventually
began making free-standing sculptures in the 1990s.

Stella’s 1979 print, Angriff, meaning “attack” in German,

acts as a political commentary. Der Angriff was the name of
a Nazi propaganda newspaper first published in 1927. The
black and grey square both recalls and opposes that Nazi
imagery. Angriff was made to raise money and awareness
for the Chicago 7, a group of anti-war activists during
the Vietnam war. The print evokes a very serious, stark
tone, which is to raise concern for contemporary political
events. The black and grey squares provide the perfect
environment for one to consider political justice and the
bleakness of war.

Written by Celeste Crowe

85
 Dark Cake, 1983

86
Wayne Thiebaud (1920)
Born in Mesa, Arizona in 1920, Wayne Thiebaud moved
to Los Angeles, California, in 1921. He became interested
in the arts early during his high school years when he
started doing stage design and creating movie posters for a
local theater. He also began a summer intern program at
Walt Disney Studios in the animation department in 1936.
From 1942 to 1945, Thiebaud was allocated to the Special
Services Department as a cartoonist in the Air Force.
Because of his exposure to consumer products, Thiebaud’s
distinctive work displays cakes and pies as they were soon in
windows in the stores around town.

His colored woodcut, Dark Cake, undoubtedly displays

the influence of commercial products. Although this
particular woodcut does not have bright colors like most
Pop Art pieces, there is a bold use of a contrasting color
scheme. Similar to collage artists, Thiebaud combined two-
dimensional and three-dimensional works using woodcuts.
Although the woodcut is laid on a flat surface, it has three-
dimensional quality because of the relief, or surface carved
away, in the composition.

Written by Jessica Morgan

87
 Untitled, 1993

88
Mildred Thompson (1936-2003)
Born in 1938 in Jacksonville, Florida, Mildred Thompson
is slowly being recognized as a prominent artists of the
20th century. After receiving her formal training in art
from Howard University in Washington, D.C., Thompson
then studied for several years at the Art Institute of
Hamburg. There she began to develop her career as an
Abstract Expressionist. After relative success in Germany,
Thompson returned to the United States in 1961. Much
to her dismay, she found the American art world unwilling
to accept her or her work. This discrimination was largely
based on the fact that she was an African American woman
and that she was creating abstract art in a field dominated
by white men. She was also criticized by other African
American artists for not making art that furthered the
civil rights movement. Unable to make headway in this
environment, Thompson returned to Germany where she
taught for many years and exhibited across Europe. She
was later drawn back to the United States, where she held
several artist-in-residency positions and began teaching at
the Atlanta College of Art in 1990.
As she began to move toward abstraction, Thompson
worked first in sculpture. Her initial wooden series features
reclaimed wood arranged in abstract geometric designs.
These “Woodworks,” to borrow her term, mirror her prints
from that era that also featured linear designs and primary
colors. In Untitled, a swirl of organic forms is forced
upward in what appears to be a whirlwind of movement.
The elements of the design are both ordered and chaotic.
This print from 1993 resembles the sculpture she was also
making at that time. With wood as her medium of choice,
she crafted tall linear forms. Each work features wooden
multiples assembled in a fluid design that invokes dynamic
movement.
Written by Celeste Crowe

89
 Untitled Sky, 1986

90
Joyce Wellman (1949)
Joyce Wellman began her artistic journey in the early 70s.
She studied under a number of master printmakers, while
also earning degrees in education. Her prints center on
emotions expressed in an abstract way. Her sculptures
follow the same thought process.

Wellman’s etching entitled Untitled Sky conveys an oppressive

atmosphere through the dark color palate and chaotic lines.
The thinly lined sky and heavy colored ground echoes the
feeling of racing thoughts versus the solid body. The only
two colors present reflects a darker set of mind.

Written by Jasmine Renee Adams

91
 Jimmy I, 1964

92
Jack Whitten (1939-2018)
Jack Whitten was born in Bessemer, Alabama. Inspired
by George Washington Carver, Whitten studied pre-
medicine at Tuskegee Institute, but transferred years later.
At Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he
studied fine arts and became involved in the Civil Rights
movement. In 1960 he moved to New York and graduated
with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts. After graduating he
stayed in New York, where he was strongly influenced by
Abstract Expressionism. Throughout his career Whitten
experimented in painting techniques. He explored areas
such as acrylic polymers, viscosity, clarity, brilliance and
elasticity. He also explored color by using iron oxide, dry
pigments, crushed Mylar, ash, bone and even blood. The
materials, colors, and expressions in his art represent
his experiences during the Civil Rights Movement, the
Vietnam War, and the political turmoil of the 60s.

Whitten’s print Jimmy I like many of his sculptures,

is inspired by historical sources of Africa, Ancient
Mediterranean, and the Southern United States. His
sculptures address themes of place, memory, family, and
migration. Many of Whitten’s sculptures consist of carved
and sometimes charred wood, often in combination with
found materials sourced from his local environment,
including bone, marble, paper, glass, nails, and fishing line.
His works present a radical break from the assemblages
most often associated with the 1960s and 1970s.

Written by Brittany Corley

93
 Girl with Butterfly, 1964

94
Walter Williams (1936)
Walter Williams was an African American artist born in
Brooklyn, New York, on August 11, 1920. Between 1951
and 1955, he began his studies at the Brooklyn Museum
Art School and began exhibiting his work in 1954. In
the summer of 1953, he traveled to Maine and studied
art at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.
After his graduation in 1955, Williams earned a Whitney
fellowship to study in Mexico. In Mexico, he felt liberated
because there were no racial prejudices. When he left
Mexico, he moved to Denmark for a short period of time
before moving back to the States where he made prints that
documented what it was like living as an African American
in the South. He then moved back to Denmark to live out
the rest of his life and to continue creating prints.

His colored woodcut on paper, Girl with Butterfly, is a

depiction of life in the South as African American. This
girl is isolated and lost in her own thoughts as she frolics
through open fields. However, there appears to be an air
of optimism within this composition. Perhaps life in the
South possessed a hidden beauty in places least expected.
This girl is the center of the woodcut, but she seems to be
enraptured by something as simple as a sunflower.

Written by Jessica Morgan

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 Dialogue, 1973

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John Wilson (1922-2015)
Born in 1922 in Roxbury, Massachusetts, John Wilson is
best known for his colossal bust of Martin Luther King Jr.
displayed in Washington, D.C. Being the son of British
Guianese Immigrants, Wilson had been exposed to
many of the ills of racial discrimination during the Great
Depression, and later during the Civil Rights movement.
Because of this background, his main subject is African
American representation in art. Furthermore, he wanted to
create a dialogue that was uplifting to his African American
viewers, letting them know they were of intrinsic value,
while also showing Caucasian viewers the importance of
black dignity.

From a young age Wilson showed a strong interest

in art. During high school he took art classes at the
Boys’ Club. One of his teachers showed his work to
the faculty at the School of the Museum of the Fine
Arts. He was then awarded a scholarship to attend the
Museum School. Wilson graduated in 1945 with high
honors. He then pursued a bachelor’s degree from Tufts
University while also teaching. He then completed several
traveling fellowships. In 1950 he married Julie Kowitch,
a relationship that further influenced his work because
they were an interracial couple. Wilson strived for racial
equality and worked as an advocate for the poor man
bettering his lot in life.
Wilson’s 1973 work entitled Dialogue is “dedicated to the
African American experience.” Wilson’s works often
accompany or are inspired by the writings by Richard
Wright. In Dialogue, a portrait of a young African American
boy is juxtaposed with the image of a skull. This imagery
portrays the dark future that many African American males
face both during the civil rights movement and today.
Written by Celeste Crowe

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 A Celestial Gate, 1977

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Hale Woodruff (1900-1980)
Hale Woodruff worked as an art teacher at Atlanta
University. There he founded the Atlanta University Annual
Exhibition of Paintings, Sculpture, and Prints by Negro Artists. In
1936 Woodruff went to Mexico, where he studied under
Diego Rivera and learned the technique of fresco and
became interested in the portrayal of figures. When he
returned to America, he applied his understanding of Post-
Impressionism and Cubism to social advocacy.

Written by Brittany Corley

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