Category: Fallen Through The Cracks

Categories
Fallen Through The Cracks

Fallen Through The Cracks – Black Artists in History: Cliff Joseph

Fallen Through The Cracks – Black Artists in History: Cliff Joseph

Fallen Through The Cracks – Cliff Joseph

Cliff Ricardo Joseph

#FallenThroughTheCracks – Clifford Ricardo Joseph was born on June 23, 1922, in Panama City, Panama. He was an influential figure in both the art world and the field of art therapy and was also a notable activist. Born to parents who immigrated to the United States and settled in Harlem, New York, Joseph’s early life was shaped by these dynamic surroundings. He served in a field artillery unit overseas during WWII. Post-war, he pursued his passion for art at Pratt Institute, New York, graduating with a degree in illustration in 1952. He later returned to Pratt as an art therapy instructor. He also enhanced his expertise by studying at the Turtle Bay School of Therapy.

His artistic endeavors often reflected his strong anti-war stance, as many works critiqued the Vietnam War and warfare in general. A pivotal moment in Joseph’s career was in 1968 when he, alongside Benny Andrews and others, established the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition (BECC). This coalition arose as a reaction to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Harlem on My Mind” exhibition, which notably excluded Black artists. Joseph emphasized the importance of Black Art being curated by individuals who deeply understood the Black experience.

Cliff Joseph, Blackboard, Renee Yeager / Thom Pegg, Tyler Fine Art
Cliff Joseph, My Country Right or Wrong, Renee Yeager / Thom Pegg, Tyler Fine Art

As BECC’s co-chair, he was instrumental in organizing the “Rebuttal to Whitney Museum Exhibition” at the Acts of Art Gallery in Manhattan. This exhibition was a direct response to the Whitney Museum’s decision to proceed with the Contemporary Black Artists in America exhibition without consulting BECC or community representatives, a proposal Joseph and Andrews had made. Joseph’s contributions to art therapy were pioneering, particularly as one of the first African Americans in the field. He joined the American Art Therapy Association, becoming its first African-American member. His role in suggesting art-based therapies to Governor Nelson Rockefeller during the 1971 Attica Prison uprising, in collaboration with Andrews, was a testament to his belief in the healing power of art. By 1982, Joseph was practicing art therapy at Lincoln Hospital and held a position at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, marking his long-standing commitment to this discipline. Clifford Joseph passed away on November 8, 2020.

(Text paraphrased from Wikipedia and other sources. All Images are the property of the copyright owners. This clip is for educational purposes.)

Categories
Fallen Through The Cracks

Fallen Through The Cracks – Black Artists in History: Ulysses Davis

Ulysses Davis, Self-Portrait, 1968 © Ulysses Davis
Ulysses Davis, Self-Portrait, 1968 © Ulysses Davis

Fallen Through The Cracks – Black Artists in History: Ulysses Davis

Fallen Through The Cracks – Ulysses Davis

Ulysses Davis

#FallenThroughTheCracks – Ulysses Davis was born on January 13, 1913, in the railroad town of Fitzgerald, GA. He was an African-American barber and self-taught sculptor best known for his carvings of historical figures such as a set of mahogany busts of all the presidents (through George H. W. Bush). After being laid off by the railroad company in the 1950s, he opened the Ulysses Barber Shop in Savannah, Georgia, which doubled as an informal art gallery displaying his wood carvings.

Davis’s artistic process was marked by a distinct approach: he often eschewed preliminary sketches, preferring to shape his creations directly from the wood using hatchets, and band saws, and later refining them with chisels and knives. His toolkit was a testament to his ingenuity, featuring self-made tools that reflected the metalworking skills he honed as a young railroad blacksmith. Occasionally, he would employ barbering tools like scissors for intricate textural details. His sculptures, often embellished with shoe polish, rhinestones, and beads, showcased a unique blend of his diverse skills.

Ulysses Davis, Martin Luther King, 1968 © Ulysses Davis
Ulysses Davis, Self Portrait, 1968 © Ulysses Davis

Beyond his famous carvings of historical figures, Davis’s oeuvre included a wide array of subjects, from realistic animals to imaginative depictions of African tribal leaders and mythical creatures. His artistic vision was an amalgamation of various African motifs, contributing to a unique interpretation of African-American art.

Throughout his life, Davis created over 300 pieces, using materials as varied as shipyard lumber, donated wood, and standard lumber yard finds. His preference for working directly with the wood, carving, and refining without preliminary models, remained a consistent and defining aspect of his artistry. Ulysses Davis passed away in 1990 in Savannah, GA.

(Text paraphrased from Wikipedia and other sources. All Images are the property of the copyright owners. This clip is for educational purposes.)

Categories
Fallen Through The Cracks

Fallen Through The Cracks – Black Artists in History: Beauford Delaney

Beauford Delaney, Dark Rapture, 1941, © Estate of Beauford Delaney.
Beauford Delaney, Dark Rapture, 1941, © Estate of Beauford Delaney.

Fallen Through The Cracks – Black Artists in History: Beauford Delaney

Fallen Through The Cracks – Beauford Delaney

Beauford Delaney

#FallenThroughTheCracks –  Beauford Delaney was born on December 30, 1901, in Knoxville, Tennessee. Delaney’s artistic path began when, as a teenager. Alongside his younger brother Joseph, he started crafting his sign designs. Delaney’s thirst for artistic knowledge led him to Boston, where he pursued formal art education. He studied at institutions like the Massachusetts Normal School, the South Boston School of Art, and the Copley Society, acquiring a strong foundation in classical technique.

In Boston, Delaney not only honed his artistic skills but also engaged with significant figures in African-American activism and culture. With this valuable knowledge, he moved to New York in 1929, coinciding with the Harlem Renaissance—a time of cultural vitality in the black community. His art began to reflect the vibrant urban life of Harlem, capturing its essence through colorful and engaging canvases. Members of this disenfranchised community became the subjects of many of Delaney’s greatest New York period paintings.

Beauford Delaney, Dark Rapture, 1941, © Estate of Beauford Delaney.
Beauford Delaney, Auto Portrait Rapture, 1965, © Estate of Beauford Delaney.
Beauford Delaney, Auto Portrait, 1965, © Estate of Beauford Delaney.

While Delaney integrated African American influences, such as jazz, into his art, he wasn’t inclined to participate in the socio-political debates or “Negro art” discussions of the time. Nevertheless, he took pride in black achievement and actively exhibited his work in black artists’ exhibitions. In 1953, at the age of 52, Delaney made a significant move to Paris, where many African-American artists and writers sought greater creative freedom. This shift marked a transformation in his style, transitioning from figurative compositions of New York life to abstract expressionism, emphasizing color and light.

His work has been showcased in prestigious institutions such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, solidifying his legacy as a remarkable artist. Beauford Delaney died in Paris at St. Anne’s on March 26, 1979. In 1985 James Baldwin described the impact of Delaney on his life, saying he was “the first living proof, for me, that a black man could be an artist.

(Text paraphrased from Wikipedia and other sources. All Images are the property of the copyright owners. This clip is for educational purposes.)

Categories
Fallen Through The Cracks

Fallen Through The Cracks – Black Artists in History: Willie Middlebrook

Willie Middlebrook, n His "Own" Image From the series Portraits of My People, 1992. © Willie Middlebrook Estate.
Willie Middlebrook, n His "Own" Image From the series Portraits of My People, 1992. © Willie Middlebrook Estate.

Fallen Through The Cracks – Black Artists in History: Fallen Through The Cracks – Black Artists in History: Willie Middlebrook

Fallen Through The Cracks – Cliff Joseph

Willie Middlebrook

#FallenThroughTheCracks –  Willie Robert Middlebrook, Jr. was born on August 11, 1957, in Detroit, MI. He was a photographer and artist, and an ardent advocate for the African-American community in Los Angeles. Throughout his illustrious career, this remarkable artist garnered numerous accolades and left an indelible mark on the world of photography in Los Angeles and beyond.

Educationally endowed, he possessed an Associate of Arts degree in Art/Photography from Compton Community College and a Certificate in Design from the Communicative Arts Academy. His legacy extended beyond his artistry as he became an influential figure in the classroom, teaching at renowned institutions like the Watts Towers Arts Center and California State University, Los Angeles. Additionally, he served on the advisory committee for the Photography Department at his alma mater, Compton Community College.

Willie Middlebrook, n His “Own” Image From the series Portraits of My People, 1992. © Willie Middlebrook Estate.
Willie Middlebrook, n His "Own" Image From the series Portraits of My People, 1992. © Willie Middlebrook Estate.
Willie Middlebrook, n His “Own” Image From the series Portraits of My People, 1992. © Willie Middlebrook Estate.

As a fine artist, he is celebrated for his portraits of African-American individuals and communities in the greater Los Angeles area, always depicted with dignity and respect. His innovative photographic printing techniques, marked by thickly applied photographic emulsion in a dripping fashion, layered upon surfaces and meticulously exposed to create unique prints, became a hallmark of his work. His journey was punctuated by more than two decades of awards and recognition, including the City of Los Angeles Individual Artist Fellowship grant from the Department of Cultural Affairs in 2009, commendations from the Los Angeles City Council, and the distinguished title of “Hometown Hero” bestowed upon him by the City of Compton.

His journey was paved with recognition and honors, including two prestigious Visual Artist Fellowships in photography from the National Endowment for the Arts. His artistic prowess extended to public commissions, with notable contributions to iconic structures like the Los Angeles Metro Expo/Crenshaw Station. His lens also captured history as a photographer for Time Magazine, with his poignant images of the African-American struggle in Los Angeles finding a global audience, primarily in European editions. Major museums such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and LACMA quickly recognized the profound significance of his work, eagerly adding his creations to their collections. Willie Robert Middlebrook, Jr. died on May 5, 2012, in Los Angeles, CA.

(Text paraphrased from Wikipedia and other sources. All Images are the property of the copyright owners. This clip is for educational purposes.)

Categories
Fallen Through The Cracks

Fallen Through The Cracks – Black Artists in History: Annie Pettway Lewis Bendolph

Fallen Through The Cracks – Black Artists in History: Annie Pettway Lewis Bendolph

Fallen Through The Cracks – Annie Pettway Lewis Bendolph

Annie Pettway Lewis Bendolph

#FallenThroughTheCracks – Annie Pettway Lewis Bendolph was born between 1892 and 1900 in rural Alabama. She was a textile artist and one of the esteemed quilters of the Gee’s Bend Quilters collective, a group of African-American women who gained international recognition for their unique quilting style and craftsmanship. Her mother passed away when she was a young child. She had one sibling, Timothy, who sang in gospel choirs in the neighboring town of Camden, Alabama.

She comes from a community with a rich quilting heritage and her skills have been passed down through generations. Annie married Jacob Bendolph and raised 16 children many of whom became prominent quilters including Bettie Bendolph Seltzer. Many families often had their distinct styles, patterns, and designs. Bendolph’s quilts were made exclusively of utilitarian, recycled materials, such as old clothes and empty sacks.

Annie Pettway Lewis Bendolph, Photo by Arthur Rothstein, 1937.
Pettway Family Group, Photo by Arthur Rothstein, 1937.

Bendolph employed an improvisational approach to quilt-making piecing together various fabric scraps without relying on predetermined templates. The quilts contain vibrant color palettes which contribute to the impact and energy of her works. Exercising a departure from classical quilt making, adopting a more minimalist quality influenced by the isolation of her location and materials available. She has played a significant role in preserving and promoting the quilting tradition of Gee’s Bend. Her work is included in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Annie Pettway Lewis Bendolph passed away in 1981.

(Text paraphrased from Wikipedia and other sources. All Images are the property of the copyright owners. This clip is for educational purposes.)

Categories
Fallen Through The Cracks

Fallen Through The Cracks – Black Artists in History: Robert Hamilton Blackburn

Fallen Through The Cracks – Black Artists in History: Robert Hamilton Blackburn

Fallen Through The Cracks – Robert Hamilton Blackburn

Robert Hamilton Blackburn

#FallenThroughTheCracks – Robert Hamilton Blackburn was born on December 12, 1920, in Summit, New Jersey, but grew up in Harlem, where his family moved when he was seven years old. He was an artist, teacher, and master printmaker. He attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, where he worked on the literary magazine The Magpie as a writer and artist alongside his counterpart James Baldwin.

Blackburn studied lithography and other printmaking techniques with Riva Helfond, who taught him how to operate the press. He worked at the Uptown Community Workshop, a gathering place for black artists and writers which allowed him to meet artists such as Romare Bearden, Aaron Douglas, and Jacob Lawrence. Blackburn attended the Art Students League and won a School Arts League Award and an Art Students League Working Scholarship for further study. 

Blackburn working with Robert Rauschenberg, 1962. Image courtesy of the Rauscheburg Foundation.
Robert Blackburn teaching in a workshop. Courtesy of the Estate of Robert Hamilton Blackburn. ©

In 1947, Robert Blackburn established the Printmaking Workshop, an 8,000-square-foot (740 m2) loft at 114 West 17th Street in New York City. The workshop’s program included classes, an open studio area, and print shops where artists could experiment with different techniques. In 1971, Blackburn established a board of trustees and incorporated the Printmaking Workshop as a nonprofit. 

The Workshop has amassed a comprehensive collection of artists’ prints and by 1997, over 2,500 of these works had been deposited with the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. Smaller selections of prints have been placed with the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and El Museo Del Barrio in New York City.

In 1987, he received the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture Award and received a MacArthur fellowship in 1992. The Printmaking Workshop received a Governor’s Art Award from the New York State Council on the Arts in 1988. Robert Blackburn died on April 21, 2003 (aged 82) in New York City, New York.

(Text paraphrased from Wikipedia and other sources. All Images are the property of the copyright owners. This clip is for educational purposes.)

Categories
Fallen Through The Cracks

Fallen Through The Cracks – Black Artists in History: Ruth Gilliam Waddy

PhotoCredit: John Wilson White Studio Phocasso [email protected] www.phocasso.com San Francisco, Ca 94110 415-264-6969

Fallen Through The Cracks – Black Artists in History: Ruth Gilliam Waddy

Fallen Through The Cracks – Ruth Gilliam Waddy

Ruth Gilliam Waddy

#FallenThroughTheCracks – Ruth Gilliam Waddy was born Willanna Ruth Gilliam on January 7, 1909, in Lincoln, Nebraska, and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She was an American artist, printmaker, activist, and editor who was known for her practice of linocut printmaking and was in her fifties when she turned to art as a career. Her highly contracted prints featured stories about African-American visibility. 

She attended the University of Minnesota with hopes of teaching but had to leave school to help support her family during the Great Depression. She moved with her young daughter to Los Angeles to find work as a riveter at Douglas Aircraft Corporation. After the war, she worked at a county hospital, where one of her co-workers was artist Noah Purifoy.

Ruth Gilliam Waddy, Untitled Series B, 1969. Estate of Ruth Gilliam Waddy. Credit: John Wilson White, Studio Phocasso.
Ruth Gilliam Waddy, The Fence, 1969. Estate of Ruth Gilliam Waddy. Credit: John Wilson White, Studio Phocasso.

In 1966, her work was part of “The Negro in American Art,” a traveling exhibition funded by the California Arts Commission, and took on a cross-country bus trip to collect artworks for Prints by American Negro Artists (1967). With artist Samella Lewis, she edited Black Artists on Art (1969 and 1971). Waddy and Lewis are considered two of the “founding mothers” of the Black Arts Movement in California.

She founded an organization of artists called Art West Associated which extended the groundbreaking work of co-op galleries and helped promote the work of Black artists in the 60s and 70s in Los Angeles. She was one of twelve African-American artists honored by the Los Angeles Bicentennial in 1981, received an honorary doctorate from Otis Art Institute in 1987, and received a lifetime achievement award from the Women’s Caucus for Art in 2001. Her papers are at the Amistad Research Center, Tulane University. Ruth G. Waddy died on May 24, 2003, at age 94, in San Francisco, California.

(Text paraphrased from Wikipedia and other sources. All Images are the property of the copyright owners. This clip is for educational purposes.)

Categories
Fallen Through The Cracks

Fallen Through The Cracks – Black Artists in History: William Henry Johnson

Fallen Through The Cracks – Black Artists in History: William Henry Johnson

Fallen Through The Cracks – William Henry Johnson

William Henry Johnson

#FallenThroughTheCracks – William Henry Johnson was born on March 18, 1901, in Florence, South Carolina. He was a painter who worked with a variety of media, often just using the materials that were available on hand to create his work. His works emphasized vivid and vibrant colors alongside simplistic figures. His depictions of African-American culture were pulled from his upbringing in the rural South. He immersed himself in African-American culture and traditions, from realism to expressionism to constructing images that were represented by their folk art plainness. He moved to New York City at the age of 17 saving enough money to pay for classes at the National Academy of Design. In the fall of 1927, he moved to Paris, where he learned modernism, and had his first solo exhibition at the Students and Artists Club. He moved back to the U.S. in 1929 and fellow artists encouraged him to enter his work at the Harmon Foundation, and as a result, Johnson received the Harmon gold medal in fine arts.

William Henry Johnson, Training For War, Courtesy of the Estate of William Henry Johnson ©
William Henry Johnson, Riffs and Relations , Courtesy of the Estate of William Henry Johnson ©

Johnson ultimately found work as a teacher at the Harlem Community Art Center where he and other teachers instructed about 600 students per week meeting important Harlem artists such as Gwendolyn Knight. William Henry Johnson no longer painted after 1955 and died on April 13, 1970, in Central Islip, NY. The William H. Johnson Foundation for the Arts was established in 2001 in honor of his 100th birthday and has awarded the William H. Johnson Prize annually to an early career African American artist. In 2012, the U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp in Johnson’s honor, recognizing him as one of the nation’s foremost African-American artists and a major figure in 20th-century American art.

(Text paraphrased from Wikipedia and other sources. All Images are the property of the copyright owners. This clip is for educational purposes.)

Categories
Fallen Through The Cracks

Fallen Through The Cracks – Black Artists in History: Nancy Elizabeth Prophet

Fallen Through The Cracks – Black Artists in History: Nancy Elizabeth Prophet

Fallen Through The Cracks – Nancy Elizabeth Prophet

Nancy Elizabeth Prophet

#FallenThroughTheCracks – Nancy Elizabeth Prophet was born on March 19, 1890, in Warwick, Rhode Island. She was an artist of African-American and Native-American ancestry, known specifically for her sculpture. In 1914, at the age of 24, Prophet enrolled in the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence. She was the only African American student and graduate amongst a predominantly white female school population. After graduation, She attempted to find work as a portrait painter full-time but was unsuccessful. She painted portraits of residents to earn money to travel to France and in 1922, Prophet moved to Paris to study sculpture at L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts. She left the school because she believed she could teach herself faster than working under a mentor. One of her most prominent works, Negro Head, is a larger-than-life-size wooden sculpture. W.E.B. DuBois and Countee Cullen helped Prophet submit her work to exhibitions in the United States while she lived overseas and she won the Harmon Prize for Best Sculpture in 1929.

Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, Courtesy of the Estate of Nancy Elizabeth Prophet ©
Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, Courtesy of the Estate of Nancy Elizabeth Prophet ©

In 1934, Prophet began teaching students at both #SpelmanCollege and #AtlantaUniversity, expanding the curriculum to include modeling and the history of art and architecture. She had hopes of encouraging the creative minds of youth, the encouragement she was not presented with during her early years as she often welcomed students to her own home. In 1935 and 1937, she participated in the #WhitneyMuseum Sculpture Biennials and the Sculpture International exhibition at the #PhiladelphiaMuseumofArt in 1940. Her sculpture, #Congolaise, became one of the first works by an African American acquired by the Whitney Museum. Nancy Elizabeth Prophet died on December 13, 1960, in Providence, Rhode Island at 70.

(Text paraphrased from Wikipedia and other sources. All Images are the property of the copyright owners. This clip is for educational purposes.)

Categories
Fallen Through The Cracks

Fallen Through The Cracks – Black Artists in History: Merton Simpson

Fallen Through The Cracks – Black Artists in History: Merton Simpson

Fallen Through The Cracks – Merton Simpson

Merton Simpson

#FallenThroughTheCracks – Merton Simpson was born on September 20, 1928, in Charleston, South Carolina. He was an abstract expressionist painter and African and tribal art collector and dealer. Growing up in a segregated South, Simpson was not allowed to take art classes at the city-run Gibbes Gallery where his mentor artist William Melton Halsey worked. In 1949, his wife Corrie, and former director of the Charleston Museum, Laura Bragg, sponsored his first solo art show. They held two separate receptions; “one for whites and one for whites who didn’t mind coming to a reception with blacks.”

Simpson was the first African American to receive a prestigious five-year fellowship from the Charleston Scientific and Cultural Education fund and left South Carolina for New York City after finishing high school. He took classes at New York University (NYU) during the day and at Cooper Union at night also working at a framing shop where well-known artists would frequent. He credited the frame shop for giving him his “real education”.

Merton Simpson, Maternal Orchestration, From the Estate of Merton Simpson ©
Merton Simpson Collection, From the Estate of Merton Simpson ©

In 1951 his work appeared in an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art and in 1954 his work was displayed in the Younger American Painters exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum. The Harlem Riot of 1964 which Simpson witnessed firsthand, had a particular impact on his painting. The artist responded by creating the so-called “Confrontation” series of paintings that featured schematized black and white faces inter-meshed in an intense encounter. 

The Merton D. Simpson Gallery of Modern and Tribal Arts is famous for its exceptional collection of Tribal arts and for artworks by his contemporaries. As his knowledge and experience in the field grew he eventually became known as one of the most prominent dealers of traditional African art in the world and the international art world at large.

​​Merton Simpson died on March 9, 2013, in New York City. He was 84 years old.

(Text paraphrased from Wikipedia and other sources. All Images are the property of the copyright owners. This clip is for educational purposes.)