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Home | The
Riffe Gallery | Past Exhibitions | Masterworks by 20th Century African American Artists
Masterworks by 20th Century African American Artists
April 16 through June 13, 1998
Curated by Timothy C. Keny, director of the Keny Galleries, Masterworks by 20th Century African American Artists explores the complexity and immense diversity of African American artistic production. Artists featured in the exhibition are Benny Andrews, Romare Bearden, Ralph Bell, William Hawkins, Jacob Lawrence, John B. Murry, Elijah Pierce, Horace Pippin, Mary Tillman Smith, Alma Thomas, Robert Thompson and Bill Traylor .
African American cultural traditions have influenced the visual arts through artistic, spiritual, social, philosophical and political means. Parallels in technique, including exploration of shifting perspectives, simplification of forms and examination and dissection of distance, are important in the evolution of the visual arts.
A few decades ago it was widely held that all connections to Africa had been erased in African American culture through the oppression of slavery and the tyranny of racial prejudice. Since then, scholars have identified adaptations of African form and ideology in artistic practices by people settled far from their ancestral African homelands. Some African American artists have consciously reconstructed their connection to an African ancestral legacy by adopting the images and icons of an African identity for their own artistic, spiritual and political purposes. African American art provides a commentary on the human condition that speaks to all of us through an endless range of emotion, spirituality, intensity and energy.
Click here for more information on Masterworks by 20th Century African American Artists.
Tour some of the works that will be on display!
There are 13 images contained within this archive which are intended for personal/educational use only. These images are protected by a 1998 photographic copyright which belongs to the Ohio Arts Council. They, therefore, are not in the public domain.
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Elijah Pierce
Power of Prayer, 1960
Carved and painted wood relief with glitter 20 5/8 x 19 5/8 inches
Private Collection of Keny Galleries, Columbus |
Bill Traylor
Blue Man (Animated Figures), c. 1939-42
Pencil on cardboard 19 x 8 inches
Private Collection, courtesy of Keny Galleries, Columbus |
Bill Traylor
Untitled (One Legged Man) , c. 1939-42
Charcoal on paper 15 x 9 3/8 inches
Collection of Dr. Siri von Reis |
Benny Andrews
Black Church, 1996
Oil and collage on paper 45 x 15 inches
Collection of Benny Andrews |
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Benny Andrews
Viewer, 1990
Oil on canvas 60 x 24 inches
Collection of Benny Andrews |
Benny Andrews
Ive Known Rivers, 1995
Oil and collage on paper 30 x 22 inches
Collection of Benny Andrews |
William Hawkins
First School Building , n.d.
Enamel on cardboard 18 x 24 inches
Collection of Gary Schwindler, Athens |
William Hawkins
Three Horses #7 , 1986
Enamel on masonite 39 x 48 inches
Collection of Dr. Siri von Reis |
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Jacob Lawrence
The Street, 1957
Casein on paper 30 x 22 inches
Collection of the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown |
Horace Pippen
The Whipping, 1941
Oil on wood 9 x 11 inches
Collection of Reynolda House, Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, North Carolina |
Alma Thomas
A Glimpse of the Moon, 1960
Acrylic on canvas 29 x 28 inches
Collection of the Wendell Street Gallery, Cambridge, Massachusetts |
Romare Bearden
Hometime, 1970
Collage and mixed media on board 26 x 45 inches
Collection of the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown |
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John B. Murray
Gray, White, Black and Blue and Script Abstraction, c. 1987-88
Watercolor marker on paper 24 x 18 inches
The Gitter-Yelen Collection |
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