(As we all know, February is Black History Month. This post is a simplified and revised version of a feature article that I wrote about artists in Black History Month for the Lake Charles American Press; it was published with my byline on February 3, 2008. A version was also published on my original TroysArt blog February 2008. Photographic images were provided courtesy of the Zigler Art Museum in Jennings, Louisiana. Also, please recognize that art historians often use the description Black American in defining the group apart from Caucasians. This term embraces those of African, Caribbean, and Creole decent. While the inclusion of Creole lineage is occasionally debated, it is generally accepted, and I have included Creole artists herewith.)
John J. Audubon, “Louisiana Heron”, courtesy of Zigler Art Museum.
The mention of African-American artists brings to mind Louis Armstrong, 50 Cent, Michael Jackson, or Beyonce. While such superstars have dominated the performance arts, black Americans also have a rich and vital history of fine arts. Let’s now explore some of the artists who have made significant contributions to fine art.
Immediately, one of America’s most famous artists comes to mind. John J. Audubon (1785-1851) was born in Haiti; his father was a wealthy shipping merchant and his mother a Creole slave. Audubon was brought to France at the age of four to be educated. He studied art under the French Revolution’s most important artist Jacques-Louis David.
As an adult he found little business success until a British publisher backed his venture to record and paint the wildlife of North America. Birds of America was published in 1838 and catapulted his career into history. His 489 different species of foul preserved in paint many now-extinct birds for future generations to study. In 1845 Audubon published Viviparous Quadrupeds of North American which cemented his reputation as America’s foremost naturalist.
Julien Hudson, “Girl with a Rose”, courtesy of Zigler Art Museum.
As Audubon documented wildlife in Louisiana, Julien Hudson (1811 – 1844) was born in New Orleans, the son of a shipping merchant and a property owning free quadroon. A free man of color, his interest in art began as an apprentice to miniaturist painter Antoine Meucci and his study continued in Paris under the artist Alexandre Abel de Pujol. Upon his return to New Orleans he opened his own portrait studio in the French Quarter in 1831. He is considered the first African American, actually a Creole, operating in American by whom a self-portrait is known.
His racial ancestry and status as a free man of color must have been difficult during the era of pre-Civil War Louisiana. But his career was short; he died at age 33 with the circumstances of his death a mystery. His legacy is a very small number of surviving works. There are only five paintings existing that are absolutely known to be by his hand.
I have been particularly fascinated by Julien over the past few years. In Search of Julien Hudson: Free Artist of Color is Pre-Civil War New Orleans by William Keyse Rudolph, published 2010, is a beautiful book which showcases Hudson’s body of work along with two dozen paintings and drawings by his mentors and contemporaries.
Clementine Hunter, “Picking Cotton”, courtesy of Zigler Art Museum.
Clementine Hunter (1886-1988) was born at Hidden Hill Plantation near Natchitoches, Louisiana. Early in life she moved to Melrose Plantation where she worked as a field hand and eventually rose to a household position.
Plantation mistress Cammie Henry was an arts enthusiast and opened her mansion to artists and authors who needed a place to work or visit. This sparked Clementine’s interest and under the direction of resident artists did her first works.
Clementine painted what she knew and loved. Her boldly colored folk images depicted everyday activities of plantation life such as picking cotton and doing laundry as well as festivities such as weddings, dances, and baptisms. This body of work is considered “Naive” which means innocent or inexperienced and is also categorized as “Folk” which refers to an untaught style or a manner that everyday people might employ to express themselves.
Illiterate, her works are only initialed. “CH” refers to Cammie Henry which Clementine copied. But to make the mark her own she inverted the “C” across the “H”.
Clementine was prolific and created over four-thousand scenes on whatever materials she could find, from cardboard to paper bags. She sold many of her pieces for a dime or a quarter and dedicated that money to her husband’s medical bills.
In the 1950s her work attracted big attention. The New Orleans Museum of Art honored her with a one-woman show in 1956–the first time a Louisiana museum showed the work of an African-American. But Clementine had to view the event alone because blacks were not allowed entry with whites at that time. Today her paintings are collected by museums across the United States.
Black American artists found bold new voices in the 20th Century, addressing racial inequality and hardships.
Of all the black American artists, Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) has been one of the most financially successful. Unfortunately, his personal life was a mess. His paintings express life as a struggling black American in New York City and were often inspired by drug-induced frenzies which led to manic swings between productivity and mental paralysis, eventually leading to his early death.
Basquiat’s pain and torment is evident in his work which is internationally regarded. And with pieces selling in the millions, is among the world’s most expensive artists regardless of race. A record was set for a black artist in May, 2007, with an untitled Basquiat selling at auction for $14.6 million.
William Tolliver, “The Runner”, courtesy of Zigler Art Museum.
About the time of Basquiat’s passing, a Lafayette artist named William Tolliver (1951-2000) was gaining popularity. Tolliver was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi. His mother worked in the cotton fields by day and at home raised 14 children, often challenging them to drawing contests or stimulating their minds with art books from the library.
A house painter, Tolliver moved his family to Lafayette, Louisiana, in 1981 in order to work construction jobs amidst a building boom. But when the oil market busted he found himself without a job and began painting in order to relax. Soon his works were represented through a Lafayette gallery and he quickly cultivated a national following.
Tolliver’s motifs of land or people at work are a framework through which he conveys his joy in manipulating color, shapes, textures, line, and light. His works evoke feeling, mood, and even time of day or season. Tolliver had the ability to introduce qualities not found in the work of most classically trained artists. He is collected by museums and connoisseurs worldwide.
In the 21st Century there is little reason to delineate between working Black American artists and any other race. Talent, whether self-taught or classically trained, rises to the top.
Best known for portraits of celebrities, Simmie Knox (born 1935) unveiled his official White House portraits of Bill and Hillary Clinton in 2004. The son of a sharecropper and a self-taught artist from Aliceville, Alabama, he is the first black painter commissioned for a Presidential portrait.
Thornton Dial (born 1928) is recognized as one of the most important living contemporary artists, black or white. Renowned as a self-taught master, his style defies explanation. Also born in rural Alabama, Dial gained notoriety in the 1980’s. Working as a welder at Pullman Standard Railroad Car Factory prepared him for producing the monumental pieces for which he is acclaimed.
Dial’s dense and vibrant compositions deal with political, social, and economic struggles of black people in the South. And his voice is heard through his artwork across the world. I was lucky and honored to meet and speak with Mr. Dial at a party in his honor in River Oaks several years back—he is a charming man.
Vergie Banks, “Rag Time Jazz”, courtesy of Zigler Art Museum.
Vergie Banks is a Lafayette-born Creole artist who is inspired by the vibrant lifestyle of southern Louisiana. Aided by a degree in fine arts, her exuberant and colorful compositions celebrate her background and Creole heritage. And her works often promote the region for tourism both at home and abroad, including the 2003 Louisiana Travel Summit poster. Her most popular series portrays a little Creole girl with pigtails on a red tricycle. I have over the years become a friend of Vergie and am honored that she has collected some of my own artwork.
There are approximately 300 black American artists listed in the national fine arts registers (only about 20 of them women) and many thousands more who have not yet come to the prominence of a reference listing. Though it is a relatively small number, the depth of what these artists have had to say is monumental. By conveying their own unique experiences, personalities, and points of view they have left an indelible impression upon American culture. But short stories about Audubon, Hunter, Tolliver, and the others only scratch the surface when examining their contributions and allure.