Photo By Gail
This monumental portrait of a claimed opera singer Marian Anderson (1944) was part of artist Laura Wheeler Waring’s Outstanding Americans of Negro Origin series, commissioned by the Harmon Foundation for an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. Anderson had become a celebrated star of the concert stage in Europe, where Waring first saw her perform in 1916. Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: Portrait of Marian Anderson By Laura Wheeler Waring
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American artist Karon Davis (b. 1977) brings to life historical and allegorical figures in her signature white, wrapped plaster sculptures. Immersed in her parents’ worlds of theater and ballet as a child, Davis’ installations merge memory and scenes from the stage with historical events, mythology, and ongoing socio-political concerns. For her High Line, commission Davis created Curtain Call a larger-than-life bronze portrait of a ballerina taking her final bow after a performance.
Continue reading Karon Davis Curtain Call on The High Line
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Jarvis Boyland’s sensitive paintings conjure feelings of intimacy and leisure. In Pop Out (2019) — the title being a Chicago-based expression for hanging out — the artist depicts himself standing alongside an artist friend, both dressed in lustrous outfits and meeting the viewer’s gaze. The stand in a lived-in space with arms interlocked, exuding a familiarity that confirms their comfort in each other’s presence. It is as much a portrait of their relationship as it is of them as individuals, echoing Borland’s broader portrayals of queer Black people in domestic settings.
Photographed in the Brooklyn Museum as Part of the Exhibit Giants: Art From The Dean Collection.
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Laura Wheeler Waring’s portrayals of Black women across the social spectrum often transcended class norms and disrupted prevalent stereotypes. For Girl in Pink Dress (ca. 1927), her young sitter is presented as an icon of the Jazz Age, with the sleek, bobbed coiffure and elegant drop-waisted flapper dress – exquisitely detailed, and with nuanced tonal variations – that are emblematic of the period.
Continue reading Pink Thing of The Day: Girl in Pink Dress By Laura Wheeler Waring
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William H. Johnson (1901 – 1970) created his lively Jitterbugs series of paintings and screen prints from about 1940 to 1942 while teaching at the Works Progress Administration’s Harlem Community Art Center. After long periods spent abroad, the artist returned to the United States in 1938 to record the daily lives of African-Americans in a manner akin to folk art.
Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: William H. Johnson, Jitterbugs V