Foreword and Acknowledgments

Jenkins, Earnestine Lovelle

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Foreword and Acknowledgments

Earnestine Lovelle Jenkins

Black Artists in America: From the Great Depression to Civil Rights

~Black Artists in America: From the Great Depression to Civil Rights is the first in a suite of three linked exhibitions and publications that will examine the African American experience in the visual arts through the last seventy years of the twentieth century. One of the most ambitious exhibition programs the Dixon has ever conceived, the series of...

Author

Earnestine Lovelle Jenkins

PublisherYale University Press

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00312.1

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-22565

Foreword and Acknowledgments

Black Artists in America: From the Great Depression to Civil Rights is the first in a suite of three linked exhibitions and publications that will examine the African American experience in the visual arts through the last seventy years of the twentieth century. One of the most ambitious exhibition programs the Dixon has ever conceived, the series of three shows will be on view in Memphis in autumn 2021, 2023, and 2025, and we fully expect the second and third installments to travel to other museum venues as well.

Throughout the twentieth century, Black artists in the United States produced powerful works of art that expressed the joys, anxieties, social changes, economic upheavals, global conflagrations, and aesthetic concerns of the times during which they lived. That so many of their accomplishments went unrecognized by the White mainstream media, the equally White art market, and the even Whiter culture of American art museums only makes these achievements more impressive.

The first iteration of Black Artists in America begins with the collapse of the stock market in 1929 and the subsequent devastation of the American (and much of the world’s) economy. The Great Depression interrupted one of the most powerful aesthetic flowerings this country has ever produced, the Harlem Renaissance, and thrust many artists into poverty and hardship. Federal support for artists during the Depression years—in the form of murals and other commissions—was by no means meted out fairly or equitably. And across the nation, especially in the American South, the Depression years ushered in a virulent surge in racism, White supremacy, and racial violence that had lain relatively dormant during the prosperous 1920s.

Black Artists in America further explores the works of art produced amid the dangers and privations of the Second World War. A period of patriotic fervor in which many Black artists shared, the war years saw racist policies in the American military and in the broader war effort, compounded by missed opportunities for meaningful social progress. At the same time, some Black artists who had served in the war returned to a broad aesthetic shift toward abstraction that was not only bewildering but also convention shattering. The exhibition ends in the 1950s with the conservativism of the immediate post-war era and the emergence of a burgeoning civil rights movement.

Our guide on this journey across three crucial decades of the American twentieth century is Dr. Earnestine Lovelle Jenkins, Professor of Art History at the University of Memphis. Dr. Jenkins brought her usual rigor to the subjects she explores here as she shares carefully wrought insights into the lives and careers of sometimes inexplicably neglected artists. She is as generous and thoughtful a colleague as anyone could ever know. I offer the sincerest thanks of the staff and board of trustees of the Dixon Gallery and Gardens, and my own personal gratitude, to Dr. Jenkins for the outstanding work she has produced on our behalf. It has been a pleasure working with her.

While Black Artists in America: From the Great Depression to Civil Rights traces its origins as a project to as early as 2017, a good deal of the work Dr. Jenkins and the Dixon team did in building a definitive checklist, requesting and negotiating loans, and writing, editing, and designing the handsome publication you now hold was done under the pressures of the pandemic. With the stress COVID-19 placed on colleagues, collectors, and institutions across the country, we encountered dozens of challenges in the organization of this show. Among them was the regrettable withdrawal of two museum partners who would have been venues for the exhibition. Early in 2020, we were confronted with the decision of whether to go on with the show alone or defer until another time. Ultimately, we elected to hold firm to our dates and to present the exhibition at the Dixon only. While this decision created difficulties of its own, it also allowed us to consider more fully how Memphis, our iconic Southern community, factored into the larger themes of Black Artists in America.

Dr. Jenkins is not only a brilliant scholar of international stature, but she is also a Memphis native with a lifetime of experience and myriad contacts. We owe to her connections in Memphis some of the more intriguing works in the show. Late in 2020, Dr. Jenkins introduced us to Professor Phillip Dotson, a talented painter and longtime head of the art department at LeMoyne-Owen College, an HBCU in Memphis. Dr. Dotson shared with us the marvelous works of art and extraordinary archives at the college, and some of those objects found their way into the exhibition. We are very grateful to Professor Dotson for his aid and hospitality; to then-acting President of LeMoyne-Owen, Carol Johnson-Dean, who graciously greeted us during our first visit; and to the newly appointed president, Vernell Bennett-Fairs. The Dixon looks forward to further deepening our relationship with the faculty, staff, students, and leadership of LeMoyne-Owen College during the run of the exhibition and beyond.

Dr. Jenkins also introduced us to the leadership of the Second Congregational Church, a historically significant place of worship in Memphis that is only steps away from LeMoyne-Owen College. In the mid-1950s, Second Congregational commissioned Reginald Morris, an artist and professor at LeMoyne-Owen, to paint a five-panel mural for the altar of the church. In the autumn of last year, as the pandemic was surging in Memphis, members of the congregation kindly invited us to see the remarkable painting cycle hanging behind the church altar. Within mere days of the meeting, Second Congregational Church had generously agreed to lend this significant group of paintings to the Dixon. We very much appreciate the spirit of generosity and cooperation that Second Congregational has shown, and we extend our deepest thanks to Ronald A. Walter, a well-known Memphis news director and a trustee of the church, for spearheading what for them must have been a rather unusual request. We also thank the Reverend Carrie Moore Black, Mr. Clarence Christian, and the entire congregation for their support of Black Artists in America.

Given the many difficulties the pandemic has caused, the Dixon Gallery and Gardens is very grateful to our colleagues at other museums across the country, who made tremendous efforts to support this project. It was not always easy for them, but these marvelous colleagues came through for Black Artists in America again and again, and we thank them for their dedication and generous spirits. At this time, I offer the Dixon’s thanks to Larry Anderson, Sara Arnold, Baxter Buck, Chris Chapman, Patrina Chatman, Jane Dini, Jennifer Draffen, William U. Eiland, Maria Ferguson, Turry Flucker, Noa Fodrie, Nigel Freeman, Rosamund Garrett, Jennifer Gaudio, Shawnya Harris, halley k harrisburg, Christopher Harter, Tyler Hennings, Catrina Hill, Ashley Holland, Elizabeth Hopkin, Susan and John Horseman, Robin Howard, Rebecca Kim, Anastasia Kinigopoulo, Sabine Kretzschmar, Emily Neff, Nancy T. Nichols, Heather Nickels, Thom Pegg, Kimberly and Elliot Perry, James Rondeau, Melissa Samson, Michael C. Simon, Virginia Spottswood Simon, Christy Sinksen, Anne Collins Smith, Stephanie Spottswood, David Stark, Lily Sterling, Vanessa Thaxton-Ward, Amy Tobert, Janis A. Tomlinson, Erika Umali, Megan Valentine, Rachel Vargas, and Claudia Volpe. Dr. Jenkins wishes to particularly thank the staff at the Stuart A. Rose Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Library at Emory University.

As we began planning the catalogue for Black Artists in America, we knew we would be wise to turn to our friends at Lucia | Marquand to bring our vision to life. We want to thank Melissa Duffes, Adrian Lucia, Heather Medlock, Ryan Polich, and Kestrel Rundle for their creativity, organization, and especially for their patience as we put this catalogue together during a pandemic. Our gratitude also goes to Amy Canonico at Yale University Press for believing in the importance of this project and helping to get this book into many more hands than the Dixon could have done alone.

The staff of the Dixon Gallery and Gardens is small but potent, and each team member contributes to the success of every exhibition we produce. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Miguel Alcantar, Charmeal Alexander, Christan Allen, Melvin Avendano, Helen Benoist, Juliana Bjorklund, Melissa Bosdorf, Charlie Bryan, Sarah Catmur, Mary Kathryn Davis, Chantal Drake, Jenny Duggan, Chris Emanus, Erika Fuller, Jeff Goggans, Allison Hopper, Gail Hopper, Susan Johnson, Robert Jones, Kristen Kimber-ling, Sarah Lorenz, Norma Montesi, Glenn Overall, Lorenzo Perez, Julie Pierotti, Kristen Rambo, Kim Rucker, Margarita Sandino, Linley Schmidt, Charlotte Sechrist, Corkey Sinks, Dale Skaggs, Hadeer Solimon, Karen Strachan, Danielle Sumler, and John T. Wilbanks. Your hard work, especially in the year and a half leading up to the opening of this exhibition, is appreciated more than you know.

The Dixon’s ambitious exhibition program is supported each year by a dedicated community of donors. Our thanks go to the Joe Orgill Family Fund for Exhibitions, Art Bridges, Alice and Phil Burnett, Karen and Preston Dorsett, the Theodore W. and Betty J. Eckles Foundation, Lucy Buchanan Garrett and Sam Young Garrett Jr., Amanda and Nick Goetze, Susan and John Horseman, Rose M. Johnston, Anne and Mike Keeney, Dorothy O. Kirsch, Nell R. Levy, Debbie and Chip Marston, Dina and Brad Martin, Mrs. Estella Mayhue-Greer and Dr. Joe C. Greer, Harriet and Jake McFadden, Nancy and Steve Morrow, Gwen and Penn Owen, Chris and Dan Richards, Trish and Carl Ring, Charlotte and Todd Robbins, Dr. R. Lemoyne Robinson, the Mary and Jeff Simpson Charitable Trust, Barbara and Vernon Stafford, Carol and Chip Westbrook, and Barbara and Lewis Williamson for making this exhibition and publication possible through their generosity. We are also very grateful to the great people at First Horizon Bank and their generous support through ArtsFirst.

Early in 2021, the Dixon engaged a group of dynamic women in Memphis to help ensure that Black Artists in America reached as many people in our community as possible. We are grateful to Kontji Anthony, Essie Arrindell-Williams, Ruby Powell Dennis, Whitney Hardy, Earnestine Jenkins, Estella Mayhue-Greer, Mary McDaniel, Kimberly Perry, Arianna Poindexter, Markova Reed-Anderson, Phyllis Sims-Roy, Barbara Stafford, Shayna Steward, Kim Thomas, Sharon Wheeler, and Verushka Wilson for being such effective and enthusiastic ambassadors for this project.

The Dixon believes that the power of diversity, more than any other quality or virtue, is essential to our strength and to making us the best institution we can be. For more than a decade we have showcased Black, Latino, and Asian American artists’ achievements in the visual arts. In doing so, we have been rewarded with very compelling experiences, including Ancestry and Innovation: African American Art from the American Folk Art Museum (2008), Richmond Barthé: His Life in Art (2010), Jonathan Green (2012), Ashe to Amen: African Americans and Biblical Imagery (2013), Jun Kaneko: Sculpture at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens (2015), El Taller de Gráfica Popular: Vida y Arte (2018), Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman (2020), and a dozen other relevant shows. Now we bring you Black Artists in America: From the Great Depression to Civil Rights, with the promise of more to follow.

Kevin Sharp
Linda W. and S. Herbert Rhea Director
Dixon Gallery and Gardens

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