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A Creative Uprising

Student Focus - An Article by #TSU #Art major Tatyana Neal

I encourage fellow art lovers to take a trip to The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston to view the new Nancy and Rich Kinder Building. The exhibitions will have fellow museum goers immersed in gratifying and thought provoking works of art that are relatable to today's current social climate. Designed by Steven Holl Architects, the building provides in three levels, an inclusive and interactive view for the audience. Walking through the galleries, I was struck by the creative and offbeat flooring which form smooth transitions into each gallery. As I continued throughout the galleries, I noticed how intentional the lighting is arranged to highlight the essence of the interior architecture as well as the vibrant works of art. Steven Holl has created a beautiful architectural structure which brings life to the corner of Main and Binz streets. This 476 million dollar expansion is an incredible addition to the surrounding area which includes the Caroline Law Building, the Audrey Jones Beck Building and the recently completed Glassell School of Art.

As I made my way through the first of the three levels,I noticed several interactive pieces. Created by William Forsythe, “City of Abstracts”is a series of video projections. Known to give his audience seductive and psychologically arresting works, The “City of Abstracts”  blurs the lines of performance, sculpture and video, making the audience more aware of movements in separate and yet combined spaces.

As I progressed, I noticed a familiar piece by Kara Walker who produces works that are as controversial as they are visually stunning. The “Slaughter of the Innocents (They Might Be Guilty of Something) reinvents the tale of King Herod, - the king that murdered children to remain on his royal throne. Walker gives her audience key examples of aggression, transgression and inhumane injustices. 

Also on view is the installation by artist James Drake “Juarez/EL Paso (Boxcar). Dominated by the massive charcoal drawing of a box car and a mound of coal on the floor below, the work suggests the dangers of the Texas/Mexico border culture of 1987. This stark installation was inspired by the eighteen undocumented immigrants that suffocated in a boxcar. The only survivor of the boxcar accident, told the artist that the “coyote” that arranged their passage, purposely locked them in the boxcar; before throwing in a crowbar.

This theme of social unrest and injustice is echoed throughout the gallery spaces. The splendid combination of amazing architecture and spaces enlivened by technological innovations ushers in a creative uprising in our Houston art world.

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Kwame Akoto-Bamfo - Sculptor, Artist, Educator and Cultural activist

This amazing Ghanaian artist uses his medium to portray the multiple narratives that lay behind the victims of the African slave trade. His intention is to make it known, that the pain of African-Americans is felt by continental Africans as well. It is also important for him to portray the richness and vitality of African communities before the slave trade, while helping to heal the wounds of trauma still felt. Kwame applies the traditional Akan practice of using head portraits to portray the dead, as a main point of symbolism, paying homage and tribute to the lives of countless African ancestors.

The Ancestor Projects created by Kwame Akoto-Bamfo is a conscious effort to empower, educate and increase interest in African heritage, by promoting the values of African culture through art, music and performance. Ultimately serving as both a vehicle of public presentation as well as a record of history. For more visit https://ancestorprojectgh.com/

Kwame's outdoor sculpture series titled “Nkyinkim” is on display at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery Alabama. This six acre memorial is dedicated to African-American lynching victims. Its primary structure features 800 six-foot steel columns hanging from the ceiling, each containing the name of a person who was lynched. His “Faux-Reedom” sculpture installation of 1,200 concrete heads is in the capital city of Ghana, Accra.

To learn more or support visit https://kwameakotobamfo.com/

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Augusta Savage - Women in Art

During the 1930s, Augusta was well known in Harlem as a sculptor, art teacher, and community art program director. Born in Florida, on February 29, 1892, she was the seventh of fourteen children of Cornelia and Edward Fells. Her father was a poor Methodist minister who strongly opposed his daughter’s early interest in art. My father licked me four or five times a week,” Savage once recalled, “and almost whipped all the art out of me.

In 1919 a local potter gave her some clay from which she modeled a group of figures that she entered in the West Palm Beach County Fair. Her work was awarded a special prize and a ribbon of honor. Encouraged this success, she hoped to support herself by sculpting portrait busts of prominent blacks in the Florida community. When that did not materialize, she moved to New York.

In New York, Savage enrolled at the Cooper Union School of Art where she completed the four-year course in three years. During the mid-1920s when the Harlem Renaissance was at its peak, she lived and worked in a small studio apartment where she earned a reputation as a portrait sculptor, completing busts of prominent personalities such as W. E. B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey. Her best-known work of the 1920s was Gamin, an informal bust portrait of her nephew, for which she was awarded a Julius Rosenwald Fellowship to study in Paris in 1929. In 1931 Savage won a second Rosenwald fellowship, which permitted her to remain in Paris for an additional year. She also received a Carnegie Foundation grant for eight months of travel in France, Belgium, and Germany.

Following her return to New York in 1932, Savage established the Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts and became an influential teacher in Harlem. In 1937, she was appointed the first director of the Harlem Community Art Center and was commissioned by the New York World’s Fair of 1939 to create a sculpture symbolizing the musical contributions of African Americans. Inspired by the lyrics of James Weldon Johnson’s poem Lift Every Voice and Sing, "The Harp" was Savage’s largest work and her last major commission. She spent almost two years completing the sixteen-foot sculpture. The Harp was exhibited in the court of the Contemporary Arts building where it received much acclaim. The sculpture depicted a group of twelve stylized black singers in graduated heights that symbolized the strings of the harp. No funds were available to cast The Harp, nor were there any facilities to store it. After the fair closed it was demolished as was all the art.

The Harlem Community Art Center closed during World War II when federal funds were cut off so, in 1939 Savage made an attempt to reestablish an art center in Harlem by opening of the Salon of Contemporary Negro Art. She was founder-director of the small gallery that was the first of its kind in Harlem. That venture closed shortly after its opening due to lack of money.

Savage was the first African American to be elected to the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors. She believed that teaching others was far more important than creating art herself, and explained her motivation in an interview: “If I can inspire one of these youngsters to develop the talent I know they possess, then my monument will be in their work. No one could ask for more than that.”

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A gentle giant sleeps… Honoring the life of John Bland

John Bland was a humble but fierce warrior whose bold persistence led him to become one of the most respected leaders in the civil rights and labor movement in Houston. As a founding member of the Progressive Youth Association, Bland a student of Texas Southern University, helped led the historic student demonstrators who sat down on March 4, 1960, in protest at the now infamous Weingarten’s No.26 lunch counter located at 4110 Almeda road.

This pivotal act marked the first of many non violent sit ins leading to the desegregation of lunch counters and other business in Houston. Bland's passionate advocacy for justice was a central theme to his life's work. When he joined the Transport Workers Union (TWU) as bus operator, he was active for over 50 years, serving in numerous roles, and continued to serve as director of the Human and Civil Rights Department until late 2019, even after his retirement.

This incredibly active activist also served as vice president for the Texas State AFL-CIO, vice president for the A. Philip Randolph Institute and president of the Houston chapter of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists amongst numerous other roles. And in the midst of it all, was always present for his family, local community and church. Where ever he went he demanded respect and equality for all.

Born on March 20, 1940, this inspiring and caring leader has etched his place in history. He is survived by two daughters and wife of 58 years, Betty Bland. Mrs.Bland states that one of his favorite sayings was “You can’t die but one time.” A reminder to be fearless in living life. We will be forever inspired by his legacy of humanity and strength.

Rest in Peace Mr.Bland. Article https://www.houstonchronicle.com/…/John-Bland-Houston-civil…

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College Park Cemetary

Historic Houston Featured Work by - EARL JONES College Park is one of Houston’s three oldest and most historic Black burying grounds. It was founded in 1896 by Adam Clay with an investment of $1000. The name resulted from its location - it was across the street from Houston Central College for Negros (1894 – 1921). Due to its close proximity to the historic Fourth Ward, it was initially burial lots for freed slaves who migrated to Houston following the War Between the States. Over many years, Houston's Black community’s leading citizens – religious, civic, business, educational and veterans are buried here. College Park was abandoned in the 1970s and became overgrown and vandalized. Thankfully, through the efforts of Rev. Robert Robertson and the College Park Cemetery Association, it is on its way to returning to its former glory. In 2002 it was designated a Texas State Historical Cemetery.

#TXSUArt Alumni | Earl Jones is both a painter and wood sculptor. He is famous for creating the numerous sculptures in Galveston out of trees drowned in standing salt water following Hurricane Ike. He turned one of these trees into a wonderful piece of art for College Park.

Find out more @https://www.collegeparkcemetery.org/history/

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Who was Thurgoood Marshall?

Born in Maryland on July 2, 1908, Thurgood Marshall was the grandson of a slave. His father, William Marshall, instilled in him, an appreciation for the United States Constitution and the rule of law. After completing high school in 1925, Thurgood and his brother attened the historically black Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. His classmates included a distinguished group of future Black leaders such as the poet and author Langston Hughes, the future President of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, and musician Cab Calloway.

In 1930, he applied to the University of Maryland Law School, but was denied admission because he was Black. It was these types of events that ended up motivating him and direct his future professional life.

He was accepted into the Howard University Law School where he met his dean and later mentor Charles Hamilton Houston.

Marshall fought his first major court case in 1933, successfully suing the University of Maryland for refusing to admit a young African American University graduate named Donald Gaines Murray.

Later, Thurgood Marshall followed his Howard University mentor, Charles Houston to New York and later became Chief Counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). During this period, Mr. Marshall was asked by the United Nations and the United Kingdom to help draft the constitutions of the emerging African nations of Ghana and what is now Tanzania.

After amassing an impressive record of Supreme Court challenges to state-sponsored discrimination, including the landmark Brown v. Board decision in 1954, President John F. Kennedy appointed Thurgood Marshall to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. In 1965 President Lyndon Johnson appointed Judge Marshall to the office of U.S. Solicitor General. Before his subsequent nomination to the United States Supreme Court in 1967. Justice Thurgood Marshall represented and won more cases before the United States Supreme Court than any other American.

Marshall had a profound sensitivity to injustice and established a record for supporting the voiceless American. He was the first African American lawyer to serve as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 to 1991.

Check out "Thurgood Marshall" a mixed media work with wood, acrylic, glitter and glass by artist Mack Bishop III, on view now at #UMUSETXSU!

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Madden Art

By Artist Tamara Natalie Madden

Tamara Madden was born in Kingston, Jamaica and moved to America permanently as an adolescent. Madden became ill with a rare disease for women and African-Americans known Berger's disease in 1997. While living on the dialysis machine, Madden found art again. It helped her heal emotionally, so she decided it was important to pursue it further. She received a kidney transplant from her brother in 2001, and participated in her first art exhibition that same year. 

Her first solo exhibition was in 2004. After which, Madden relocated near Atlanta, Georgia where met her mentors Charly "Carlos" Palmer and WAK (Kevin A Williams). In 2007, Madden debuted a series entitled, "Kings & Queens", which focused on heightening the everyday person. Her work focuses on recognizing nobility, honor and respect in those often overlooked by society. Her subjects can be perceived as wealthy and powerful, but for the artist the imagery often represents a power that exudes from within.

Madden created images based on her memories of the people of her native Jamaica, placing them in high status fabrics (raw silks, colorful satins, etc.), that mimicked those worn by royalty. Birds were a common theme in many of Madden's paintings, chosen as a personal symbol of her freedom from illness. Madden's influences were varied, and included Gustav Klimt, Milwaukee artist Ras Ammar Nsoroma, African royalty, Egypt, Asia and the clothing worn by native African and Indian women. She chose to paint imagery that represented the people of the African diaspora.

Several of her pieces are in the collection of different departments at Vanderbilt University and also in the permanent collection of Alverno College in Milwaukee and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit. Madden's paintings have been featured in the New York Times, The Morning News, Upscale Magazine, The Huffington Post, aOn-Verge and more. In 2014, Madden was named as one of 40 black artists to watch by MSNBC's The Grio. Madden's solo exhibition at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust entitled, Out of Many, One (the Jamaican motto) sought to expand the visual repertoire of viewers and their perceptions of Jamaica and its people.

Tamara was also a fine art professor at Spellman College but after two weeks after being diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, passed on November 4th, 2017.

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Journey to the Truth

In celebration of Women's Equality Day (August 26 1920) We honor the life and journey of Sojourner Truth.

Sojourner Truth born Isabella Baumfree was an African American abolitionist and women’s right activist. Colonel Hardenbergh bought her parents James and Elizabeth Baumfree and kept their family at his estate in the town of Esopus, New York. When Hardenbergh died in 1806, nine-year-old Truth (known as Belle), was sold at an auction with a flock of sheep for $100 to John Neely. She later described Neely as cruel and harsh, relating how he beat her daily and once even with a bundle of rods. In 1808 Neely sold her for $105 to tavern keeper Martinus Schryver , who owned her for 18 months. Schryver then sold Truth in 1810 to John Dumont.

Around 1815, Truth met and fell in love with an enslaved man named Robert from a neighboring farm. Robert's owner Charles Catton Jr, forbade their relationship; he did not want the people he enslaved to have children with people he was not enslaving, because he would not own the children. One day Robert sneaked over to see Truth. When Catton and his son found him, they savagely beat Robert. Truth never saw Robert again after that day and he died a few years later. The experience haunted her throughout her life time. It is said that Truth was later forced to marry an older enslaved man named Thomas. She bore five children: James, her firstborn, who died in childhood, Diana (1815), the result of a rape by John Dumont, and Peter (1821), Elizabeth (1825), and Sophia (ca. 1826).

In 1799, the state of New York began to legislate the abolition of slavery, although the process of emancipating those people enslaved in New York was not complete until July 4, 1827. Dumont promised to grant Truth her freedom a year before the state emancipation, "if she would do well and be faithful." However, he changed his mind, claiming a hand injury had made her less productive. She was infuriated but continued working, spinning 100 pounds of wool, to satisfy her sense of obligation to him.

Truth later found her way to the home of Isaac and Maria Van Wagenen in New Paltz, who took her and her baby in. Isaac offered to buy her services for the remainder of the year, which Dumont accepted for $20 and she lived there until the New York State Emancipation Act was approved a year later.

Truth learned that her son Peter, then five years old, had been sold illegally by Dumont to an owner in Alabama. With the help of the Van Wagenens, she took the issue to court and in 1828, after months of legal proceedings, she got back her son, who had been abused. Truth became one of the first black women to go to court against a white man and win the case.

Unfortunately around 1839, Truth's son Peter took a job on a whaling ship. From 1840 to 1841, she received three letters from him, though in his third letter he told her he had sent five and Peter also stated he had never received any of her letters. When the ship returned to port in 1842, Peter was not on board and Truth never heard from him again.

She gave herself the name Sojourner Truth in 1843 after she became convinced that God had called her to leave the city and go into the countryside "testifying the hope that was in her". In 1844, she joined the Northampton Association of Education and Industry in Massachusetts.  Founded by abolitionists. The members, during its four-and-a-half year history,  lived on 470 acres, raising livestock, running a sawmill, a gristmill and a silk factory. While there, Truth met William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass and David Ruggles until 1846 when the group disbanded, unable to support itself.

Truth started dictating her memoirs to her friend Olive Gilbert, and in 1850 William Lloyd Garrison privately published her book, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: a Northern Slave. That same year, she purchased a home in what would become the village of Florence in Northampton for $300, and spoke at the first National Women’s Rights Convention in Worcester, MA. In 1854, with proceeds from sales of the narrative and carter-de-visite captioned, "I sell the shadow to support the substance," she paid off the mortgage held by her friend from the community, Samuel L. Hill.

Her best-known speech was delivered extemporaneously, in 1851, at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. The speech became widely known during the Civil War by the title “ Ain’t I a Woman?”. During the Civil War, Truth helped recruit black troops for the Union Army; after the war, in 1870 she tried to secure land grants from the federal government for former slaves as summarized in the promise of  “forty acres and a mule”, a project she pursued for seven years without success. While in Washington, D.C., she had a meeting with President Ulysses S.Grant in the White House.  In 1872, she returned to Battle Creek, became active in Grant's presidential re-election campaign, and even tried to vote on Election Day, but was turned away at the polling place.

Truth spoke about abolition, women's rights, prison reform, and preached to the Michigan Legislature against capital punishment.

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Sweet Success after 70- Artist McArthur Binion McArthur Binion has been creating art almost completely under the radar for four decades, handling his own occasional sales and raising two children in Chicago on a teaching salary. Now, Mr. Binion has been fully embraced by the mainstream art world — at the age of 72. His dealer is a prominent Chelsea gallery. Museums and international collectors are snapping up his large canvases, minimalist grids painted in oil stick over collages of personal documents. With his work selling for up to $450,000, he can now travel first class and easily afford his daughter’s Brown University tuition. “I’m totally ready for it,” Mr. Binion said of the acclaim. But he was not totally ready for the coarser realities of the modern-day art market. Mr. Binion rejected one dealer who he felt patronized him — she was hustling his freshly painted works on her cellphone at the Venice Biennale and coaching him on how to speak to curators and the press. Nobody’s going to tell me what to say about my work,” said Mr. Binion. “For me, if it wasn’t going to be on your own terms, it’s not worth it.” Mr. Binion belongs to a generation of African-American artists in their 70s and 80s who are enjoying a market renaissance after decades of indifference. Museums are mounting popular exhibitions of their work, and their names, in some cases, are worth millions on the auction block. Check out the full story in the New York Times here https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/23/arts/design/black-artists-older-success.html #AfricanAmericanHistory #AfricanAmericanArt https://www.instagram.com/p/Bvb3jLmAMfm/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=14nasub2ekume

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Congrats to the Tsu Honors College 10 year anniversary. We celebrated with Dr.Thomas Freeman aged 100 years in June. Along with the Honorable Tera Banks who served as speaker and presented TSU with the designation as a National Treasure! Honorees were Mrs. Linda Coach-Riley and Dr. Richard Pitre for their years of contribution in growing the Honors College program. #TSU #UMUSETSU https://www.instagram.com/p/BvXJmjVg3F0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=w6bjnr01edwb

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Art Students Revive Traditions

By Aswad Walker

Texas Southern University’s long and storied history of art lives on in a new set of student-produced murals recently hung in the school’s Wellness and Recreation Center.

World renowned artist and founder of Texas Southern University’s Art Department, the late Dr. John Biggers, who came to TSU in 1949 instituted a departmental requirement early in the program’s founding that all graduating seniors paint a mural. The cost-saving move of using the walls of Hannah Hall as the students’ canvases launched what has become a tourist attraction for global art students who come from everywhere to pay homage to Biggers and the work of his students.

However, a moratorium had been issued on the painting of murals on campus, thus ending a long and proud tradition, which was only recently rescinded; and by accident at that.

In search of artwork to give added life to TSU’s Recreation and Wellness Center—known by students as the Rec Center—its director, Iisha Voltz, originally looked at other companies to provide artistic works to adorn the building’s walls.

���Then one day I said, ‘Wow; we have an art department on campus. Maybe we can partner with them to produce some murals,’” recalled Voltz. “Seeing that the Rec Center is a student-funded facility, what better way to showcase TSU art students and their skills than to have them produce something that will remain a fixture on this campus for decades. These works will be something they and their families and children can come back to and see the mark they left on campus.”

To get the ball rolling, Voltz ventured to the University’s Art Department and began asking whoever she saw for leads on muralists. She was eventually directed to Jesse Sifuentes, a TSU art professor and instructor of the school’s mural painting class.

“With the moratorium on murals, my students were just painting murals on canvas,” said Sifuentes. “Thank goodness for Ms. Voltz. She went in art classes looking for students to paint murals. When I told her I have a mural painting class next semester who can help out, she said great. She gave us the opportunity, and we jumped on it. Ms. Voltz needs to be commended. She’s either a troublemaker or a hero; but definitely a hero in my book,” shared Sifuentes.

The students who produced the works are Derrick Brown, Nathaniel Donnett, Frederica Grant, Christopher Hicks, Robert Riojas, Isaiah Thomas and Faith Schwartz.

Sifuentes explained that unlike paintings done on easels where an artist paints, and then names his or her work, “With murals it’s the other way around.” Voltz provided the students with the theme, a narrative of “Health and Wellness.” And once equipped with their charge, Sifuentes’ students did a walk-thru of the Rec Center and each chose their wall for their future painting.

“After the walk-thru we met once again where the students had their visions of what they wanted to do,” said Voltz of her team’s review of the artists’ sketches.

According to Voltz, there were just a few minimal changes suggested to the students’ visions as everyone was consistent in staying on theme.

                                Mural by TSU Alum Earl Jones

“Once we looked at their sketches, we let them go to work. About a month in towards completion my assistant and I did walk over to the Art Department to look at their work. They were busy transferring their sketches to the actual plywood board. What was memorable to me was that I didn’t actually see the final products until they physically brought them over to the Rec Center,” stated Voltz, who was blown away once the students delivered them.

“When the students arrived with their works I felt amazing, very prideful; overall just happy. It was so great to see the finishing touches and how much creativity and talent we have on this campus; talent that a lot of people are not aware of. But to actually see what these students are capable of doing—just give them a vision and they are able to actually put it out—amazing,” said Voltz.

While Voltz was moved by the actual arrival of the student painting, Sifuentes was overcome while watching his students selflessly help each other physically walk each other’s works, some section by section, from the Art Department to the Recreation and Wellness Center. For Sifuentes, it was symbolic of the camaraderie and connection between and among his students.

“It was a beautiful sight to see how. At the end of the day, even though each student produced their own individual work of art, it was as if they felt a collective ownership of all the painting; these rebel murals,” stated Sifuentes.

The process that began in mid-January 2017, came to fruition by May, when the murals arrived and were mounted for all to see. All but one of the works is on quarter inch plywood. The lone painting on canvas belongs to Hicks who painted his masterpiece in his dorm room.

“Christopher is kind of a quiet, unassuming guy. And the wall he chose was way in the back, deep down in the Rec Center where very few people would see his work. But when Ms. Voltz saw his painting, she said it was too beautiful, and made the decision to place it prominently in the lobby entrance way,” recalled Sifuentes.

Riojas, who has been making a name for himself around the city with his works of art, produced the tallest mural. It is the one seen first by those who enter the Rec Center. Riojas, a senior art major, has been such an outstanding art student that he recently participated in the inaugural HBCU Summer Teachers Institute in Technical Art (STITAH) at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Of the 11 nationally-chosen participants, TSU sent four students altogether.

                             Mural by Unknown TSU Art Student

Thus, the legacy of impactful art started by Biggers and ceramicist Carroll Simms is being honored and continued by a new generation of artists growing in their greatness. And Voltz wants to make sure visitors to the Recreation and Wellness Center know their names.

“One thing I’m working on is to create a plaque for each of the paintings so Rec Center visitors can see visibly the names of the artists, paintings and dates they were produced,” she said.

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                 Visions of our 44th President

Forty four contemporary African American artists were selected by the exhibition partners to give their unique aesthetic treatments and visions to a single, life-sized bust of President Obama. As artistic director for one of Obama’s official campaign posters in 2008, Kaplan envisioned the current exhibition and found a partner for its realization in the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. In the artfully illustrated Collectors Edition catalog that accompanies the show, he notes, four years in the making, this unprecedented undertaking portrays a present-day historical achievement in world history through contemporary art.

Many of the artists inscribing the Obama legacy in Visions are household names among African-American art circles and in today’s contemporary art scene. They include notables such as Barkley L. Hendricks, Louis Delsarte, Philemona Williamson, Wangechi Mutu, Nina Chanel Abney, Howardena Pindell, Faith Ringgold, Carrie Mae Weems and Tyree Guyton to name but a few included in this thought-provoking exhibit. Another early adopter and supporter of this exciting endeavor, Alvia J. Wardlaw, Ph.D., Professor and University Museum Curator,Texas Southern University, shares her view of the exhibition as providing a unique…platform for 44 talented African American artists to express their ideas about the character and complexity of President Barack Obama while celebrating the singular importance of this period in our country's history. By using a bronze bust of the president as a three dimensional "blank canvas" as it were, each artist has interpreted with total imaginative freedom the persona of the first African American president of the United States in strikingly varied visual terms that evoke in the viewer a range of emotions which include pride, contemplation, amusement, curiosity, inspiration, and personal determination… I thank Peter Kaplan for developing this important project which contributes to the legacy of our 44th president in a monumental manner. It is an honor for the University Museum at Texas Southern University to be the first HBCU to participate in this landmark exhibition. Visions of Our 44th President will continue to inspire and empower countless generations of the future.

Each participant in the Visions show treats issues which define Obama and his presidency with the creativity one might expect of artistic practitioners with visual legacies of their own now prevalent. Each of the forty four busts in Visions encapsulates an aspect or thread of Obama’s presidency within its early 21st century social and political context for viewers of tomorrow. These works will help future generations interpret and decode the various meanings of the first black presidency in America.

Visions of Our 44th President is now available to museums and galleries throughout the nation.

Excerpt : Read full article http://iraaa.museum.hamptonu.edu/page/Visions-Of-Our-44th-President

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A Tribute to K.Oliver

In 2016 For The Sake of Art will honor the legacy of artist Kermit Oliver, a Texas Southern art graduate who has achieved worldwide acclaim in the art world. As the only American artist who designs for Hermès, Oliver has created sixteen scarf designs for Hermès which have become collector's items for women throughout the world. Oliver's long term association with the renowed fashion house began with a commission from Neiman Marcus to create a scarf for Hermès, in commemoration of the Texas Bicentennial. Oliver was honored with a retrospective at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in 2005, and he will be featured in the inaugural exhibition at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, opening in the fall of 2016. Designers and artists entering For the Sake of Art 2016 competition will base their wearable art design on a work of art by Kermit Oliver.

Kermit Oliver was born in Refugio, Texas in 1943. He attended Texas Southern University where he majored in art and studied with Dr. John Biggers and Professor Carroll Harris Simms. His talent was immediately evident to Dr. Biggers who challenged him to create a number of murals for Hannah Hall. While at Texas Southern: Kermit met Katy Washington, a fellow artist and art major. They soon married and began a family. After his graduation, the DuBose Gallery represented Oliver and he became well known for his beautifully rendered landscapes, portraits, and hand crafted frames. Very early in his career, Oliver became a recognized artist and numerous collectors sought his works. Oliver became the only American artist to design for the famed house of Hermes based in Paris. He retains that distinction to this day, and his scarves continue to be major collectibles.

It is the beauty of his art, steeped in allegory, myth, and biblical references which makes the paintings and drawings of Oliver so alluring. A timeless classicism defines his creativity, frequently derived from his knowledge of nature and reflection on the human spirit. His knowledge of flora and fauna, like Audubon, is sensitive and precise, yet the compositions of this artist capture more than the structure and surface appearance of nature surrounding us every day. An avid reader and student of the classics, Oliver is often inspired by passages from literature, which he then interprets in contemporary human form. Now retired from the U.S. Postal Service, where Oliver worked for decades; he continues to paint, draw, and create in his simple home studio in Waco, Texas.

In 2005, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston organized a major retrospective for Oliver. “Notes from a Childhood Odyssey” was an exhibition that also featured master printers from Hermes who came in from Lyon, France in order to demonstrate the precision and subtlety entailed in the printing of an Oliver scarf, which often required over 50 colors. Hermes produced a special scarf for this occasion.

The Art League of Houston and collectors who long supported his vision organized an exhibition of Oliver’s work in 2013 and bestowed upon him the Lifetime Achievement Award, the first time that such an honor was given to a Texan.

In 2016, the art of Kermit Oliver and his achievements as a designer for Hermes will be featured in an inaugural exhibition organized by the National Museum of African American History and Culture of the Smithsonian Institution on the occasion of the museum's opening.

Kermit Oliver is currently represented by Hooks-Epstein Galleries in Houston.

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Celebrating the Life of Thorton Dial

10 September 1928 – 25 January 2016 Thornton Dial was a pioneering African-American artist who came to prominence in the late 1980s. Dial’s body of work exhibits formal variety through expressive, densely composed assemblages of found materials, often executed on a monumental scale. His range of subjects embraces a broad sweep of history, from human rights to natural disasters and current events. His works have been acquired by the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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Angel, Boxer & The Dancer

Sculptures by Elizabeth Montgomery Shelton

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Portraits by Kingsley

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TSU Legends :: Abe Washington

“I am pleased to have the opportunity to see my mural again and I am pleased to have you all here to share this moment with me".  After over 50 years TSU Art Alumni  Abe Washington returned with 3 generations of his family in tow, on his 94th birthday to see a mural he finished August 15, 1956. "At that time black people were being intimated by the Klu Klux Klan and at the same time you had missionaries coming to aid the African diaspora populations through education. They were teaching people, as a way to relive the pain that people were going through.

I started out working on this as just an assignment - to make a grade in class, over time as I collected all that I knew of the history of African people after slavery -  I began to develop this mural. This was the life of a negro, all they were valued for was their work, being able to produce and earn a living." Booker T. Washington's quote "Cast down your buckets were you are" is incorporated into the mural. Booker spoke out about the lack of quality in the of life of the negro and his ideas brought him an audience, in the mural he is surrounded by a group of young people developing their educational skills which was a common sight in these times. "I think I got an A in this course. I am proud because I illustrated the story well - the story of black people's ambition in the south and the things that influenced their lives. When you look at the news today it seems like whatever progress was made, is somewhat diminished by all the things that are going on now. Well, I hope that we can all keep our eyes on the prize." ​

Interview by :: Bonita Cutliff

#University Museum #Abe Washington