#philly museum

[philamuseum]

Sarah Mary Taylor was taught to piece quilts as a child by her mother Pearlie Posey. In 1979, her search for “something different” led to boldly colored quilts appliquéd with forms inspired by images found in magazines, catalogues, and newspapers, as well as common everyday objects. For this quilt, Taylor traced her hand onto paper to use as a template for shapes cut from old dresses and applied these to squares of fabric and vertical strips. Taylor made later versions of this quilt, one of which was commissioned for the 1985 film adaptation of Alice Walker’s novel "The Color Purple." "'Hands'" Quilt," Winter 1980, by Sarah Mary Taylor

[philamuseum]

David Lebe came out as a gay man in the 1970s and was among the first generation of queer artists who frankly explored homosexuality in their work. Through the 1990s he produced works about AIDS that are by turns contemplative, humorous, and confrontational, but always return to a core theme, human touch and exchange. Explore this and other themes of Lebe’s here. ”Morning Ritual No. 28,“ 1994 (negative); 1996 (print), by David Lebe © David Lebe

[philamuseum]

Allan Randall Freelon was a Philadelphia artist and educator known for his pioneering and ground-breaking achievements. In 1912 he became the first African American to earn a four-year scholarship to study painting, drawing, and craft at the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art (now the University of the Arts). He later learned printmaking techniques from fellow Philadelphians Earl Horter and Dox Thrash. Freelon also studied psychology and pedagogy at the University of Pennsylvania, and in 1921 he was appointed Assistant Director of Art Education for Philadelphia schools. This position helped make Freelon an outspoken champion of childhood public arts education.

"Our Lady of Good Voyage," before 1935, by Allan Randall Freelon © Estate of Allan Randall Freelon, courtesy of Philip Freelon 

[philamuseum]

Charles White decided to become an artist after his mother bought him a painting kit at the age of seven. His first artistic break came when he was awarded a scholarship to the Art Institute of Chicago, where he learned printmaking as well as drawing and painting, allowing him to work for the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration during the difficult years of the Depression. In 1946, White traveled with his then wife, the artist Elizabeth Catlett, to Mexico City, where the two were invited to work at the Taller de Gráfica Popular, a thriving workshop that had been issuing a steady stream of prints with a political thrust for almost a decade. There, White created "Black Sorrow" and a handful of haunting prints of melancholy beauty that conveyed the painful reality of contemporary African American life back in the United States. "Black Sorrow," 1946, by Charles White © The Charles White Archives

[philamuseum]

Thornton Dial describes himself as “a man looking for something,” but he has long revealed societal and social truths to others. Dial’s art highlights issues surrounding race relations, gender relations, religion, international politics, and regional histories. “Everybody Got a Right to the Tree of Life" is one of Dial’s early wall-mounted works, made at a time when he frequently represented African American men as tigers, and depicts the struggles of African Americans working the land. Like many of Dial’s early works, it is made of found materials affixed to board and covered with enamel paint. The artist used tin, glass marbles, and sealing compound to create a work with three-dimensional qualities that is a hybrid of painting and sculpture. "Everybody Got a Right to the Tree of Life," 1988, by Thornton Dial, Sr. © Thornton Dial, courtesy of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation

[philamuseum]

William H. Johnson was one of the most inventive artists of his generation. Born in South Carolina, he traveled widely in Europe and North Africa, absorbing the popular visual styles of each region. While his early work is Impressionistic, he is best known for his later style, which focuses almost exclusively on African American subjects and is characterized by flat shapes and solid planes of color. “Blind Singer,” around 1939–40, by William Henry Johnson http://ow.ly/rcjz30qQXHC

[philamuseum]

Romare Bearden was one of the most influential African American artists of his generation. Collage was Bearden’s primary medium and his imagery reflects a rich cultural heritage shaped by his North Carolina birthplace, his childhood exposure to artists, writers, and musicians in Harlem, and African ritual traditions. 

 “Blue Snake,” 1971, by Romare Bearden © Romare Bearden Foundation / Licensed by VAGA, New York 

[philamuseum]

Human rights and social issues often figure in Horace Pippin’s work, but this painting is particularly clear in its treatment of racism. At the center, "Mr. Prejudice" drives a wedge into a symbolic V of victory that divides the composition in two, segregating the black and white machinists and military servicemen. Clouds hover above a hooded member of the Ku Klux Klan and a burly white man holding a noose. They stand opposite the Statue of Liberty, here brown instead of green. Pippin was injured while serving in a division of African American soldiers during World War I, and he included himself among the black soldiers in the painting, with his wounded arm hanging straight down at his side. Although made by Pippin in 1943, "Mr. Prejudice" serves as a reminder of a racial divide that persists. Before we closed the doors to the museum in March, this work was on view as part of the exhibition "Horace Pippin: From War to Peace," which can now be explored on our website. "Mr. Prejudice," 1943, by Horace Pippin