“Bad Picture,” 1997-98, multimedia sculpture by Thornton Dial (Photo courtesy Virginia Museum of Fine Arts)
African-American art has been reclassified. The genre, previously dismissed as folk or self-taught art, is now recognized as a significant canon of American modernism. “Cosmologies From the Tree of Life: Art From the African American South” at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts debuts a recently acquired collection of works by artists such as Jesse Aaron, Louisiana Bendolph, Thornton Dial, Lonnie B. Holley, Ronald Lockett, Rita Mae Pettway, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, James “Son” Thomas, Mose Tolliver, Purvis Young and others. The collection greatly enhances the museum’s holdings of African-American art, placing it within an exclusive group of museums across the country actively investing in work by African-American artists.
“Represented within this exhibition are 21 of the most extraordinary African-American artists of our time,” says Valerie Cassel Oliver, the VMFA’s Sydney and Frances Lewis family curator of modern and contemporary art. “Their collective body of work, as reflected in the 34 objects featured in the exhibition, underscores their significant contributions to the art-historical cannon. Designated as ‘folk,’ ‘outsider,’ ‘visionary’ and ‘self-taught’ artists, they are now being absorbed within a more central narrative of art history.”
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“Housetop” single-block “Courthouse Steps” variations c. 1945 by Jennie Pettaway, corduroy (Photo courtesy Virginia Museum of Fine Arts)
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“Old Redd Fox,” 1987, painting by Mose Tolliver (Photo courtesy Virginia Museum of Fine Arts)
The artworks — a broad range of media from paper to sculpture, painting and quilting — although individualistic in style, share a narrative that speaks to cultural, communal and familial preoccupations. The collection was acquired last year from the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, an Atlanta-based organization with a mission of showcasing works by African-American artists in the South.
“With this acquisition, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts joins the ranks of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the High Museum of Art Atlanta, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and other institutions who have significantly increased their holdings of African-American art through the Souls Grown Deep Foundation,” says VMFA Director Alex Nyerges. “We are proud to share these incredible works to help provide a more complete narrative regarding the history of contemporary American art.”
“Cosmologies From the Tree of Life: Art From the African American South” is on view in the Evans Court exhibition galleries at the VMFA through Nov. 17.
