One of the key links is that in the South, as Alice Rae Yelen noted in Passionate Visions of the American South, ‘religious practice is dominated by evangelical Protestantism’ and, because ‘religion and spiritual inspiration are so important in the southern way of life, it is hard to imagine a more fertile environment for the creation of religious and visionary imagery.’ This reality runs through this exhibition like an underground spring.
Many of the works in the exhibition derive from the collection of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, which has in recent years been transferring its collection to the permanent collections of leading American and international art museums. In the artist profiles on the website of Souls Grown Deep, the artists speak in their own voice, the majority voicing inspirations that derive from their Christian faith.
As evangelical Protestantism does not have a significant visual tradition, this combination results in a unique approach to religious and secular imagery as Rae Yelen describes:
‘Most evangelical southern Protestants, whether black or white, rural or urban, restrained or charismatic, Baptist, Pentecostal, or otherwise, believe in the Bible as the ultimate moral authority. They consider access to the Holy Spirit and thereby conversion to be direct; they uphold traditional morality as defined by their church; and because church authority is decentralized, they accept informal worship. Each of these conditions finds a corollary, subtly or straightforwardly, in the work of many southern self-taught artists ...
Many artists who produce narrative biblical subjects claim direct communication with God. Others simply tell Bible stories, commonly learned in childhood, Sunday School, or church. Some are lay preachers, often leaders of their own churches; others have no conventional religious affirmation. Self-proclaimed preachers abound in the ranks of self-taught artists, including Sister Gertrude Morgan, Howard Finster, Anderson Johnson, Rev. Benjamin F. Perkins, Rev. Johnnie Swearingen, Elijah Pierce, Josephus Farmer, Edgar Tolson, and R. A. Miller.’
What Rae Yelen describes is also true for artists here including Thornton Dial, William Edmondson, Lonnie Holley, Mary T. Smith, Joe Minter, Nellie Mae Rowe, Purvis Young, Emmer Sewell, Ronald Lockett, Joe Light, and the quiltmakers of Gee’s Bend. Whether such artists espouse the faith or not, and many do, as Carol Crown notes in Coming Home! Self-Taught Artists, the Bible, and the American South, none ‘escape the impact of evangelical Christianity in the South.’
Put like this, the influence of the church in the South can sound malign or oppressive and its conservative strands certainly can and do push it in that direction. However, because their works are ‘highly personal expressions’ which originally were ‘not normally commissioned by nor intended for an institutional patron,’ the work of such artists is that of visionaries whose art, as Erika Doss has suggested, ‘mediates between a mysterious physical universe and their personal, subconscious, and imaginative understandings of the universe.’ Doss argues that some ‘are drawn to the subject of religion as a means of defining and expressing the dimensions of their beliefs’ while others ‘select religious subjects as a means of interrogating the institutional boundaries of mainstream belief systems.’
William Edmondson began carving around 1932 inspired by a vision that was a divine calling. He claimed, ‘Jesus has planted the seed of carving in me.’ Most of his limestone carvings are symbolic and were inspired by biblical passages, as with ‘Adam and Eve’ here. Mary T. Smith delineated her yard space with wooden structures in black and white populating them with painted figures and texts. The love which she had for Jesus was present throughout her environment as she painted numerous portraits of him and conceived a variety of ways to depict the Trinity. Joe Minter’s sculptures made from welded iron and other salvaged materials tell stories of spirituality, resistance, tragedy and fortitude. His art communicates to the world ‘a message of God—love and peace for all.’ Emmer Sewell constructed layered assemblages of detritus with coded signs and symbols. She said, ‘I just arrange stuff to make my yard more beautiful … It's about the Lord's Gospel messages.’ The tradition of improvisatory quilting practised by the quilters of Gee’s Bend goes back to the 19th century, and the singing that accompanies this activity is regarded as a healing for the soul. China Pettway explains, ‘while quilting, I sing because it’s a sound of whistling humming God gave me.’
Bessie Harvey claimed that she was the sculptress that God had taught her to be. Her work includes ‘Black Horse of Revelations,’ a large-scale root sculpture depicting one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. Ronald Lockett was similarly intensely concerned with eschatology. His mentor, Thornton Dial, spoke of Pentecostal inspirations saying that since he had been making art, his mind had got more things coming to it and the Spirit was working off the mind and getting stronger like an angel following him around. Timothy Anglin Burgard writes that Dial’s ‘New Light,’ a ‘black-and-white composition with its Biblical undertone of the phrase “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3) represents the newfound power of African Americans to see—and to be seen—during the Civil Rights era.’ In ‘Changing My Walk (Honoring Andrew Young)’ Lonnie Holley referenced the international human rights activist whose work as a pastor, administrator, and voting rights advocate led him to join Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in the civil rights struggle.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was inspirational as a leader of the Civil Rights Movement and is central to the documentary photographs of Steve Schapiro and Danny Lyon. Lyon photographed Dr. King as he prepared to speak at the funeral for four young girls killed in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham in 1963. He also photographed Doris Derby, a young activist who went on to document the enormous efforts by Civil Rights workers to teach women skills like reading, writing and maths. Derby’s images show quilting collectives, farming co-operatives and rural health initiatives: ‘Frequently, we hear about the very obvious political aspects of the Movement, such as marches, voter registration initiatives, voting and protests, but there were many other aspects-- personal attributes-- that accompanied being active that helped one accomplish grassroots initiatives, for instance, listening, being down to earth, truthful, committed, strong. Of additional importance is gathering support by local leaders and assisting them, learning the environment, sharing knowledge, developing new information, new educational links, such as Head Start and freedom schools, and getting buy in from the community.’
As Allison Calhoun-Brown has written, much of what Derby describes was found in church where ‘one could find politics, arts, music, education, economic development, social services, civic associations, leadership opportunities, and business enterprises,’ plus ‘a rich spiritual tradition of survival and liberation.’ One example is that of the quilting collective – the Freedom Quilting Bee - formed through the inspiration of Fr. Francis Walter, which initiated a growing awareness of the South’s quilting tradition. This led to the creation of significant collections, such as those of Souls Grown Deep (with the Gee’s Bend quilters) and Eli Leon (Rosie Lee Tompkins and others), that have brought acclaim and appreciation for the innovative and aesthetic qualities of this traditional art.
The same African American churches that were sources of creativity for Southern self-taught artists were also vital to the success of the civil rights movement. They hosted mass meetings, were meeting points for rallies and marches, and provided much-needed emotional, physical, moral and spiritual support. The churches gave the community, including artists, strength to endure and ultimately gain equal human rights for every American regardless of colour or creed.
The example and message of Dr. King remains inspirational to artists, as to many others. Kerry James Marshall’s ‘Souvenir: Composition in Three Parts (1998-2000)’, a wall-mounted 16th Street Baptist Church sign, plaque and bouquet, takes us back to those events of 1963 to bear witness to and commemorate those who died in the bombing that took place in his birthplace of Birmingham, Alabama. That atrocity marked a significant turning point for the movement and contributed to support for the passage by Congress of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Dr. King’s influence on the artist Jack Whitten became indelible following a meeting at a local church in Montgomery, Alabama in the wake of the Montgomery bus boycott, Whitten’s subsequent involvement at the March on Washington For Jobs and Freedom, and his presence for Dr. King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech in Washington in 1963. Whitten’s work has been described as bridging rhythms of gestural abstraction and process art, as in ‘King’s Wish (Martin Luther’s Dream) (1968)’ which reflects both his lifelong support of the Civil Rights Movement and his acute affection for experimentation. In this large, semi-abstract painting abstracted faces cease to be defined by any one colour, but rather, echoing Dr. King’s speech, ‘by the content of their character.’
The exhibition begins with a quotation from Joe Minter: ‘That what is invisible, thrown away could be made into something so it demonstrates that even what gets thrown away, with a spirit in it, can survive and grow. A spirit of all the people that have touched and felt that material has stayed in the material.’ The invisible spirit of We Will Walk – Art and Resistance in the American South is the spirit of faith.
We Will Walk: Art and Resistance in the American South, Turner Contemporary, extended to 6 September 2020.
'These are artists who, finding themselves denied access and agency through systemic racism, in impossible circumstances, and without access to the mainstream of Western fine art, none the less create innovative artworks using whatever found objects are at hand,and often viewing themselves as inspired by God in doing so ...
Systemic racism, precisely because it is systemic, is not easily eradicated. This exhibition supports the struggle, while demonstrating the strength and creativity found among those experiencing the worst of the system’s oppression.'
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Lonnie Holley - All Rendered Truth.
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