Vincent van Gogh was born on this day in 1853. Part of the Post-Impressionist movement, he used color and energetic brush strokes to convey his emotions and state of mind. Largely unsuccessful during his lifetime, he is now considered one of the most influential figures in the history of art. Few artists have been associated with a specific subject as closely as Van Gogh has been to sunflowers. They represented for him something deeply personal, and he frequently praised them as symbols of reverie, loyalty, and joy.
“Sunflowers,” 1889, by Vincent van Gogh
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
In this painting, Aaron Douglas merges flying birds with their urban environment. Their flapping wings become progressively more geometric, taking on the look of the industrial architecture behind them. Douglas began painting in this Modern style shortly after moving to New York in 1925. There, he became one of the principal artists associated with the Harlem Renaissance, an intellectual, social, and artistic movement that helped bring attention and respect to African American culture.
“Birds in Flight,” around 1927–29, by Aaron Douglas © Heirs of Aaron Douglas / Licensed by VAGA, New York
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
Born on this day in 1859, Henry Ossawa Tanner was raised in Philadelphia and trained by Thomas Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Tanner followed his teacher’s example and pursued art studies in Paris, where he ultimately settled. Like Eakins, Tanner absorbed an academic tradition that prized important figural subjects, fine drawing, and careful study from life. Both artists grounded their work in realist observation, seeking authentic detail. A success at the Paris Salon in 1898, “The Annunciation” was shown the next year in Philadelphia, where it was purchased for the museum. Among the first contemporary American paintings acquired for the collection, it was also the first of Tanner’s works to enter a museum in the United States.
“The Annunciation,” 1898, by Henry Ossawa Tanner http://ow.ly/bLHP30qRkVb
In 1916, James VanDerZee opened the Guarantee Photo Studio in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood, and it went on to become the “go-to” portrait studio for many Harlem residents. VanDerZee’s pictures both in out and his studio captured the stories of the changing neighborhood, the joys of family, and the emotions and dreams of the people he photographed. This picture was taken in his own home. The photographer stands next to his wife, Gaynella, who holds one of her deeply loved cats. Around them are walls almost entirely covered with artwork—mostly photographs by VanDerZee himself—and objects that tell us about the comforts of home as well as the success of the couple’s photography business.
“Self-Portrait with Gaynella,” 1954, by James VanDerZee © Donna Mussenden Van Der Zee
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
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
Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe made multiple visits to Daufuskie Island, situated just off the coast of South Carolina, to photograph the Gullah people. The Gullah are direct descendants of enslaved Africans who were forced to work on plantations there from the 1700s on. After emancipation, many of the Gullah purchased the lands on which they were formerly enslaved. Their relative isolation allowed them to preserve their unique blend of African and Creole culture and language over generations. Moutoussamy-Ashe’s loving photographs document life on Daufuskie before a wave of development on the island in the 1980s.
“Church Members Gather Before Service,” 1979 (negative); 2017 (print), by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe © Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe
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
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
Alma Thomas’s mosaic-like abstract canvases reveal her keen powers of observation and interest in natural phenomena. In this painting, Thomas was inspired by hydrangeas and other spring flowers she admired in gardens near her home in Washington, DC. The scattered abstract shapes and letters form a composition that evokes a wide range of associations, from cutout collages by Henri Matisse to African textiles.
“Hydrangeas Spring Song,” 1976, by Alma Thomas
Gertrude Käsebier purchased a camera in order to photograph her children, and soon became famous for her portraits. Alfred Stieglitz, who played a pivotal role in shaping American modernism, considered her the leading portrait photographer in the country.
“Family Group,” around 1910, by Gertrude Käsebier
This hall, dating from around 1560, comes from the Madanagopalaswamy Temple in the south Indian city of Madurai. Emerging from the pillars lining the hall’s central aisle are extraordinary oversize figures of deities and heroes related to the dramatic stories of the Hindu god Vishnu. Learn more about this monumental space in our online exhibition.
“Pillared Temple Hall,” around 1560, India