Past meets present at exhibition; ‘On Their Own Terms’ juxtaposes works by contemporary black artists and those who influenced them

"On Their Own Terms" is an exhibit of art by black Americans that opens Thursday at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

To paraphrase Walt Whitman: It contains multitudes.

Seriously, where to begin? How about with the fact that works by Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald, who painted the official portraits of President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, respectively, will be shown?

Or that visitors can see pieces by heavy hitters like Carrie Mae Weems -- "perhaps our best contemporary photographer," The New York Times recently declared -- and Alabama-born Kerry James Marshall, whose painting Past Times was recently bought by rapper-entrepreneur P. Diddy for $21 million?

Or that Arkansas-connected artists, including Justin Tyler Bryant, Marjorie Williams-Smith and David Clemons, are among the 37 in the exhibit?

Or that not only will there be paintings and photographs, but sculpture, pottery, metal work, folk art and an installation by Delita Martin?

Actually, let's begin with a new class on the history of African-American art that starts this semester at UALR, and with four black painters who worked at a time when the idea that any of them could paint a black president and first lady would have been akin to saying that one day there would be a spaceship sending photos from Mars back to Earth.

Here's Brad Cushman, gallery director and curator at UALR.

"Lynne Ann Ellsworth Larsen is our art history professor, and she said she wanted to teach an African-American survey art history course. So, as we had those discussions, I filed it away."

Also tucked away in Cushman's curator mind was an idea by Garbo Hearne, owner of Hearne Fine Art in Little Rock, about the possibility of displaying paintings by Edward Mitchell Bannister, Robert Scott Duncanson, Charles Ethan Porter and Henry Ossawa Tanner, who worked in the 1800s and, in the case of Tanner and Porter, into the early 1900s.

Hearne had access to pieces by the four through her colleague, the New York- and Miami-based art dealer and collector Juan Rodriguez.

"Juan and I worked together on several projects regarding what I call the Pioneers of the Paint -- Tanner, Bannister, Porter and Duncanson" Hearne says. "He started a collection in the '80s and had 10-12 pieces from each artist, which was unheard of."

Hearne became the caretaker of the art and even used them in an exhibit called "Pioneers of the Paint" when she moved her gallery from the River Market to its current location at Wright and Chester streets in 2009.

. . .

When they were alive, artists like these four "didn't have the same opportunities because they were black," Hearne says.

Even today, she says, prices for their work aren't on par with similar paintings by white artists from that time.

With Larsen's class on the history of African-American art and access to beautiful paintings by masterful yet undervalued artists who deserved more exposure, Cushman had the makings of a new exhibit, but there was one more element he wanted to introduce.

Curators gather and arrange works of art to create a narrative, and Cushman had an idea to bring together Tanner, Bannister, Porter and Duncanson with contemporary black artists.

"I started thinking about how artists influence other artists, either directly or indirectly," he says one morning last month in the gallery that bears his name at UALR's Windgate Center of Art + Design. "I was looking at Porter, who did beautiful, traditional still lifes, and I thought about Marjorie Williams-Smith, who is a colleague of mine who does these exquisite silverpoint still lifes. That would be an interesting comparison, putting her contemporary still lifes next to these historic still lifes."

Similarly, Bannister's 1888 pastoral Landscape 3 Cows With Trees on Right could be bounced off Washington painter Sam Gilliam's abstract Black Forest from 1993, and Robert Pruitt's 2016 portrait Black Jesus serves as an interesting counterpoint to Tanner's Christ at the Home of Mary from 1907.

. . .

Standing in front of an 1852 untitled Duncanson landscape waiting to be hung for the show, Cushman asks: "Do you see the face? In the rock formation, see the nose and lips?"

He's right. Just to the left of the waterfall is a profile that becomes obvious once it's pointed out.

Black artists back then weren't encouraged to depict their own race, Cushman says, but Duncanson, who died in 1872, found his own way to subvert such dictates.

"That in itself is a powerful statement," Cushman says. "And then there's this great ceramic vessel by James Watkins. I felt like they needed to go together. It's almost as if they're guardians of history."

Speaking about pairing the past with contemporary works, Hearne, who will also display paintings by Porter, Duncanson, Tanner and Bannister at Hearne Fine Art while the UALR exhibit is up, says: "I really like the concept. You've got artists like Delita Martin, Amy Sherald, all these people who are in this exhibition who are able to see the fruits of their labors while they're living and how things have changed for them. They are talented African-American artists and their value is not based on their race anymore. It's exciting to see them in the same room. It's very timely and educational."

Martin's The Dinner Table (Plate Installation) is a white table and chairs with plates featuring portraits of her family members and friends, all women, hanging on the walls. Viewers are invited take a seat at the table and talk.

Cushman plans to pair Martin's installation with Elizabeth Catlett's Newspaper Vendor (Study for the Lithograph Vendedora de Periodicos). Catlett, a graphic artist and sculptor who died in 2012, has been an influence ever since Martin came across her work while attending Texas Southern University.

"Growing up in Conroe, Texas, I didn't really have a lot of opportunities to go to museums and really see art, particularly by African-American women, so when I discovered Elizabeth Catlett during my freshman year in college, I was really drawn to her work," says Martin during a break from work last month at her Black Box Press Studio in Huffman, Texas. "I wanted to be a printmaker, and it was really exciting to see the energy in her work."

Martin, 46, is a former member of the fine arts faculty at UALR, so On Their Own Terms is a kind of homecoming.

"It's fantastic, especially when you can go back and share your growth with people who have supported you from the very beginning," she says.

. . .

Stuttgart native Justin Tyler Bryant, 31, was a student of Martin's at UALR. His mixed-media portrait, Bayard, which is a part of his series That Survival Apparatus, will be shown.

Bayard is a drawing of gay civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, who died in 1985.

The series, Bryant says, was inspired by Maya Angelou's poem The Mask and features portraits with portions of the faces unfinished placed in hollowed out books.

"By taking away something, you notice the person's body or their head placement or the mouth more. That's the idea," Bryant says. "I'm focusing on the smile or laugh of someone, and I'm re-creating that and placing that image in a book. I'm also inspired by [Ralph Ellison's novel] Invisible Man and Harlem Renaissance writers."

While at Louisiana State University, Bryant studied under the photographer Weems, who was a visiting artist and whose photographs have tackled subjects such as beauty, race, family and class.

"She's like my favorite artist, pretty much," he says, adding that the way the exhibit will bring together bigger names and local artists should make for an intriguing show.

"That's what makes it good. I'm really interested in that. Coming from Arkansas, that's your culture as well. It's not always about the artists who live in New York or the bigger cities."

It's also no coincidence that 16 of the 36 artists are women, Cushman says.

"There has been an explosion in the last couple of years of contemporary black women artists and the power of their work. I thought it was important that we show that."

Cushman culled works from a variety of sources across the country and also from collections belonging to UALR, the Arkansas Arts Center and private collectors.

"There are so many rich resources here in Arkansas for African-American art," says Larsen, the art history professor. "That makes it especially valuable because we will have all of this artwork right there in the galleries. As we're lecturing, we can say, 'OK, let's go look at a Kehinde Wiley.'"

That Wiley piece, by the way, is from the collection of Lisa and Darrell Walker of Little Rock. Chicago native Darrell, a former Arkansas Razorback, NBA player and coach is in his first year as head coach of the UALR Trojans basketball team.

Not only did he loan the Wiley piece (Peter Chardon Study, 2006), but also art by Weems, Mickalene Thomas and Phoebe Beasley.

"Brad has put together a show that a lot of people should attend, and I can't wait to see it all hanging up," Walker says. "It will show everyone how art has changed since the days of Bannister and Tanner and how contemporary artists are doing things on their own terms and not trying to conform."

Style on 01/13/2019