In 1997 Los Angeles artist Phoebe Beasley collaborated on Sunrise Is Coming After While, a book of Langston Hughes poems selected by Maya Angelou.
It was released in a run of only 300 by specialty publisher The Limited Editions Club and, along with Hughes' poems, featured six color silkscreen prints of Beasley's collages and an introduction by Angelou.
A copy of the oversize book with its heavy purple hardback cover sits in the gallery at Hearne Fine Art in Little Rock and is at the heart of "Beautiful," a spectacular new exhibit that brings together the work of Beasley, Elizabeth Catlett, LaToya Hobbs, Artis Lane, Samella Lewis, Anyta Thomas and Marjorie Williams-Smith to examine the concept of beauty through visual art.
Along with Beasley's silkscreens from the book, there are new collaged monoprints she created specifically for this exhibit at the request of curator and gallery owner Garbo Hearne.
Beasley's collages have a loose, almost watercolor feel and her reimaginations are solidly connected to her earlier work, like when a musical artist remixes a favorite song to add more texture or sounds.
"Reimagined: Dream Variations," a collaged monoprint, takes the triumphant figure from the book and adds images of Martin Luther King, Jr., Sojourner Truth with a child smiling over her left shoulder and a group of students.
The original, like the others from the book, is displayed with the Hughes poem that inspired it, making for a brilliant, visual duet.
The 78-year-old Beasley will give an online talk presented by the gallery at 4 p.m. Saturday. Williams-Smith will speak during an online event on Aug. 18 at 7 p.m and Thomas is scheduled at 4 p.m. Aug. 22. Hobbs' July 25 online talk can be viewed at arkansasonline.com/85beautifulexhibit/. See hearnefineart.com for details.
The previous exhibit at the space was "The Art of Resistance." Hearne says she was looking for something more serene and inward-focused this time around.
"I wanted it to be a little calmer," she says while wearing a mask at the gallery late last month. "I also wanted to show women artists together. 'Beautiful' was a way to think about beauty from our perspective. It's also a good way to get the viewer to come in and just lose themselves and forget about covid and all the awful things the world is dealing with right now."
She's certainly right about the exhibit offering a respite from what can seem like nonstop bleakness.
"Beautiful" is a diverse grouping that includes the graceful silverpoint still lifes of Little Rock's Williams-Smith; the vibrant, rhythmic wire-mesh sculpture of New Jersey native Thomas; the proud female figures by North Little Rock native Hobbs; Lewis' poignant images of men and women and, of course, the solemn women in the late Catlett's work.
Seeing the latter's stone lithograph "Madonna," a Black woman with her arms around two children in an updated version of the classical European depiction of the Virgin Mary, can leave a viewer in a trance with its power and sensitivity.
These are not Instagram-ready images of beauty, Hearne says.
"Everything is just thrown at us on social media. What is beauty? This person is beautiful, their hair is beautiful, if you want to be beautiful you have to dress like this.
"You can't approach art like that. Art is for you to go and engage with it. There has to be a connection."
‘Beautiful’
- Works by: Phoebe Beasley, Elizabeth Catlett, LaToya Hobbs, Artis Lane, Samella Lewis, Anyta Thomas, Marjorie Williams-Smith
- Where: Hearne Fine Art, 1001 Wright Ave., Little Rock
- Hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Exhibit up through Sept. 3
- Admission: Free
- (501) 372-6822 | hearnefineart.com