“Seeking Respite”—Reprise
Not all of the art created by Detroit’s Black Arts Movement artists was specifically political. This became increasingly true in the 1970s. Indeed in 1980, Neal wrote:
“The more things change the more they stay the same. I don’t have time to be angry anymore. If you make me always direct my energy toward getting your foot off my neck, then you are oppressing me. … But I can’t carry the burdens of oppression on my shoulders my whole life.”
The BAM artists often focused on African American life, culture and heritage. They were particularly interested in portraying historical and contemporary American African heroes and sheroes, including public figures, musicians and actors, among others.
Checkers, c. 1972-73
Harold Neal
oil on board
DMC, Detroit Receiving Hospital, Detroit
Sojourner Truth, 1941-1942
Oliver LaGrone
faux bronzed plaster
Roy Lee Robinson, Sparta, MI
Born into slavery, Sojourner Truth became an abolitionist and women’s right activist.
Portrait of George W. Crockett, Jr., 1969
Oliver LaGrone
bronze
Damon J. Keith Collection of African American History
Wayne State University Law School
Portrait of George W. Crockett, Jr., 1969 (view 2)
George W. Crockett, Jr. had a distinguished career as a champion of leftist causes and Civil Rights. In 1969, he became a hero to Detroit’s black community when he released, for lack of evidence, 140 persons arrested during a bloody confrontation between the Republic of New Africa, a Black Nationalist organization, and the Detroit Police.
Portrait of Rappin’ Johnson, 1977
Harold Neal
oil on board
C. Neale, Detroit
According to Neal’s daughter Chinyere, Rappin’ Johnson was a “legendary community member, … a kind of unofficial community griot.” A griot, a term adopted in the U.S., was originally a West African elder who passed on communal history orally through stories, poetry, music, etc.
In this work Neal continued to use the style of layering flat, translucent shapes that he had learned at the Society of Arts and Crafts in the 1950s.
Untitled [Portrait of Paul Robeson as Emperor Jones], 1976
LeRoy Foster
oil or acrylic on board
Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit
Paul Robeson was a hero to many as an actor, singer, peace and Civil Rights activist. A Communist sympathizer, he was blacklisted during the McCarthy era in the 1950s. On Broadway in 1925, he played Emperor Jones in Eugene O’Neill’s play of the same title. In it, a wily Brutus Jones, formerly a Pullman porter, becomes the vastly wealthy Emperor of an unidentified island. Foster portrays him wearing military garb seated on an extravagant throne, the very picture of O’Neill’s vain autocrat. Charles H. Wright, founder of the Wright Museum, greatly admired Robeson and commissioned Foster to create this and several other images of him.
Title Unknown, undated
Henri Umbaji King
pastel
Claire Neal, Detroit
Young Trumpeter, c. 1972
Harold Neal
offset Lithography
Ira Neal, Evansville, IN
Jazz and Blues, “African American Classical Music,” as Neal called them, were major inspirations for Detroit visual artists. King’s painting may be a portrait of an actual saxophone player, who has not yet been identified, while Neal’s trumpeter embodies the aspirations of many young Black musicians. Neal produced Young Trumpeter as a commercial lithograph, because he wanted it to be available to people who could not afford high-priced artworks, like oil paintings.
Martha’s Vandellas, 1969
Shirley Woodson
oil on linen
Collection of the Artist
The songs of Motown Records swept the country in the 1960s, including Dancing in the Streets by Martha and the Vandellas. In this painting, Martha is accompanied by her backup singers and two styling saxophone players. She is masked in white, like Nigerian Igbo dancers, transforming her into, in Woodson’s words, a “personage” or a “deity.” This masking gives Martha a ceremonial presence, thus elevating popular music to the level of ritual. This mood is further enhanced by the crowned golden head in the rear, which is painted in the style of ancient Egypt, that is, with head in profile and the eye in frontal view.