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Portfolios%3D%22594%22%20and%20Century%3D%2220th%20Century%22%20and%20Disp_Obj_Type%3D%22Painting%22
Painting
Negro Head
John Steuart Curry, (Dunavant, KS, 1897 - 1946, Madison, WI)
Curry, John Steuart
United States
1897 - 1946
Male
24 x 18 1/2 in. (61 x 47 cm)
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approximate installation dimensions
frame
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overall framed size
vertical
frame
Oil
Oil
1927
1927
1927
1.97L
1900-2000, 20th century, American Scene/Regionalism, Images of Black People, men, paintings, portraits
Painting
Until research identifies the sitter, Portrait of a Youth or Portrait of a Young Man may be applied as a more appropriate title.
Unfortunately, the name of this young man was not recorded. The title that the work has carried for many years is further dehumanizing. In the historical moment when this painting was made and exhibited, the term “negro” was commonly used—including by significant African American figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Langston Hughes—to refer to a Black person. Today, however, this terminology is outdated and inappropriate.
John Steuart Curry is known for his narrative and landscape paintings of life in his home state of Kansas. When he painted this luminous portrait, he had just returned from studying art in Paris, France.
[Gallery label text, 2024]
yes, lower right
2005.31
item
Memorial Art Gallery
5/10/2000
2005.31DI1
digital image
00/00/00
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Media/images/2005.31_A1.jpg
2005.31DI#2
digital image
6/22/2010
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Media/images/2005.31_A2.jpg
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audio file
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http://127.0.0.1:5000/Media/images/surrogates/audio files/SearlNegroHeadCurry.mp3
audio file
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http://127.0.0.1:5000/Media/images/surrogates/audio files/04NegroHead.mp3
Painting
Non-Fiction
Robert Gwathmey, (Manchester, VA, 1903 – 1988, Southampton, NY)
Gwathmey, Robert
United States
1903 - 1988
Male
29 x 24 in. (73.7 x 61 cm)
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approximate installation dimensions
frame
Oil
Oil
1943
1943
1943
1900-2000, 20th century, children, Encyclopedia Britannica Collection, Images of Black People, paintings
Painting
Entrenched in the social realist movement, which sought to depict the trials and tribulations of all people, Robert Gwathmey focused on the lives of Black sharecroppers in the American South. Non-Fiction shows a once common sight on southern farms: older children tending to the young while adults worked all day in the fields. The barbed wire and minstrel puppet figure symbolize the dual oppressions of segregation and racism.
Born in Virginia and spending much of his life in New York City, Gwathmey spent two summers in the 1940s working alongside Black tobacco farmers in North Carolina. At a time when Black artists in the American South were rarely granted a platform for self-representation, Gwathmey, as a white artist, was able to depict the oppression he witnessed.
[Gallery label text, 2024]
In the 1940s, Robert Gwathmey focused his artist’s eye upon the lives of African-American sharecroppers in the South. Non-Fiction shows a common sight on southern farms; older children tended to the young when both parents worked all day in the fields. The barbed wire and minstrel figure symbolize the dual oppressions of segregation and racism.
[Gallery label text, 2007]
1951.7
item
Memorial Art Gallery
9/8/1999
51.7TR1
Transparency
Memorial Art Gallery
4 x 5
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51.7CNEG1
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digital image
Memorial Art Gallery
Imaging complete
2/1/2001
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Media/images/51.7_A1.jpg
51.7DI2
digital image
liner (removed)
00/00/00
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65gwathmey1.tif
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Painting
Gamblers
Jacob Lawrence, 1917 - 2000
Lawrence, Jacob
United States
1917 - 2000
Male
9 x 12 in. (22.9 x 30.5 cm)
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overall
frame
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Tempera
Tempera
ca. 1954
1949
1959
1900-2000, 20th century, Images of Black People, paintings, Social Realism
Painting
Compare the ominous and somber mood of Jacob Lawrence’s Gamblers with the upbeat and optimistic flavor of his painting Summer Street Scene in Harlem (MAG collection). The still and formal arrangement of figures and cards in Gamblers, the delicate floral vine that arches across the canvas, and the casket or tombstone forms behind the standing men create a scene that is very nearly funereal, perhaps suggesting the idea that life (and death) is a game of chance.
[Gallery label text, 2009]
lower left
Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence
1974.1
item
Memorial Art Gallery
9/8/1999
74.1TR1
Transparency
Memorial Art Gallery
2 1/4 x 2 3/4
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glossy
detail of signature
8x10
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74.1DI1
digital image
Memorial Art Gallery
Imaging complete
8/4/2000
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Media/images/74.1_A1.jpg
74.1 SL2
signature
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detail
2 x 2
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68lawrence2.tif
digital image
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http://127.0.0.1:5000/Media/images/SeeingAmerica/68lawrence2.tif
Painting
Summer Street Scene in Harlem
Jacob Lawrence, 1917 - 2000
Lawrence, Jacob
United States
1917 - 2000
Male
20 1/16 x 24 1/8 in. (51 x 61.2 cm)
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without frame
image
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overall framed size
horizontal
frame
Tempera
Tempera
1948
1948
1948
1900-2000, 20th century, cityscapes, Images of Black People, New York city, paintings, Social Realism
Painting
Jacob Lawrence put his own stylistic innovations on the flattened surfaces, distorted shapes, and bold colors of modernism. Here his vibrant palette and energetic composition express the joy and vitality of a summer in Harlem. Children play with their soap box and approach a shaved ice vendor; adults gather in conversation. Lawrence moved to Harlem with his family at the age of twelve, and he was greatly influenced by the creative community flourishing there.
Lawrence chronicled the lives, accomplishments, and challenges experienced by Black communities in the United States. His best-known series, The Migration of the Negro (1941), depicted the mass movement of Black people who relocated from the American South to the North, Midwest, and West in search of economic and social mobility. Lawrence’s parents themselves moved to the North in this exodus known as the Great Migration, which took place from the 1910s through the 1970s.
[Gallery label text, 2024]
lower rightback of panel, Undated; from 1974-75 exhibitionback of panel, partly covered by another labelback of panelback of panelback of panelback of panelback of panelback of panel, orange tag with black printing
Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence
1991.5
item
Memorial Art Gallery
9/8/1999
91.5TR1
Transparency
Memorial Art Gallery
4 x 5
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91.5CNEG1
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91.5DI1
digital image
Memorial Art Gallery
Imaging complete
6/23/2000
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Media/images/91.5_A1.jpg
68lawrence1.tif
digital image
00/00/00
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Media/images/SeeingAmerica/68lawrence1.tif
M425_p271.tif
digital image
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http://127.0.0.1:5000/Media/images/SeeingAmerica/M425_p271.tif
Painting
Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln Discussing Emancipation
Hale Woodruff, (Cairo, Illinois, 1900 - 1980, New York, NY)
Woodruff, Hale
United States
1900 - 1980
Male
11 1/4 x 11 in. (28.6 x 27.9 cm)
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approximate installation dimensions
frame
Tempera
Tempera
1942-1943
1942
1943
Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, Frederick Douglass, Images of Black People, paintings
Painting
In 1942-43, a mural competition was held for the newly built Recorder of Deeds Building in Washington, D.C. The topic was "The Contribution of the Negro to the American Nation." Hale Woodruff submitted this imagined grouping of Frederick Douglass, President Lincoln, and members of Lincoln's cabinet. While Woodruff did not win the competition, his mural study is a dramatic reminder of the alliance of two of America's most courageous leaders, Lincoln and Douglass, during a period that threatened to destroy the American union.
While Douglass never, in reality, met with Lincoln's cabinet, he did meet with Lincoln and repeatedly urged the president to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. Woodruff stressed the significance of Douglass's role by appropriating the historical image engraved by Ritchie and adding an animated Douglass and the colorful American flag.
[Gallery label text, 2004]
2002.20
item
Memorial Art Gallery
10/11/2002
2002.20TR1
transparency
full
4 x 5
00/00/00
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2002.20DI1
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00/00/00
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2002.20DI2
digital image
00/00/00
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14volk2.tif
digital image
00/00/00
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Media/images/SeeingAmerica/14volk2.tif