The face was easily recognizable, but the canvas was a tad unusual. As I rounded a corner in the furniture room at the auction house, Ol’ Blue Eyes was looking straight at me. At least…
Category: Art
Awe-inspiring interior of Memorial Hall
Posted in Architecture/Buildings, Art, Black history, Children, and history
It was a near-moonless night in November when I arrived at Memorial Hall in Fairmount Park for a meeting. This was my first visit to the place, although I had passed through the area many…
Someone was trying to channel the famous graffiti-artist-turned-international-star Jean-Michel Basquiat – both in style and canvas. Basquiat painted on anything he could find – buildings, trains, doors, briefcases, tires, the walls of his girlfriend’s house, her clothes,…
I’m sure I had seen the drawing somewhere before, but I apparently was so awed by its towering figure that I didn’t read past the title. This time, I did. I went to see the Charles…
A different take on black boy-with-watermelon stereotype
Posted in Art, Black history, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and history
When I first saw the modern painting of a little black boy with a watermelon, I was torn. I have seen so many derogatory images of black-boy-with-watermelon that I shun them. Going to auctions, it’s…
Ragan A. Henry amassed a bevy of radio stations on the East Coast, starting in the 1970s when it wasn’t easy for black people to own any at all. But with smarts, wits and a dream, he…
Over the years, I’ve amassed a sweet collection of African American art purchased at auction. It’s not a major collection worth gobs of money, but it’s a pretty good array of both local and national…
When I first saw the drawing, I immediately thought it was another version of a print by Philadelphia artist Julius Bloch. But it couldn’t be. Bloch was a white artist and I was attending an…
Enslaved woman in John Rogers’ “The Fugitive’s Story”
Posted in Art, Black history, slavery, and Statues
The three men in the sculpture were stalwarts of the abolitionist movement of the 19th century. Sculptor John Rogers had captured them for eternity in a grouping titled “The Fugitive’s Story.” Poet John Greenleaf Whittier,…
Woman in red hat sparks a memory, but what?
Posted in Advertising, Art, and Ephemera/Paper/Documents
When I saw the painting of the woman in the red hat, she instantly reminded me of another painting. Her black hair was nicely coiffed, her red hat was fashionable, and she looked so life-like.…