A Juneteenth Artistic Gathering
6 artworks from 6 artists across 5 galleries
The tour is ordered to begin from the Michigan Avenue entrance. If you are starting in the Modern Wing, simply do your tour in reverse order.
This tour celebrates the distinct voices and perspectives of several Black artists and their significant contributions to our country and culture.
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Boxer
Richmond Barthé
Gallery 161, first level, Arts of the Americas Galleries
Barthé modeled Boxer from memory, inspired by the famed Cuban featherweight Eligio Sardiñas Montalvo, better known as “Kid Chocolate”—who, Barthé said, “moved like a ballet dancer.” Barthé, a Black sculptor who studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, frequently explored the expressive potential of the body’s form, pose, and movement. Here, the artist conveyed the boxer’s immense strength and agility with lyricism and grace."Barthé showed talent as a child and was encouraged to draw and paint by his mother. When he was in his early twenties, Barthé's artistic skill was recognized by a Catholic priest, who raised money for him to attend art school in Chicago."
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Storage Jar
David Drake
Gallery 161, first level, Arts of the Americas Galleries
This boldly inscribed storage jar was made by David Drake, who was born enslaved around 1800 and learned the art of hand-coiling, throwing, and glazing pottery in Edgefield, South Carolina. Drake was not the only artisan active in Edgefield, and his audacious works represent the artistry, skill, and resilience at a time when enslaved people faced criminalization and violence for reading, writing, or even signing one’s name."Drake signed his name, demanding acknowledgment for his labor and making sure his artistic contributions cannot be erased. He often included poetry as well. One jar reads, “I, made this Jar, all of cross / If, you don't repent, you will be lost.”"
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Multitudes
Norman Lewis
Gallery 262, second level, Arts of the Americas Galleries
The only Black member of the first generation of Abstract Expressionists, Lewis took a unique approach among his peers by addressing social concerns through his art. The title of this work alludes to lines from Walt Whitman’s poem “Song of Myself," which perhaps Lewis intended as an acknowledgment of the complications of his artistic practice: “Do I contradict myself? / Very well then I contradict myself, / (I am large, I contain multitudes.).”"Though New York painter Norman Lewis worked in a social realist style early on, he started exploring abstraction in 1946. In "Multitudes," the rapidly layered calligraphy over a ground of pulsating color evokes the energy of American cities."
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Standing Figure
Marion Perkins
Gallery 264, second level, Arts of the Americas Galleries
Perkins began making art in the late 1930s and became known for commanding heads and busts carved from wood, stone, and marble that he salvaged from architectural ruins around Chicago. This work, a the full-length body, was unusual for him. The figure's position recalls classical Greek and Roman sculptures, while her exaggerated features and restrained form are emblematic of Perkins’s individual style."Marion Perkins was part of the community of artists and writers who congregated in and around Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood. Largely self-taught, he created figurative works and believed strongly in the power of art to convey ideals."
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Vignette #2
Kerry James Marshall
Gallery 294, second level, Contemporary Galleries
In his painting series Vignette Suite, Marshall used elements of the 18th-century French Rococo style to create images of Black life centered around the notion of love. He focused his series on the airborne embrace of a man and woman and surrounded them with various emblems of Black affirmation, including a Black Power clenched fist, hands breaking through chains, the Black Liberation flag, African artifacts, and a panther."These vignettes grew out of Marshall's desire to create a "Black Rococo," a fanciful style to depict Black people, instead of French aristocrats. The paintings exemplify his use of art history to recontextualize the representation of Black culture."
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Sharifa
Simone Leigh
Embodying the labor of Black women, this sculpture grew out of a video project in which Simone Leigh asked friends to recreate their body position during childbirth. Author Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts "was just leaning against the wall, thinking, and that was the start of this sculpture.""Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, the subject of this work is a writer who authored "Harlem Is Nowhere," a 2011 history of the storied neighborhood. She is also one of Leigh’s closest friends and a frequent participant in her projects."
