Henry Speller Two Ladies Dressed Up, 1986 Pencil, crayon, and marker on paper 81.4 x 65.8 x 3.3 cm (32 x 25 7/8 x 1 1/4 in.)

One of the world’s outstanding collections of contemporary art by self-taught African-American artists will be presented in an exhibition entitled Testimony: Vernacular Art of the African-American South, on view at the AXA Gallery from May 3 – July 13, 2002. The exhibition features over than 70 works—including paintings, drawings, and sculpture—drawn from the collection of Ronald and June Shelp of New York City.

The artists represented in the exhibition range from the most celebrated practitioners—such as Thornton Dial, Sr., Bessie Harvey, Lonnie Holley, Ronald Lockett, Mose Tolliver, and Purvis Young—to less well known but no less remarkable figures such as Archie Byron, J.B. Murray, Lorenzo Scott, and Georgia and Henry Speller. The largest group of works are by Dial and members of his extended family—permitting a survey of the interconnections within this Alabama dynasty of artists.

Testimonyis organized by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of the New York Public Library, and by Exhibitions International, New York. The AXA Gallery is sponsored by AXA Financial and its subsidiary The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. Additional assistance has been provided by AXA Art Insurance Corporation.

Mose Tolliver Self-Portrait, 1987 House paint on plywood 89.2 x 57.9 x 1.6 cm (35 1/8 x 22 1/4 x 5/8 in.)

According to Howard Dodson, Chief of the Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture of the New York Public Library, “This exhibition shows how the creative impulse is inherent in the human experience. No matter how much oppression and exploitation people undergo, that creative impulse will find a way to emerge through song, through dance, through religion, through art. …If you look at the trajectory of African-American visual arts, the individuals who were recognized were those who migrated to the North. But there were many others who stood their ground and fashioned art out of the resources—and indeed lack of resources—of the South, and they, too, need to be understood and appreciated and made accessible to the public.”

According to Ronald Shelp, who with his wife June assembled the collection from which the exhibition is selected, “We were drawn to this art because we feel it is dramatic, moving, and wide-ranging. You find everything in it from tough, forceful portraits and icons to symbolic narratives to subtle abstractions. But, equally important, this art has a message that speaks to June and me, as Southerners. Even the most abstract of these works tells us something about what the world looks like through the eyes of people who grew up in the segregated South and lived through the civil rights movement and the turbulent times that followed.”

The Shelps began to form their collection in the wake of a meeting with art collector and art dealer Bill Arnett in June 1988. Through Arnett, they acquired their first works in this genre in March 1989: 40 pieces by 20 artists. As their passion for these artworks grew, so did the collection, some of which was installed in the offices of the New York City Partnership, of which Mr. Shelp was the President and Chief Executive Officer. After Mr. Shelp left the Partnership in 1993, he and his wife continued to collect avidly; they have donated major pieces to the Hirshhorn Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of American Folk Art and the Newark Museum.

The artists in Testimony form two generations: those who grew up during segregation in the South and lived through the Civil Rights movement; and those who came of age in the more politically active 1960s and ‘70s, and who now judge the promises against the changed economic realities…,” writes Ann Hoy, editor of the exhibition catalogue. Bridging the work of these generations are six overlapping themes:

(1) Witness to History is seen in works depicting house burnings and assassinations, the homeless, the hungry, the needy, and the migrant. Such subjects reflect intense concern about events and conditions and also an awareness of didactic mainstream art since the 1960s, when public expression (murals, posters), especially by urban African-American and other minority artists, addressed racial issues and received wide media coverage.

(2) Allegorical animals provide veiled socio-political commentaries and personifications of the artist. In the older Southern storytelling tradition of animal fables, such images communicate to both African-American and white audiences, though often in opposite ways. Some animals may be decorative only, but the self-identification with heraldic animals also descends from African cultures, and it has local folkloric and private meanings as well.

Thornton Dial Jr. Mississippi Burning, 1989 Tin and enamel on plywood 128.3 x 133.4 x 7.1 cm (50 1/2 x 52 1/2 x 2 3/4 in.)

(3) Biblical scenes, from Genesis to the Life of Christ, speak of the artists’ response to Southern church practices, including those of evangelical Christianity; their self-association with Biblical personages; their interest in narrative scenes of heated emotion and moral and physical conflict; their access to art reproductions; and their artistic influence on one another. This section of Testimony sheds special light on the definitions of “self-taught.”

(4) Iconic human figures are overt self-portraits or sublimated identifications with faces and motifs of power and freedom. In single or paired figures, artists see universal experiences such as motherhood through an African-American lens, sometimes commenting on current socio-economic conditions. Such works embody both the legacy of self-expression descending from Romantic art, and the encouragement to racial identity fostered by African-American political activity since the 60s.

(5) Spiritual messages are conveyed through found objects transformed into totemic assemblages, tabletop-sized objects, or large reliefs. Roots and branches become animals and figures associated with healing or punitive power. Deriving from the “yard shows” common in the rural South and elsewhere, these sculptures descend from Kongo protective devices and voodoo carvings and have won mainstream interest through their formal and technical similarities to works by Robert Rauschenberg and Dada and Surrealist artists.

(6) Observation and decoration are the goals of works that portray everyday scenes, people, and animals. Displayed in homes inside and out and originally given or sold to relatives and neighbors, such works were mediums of exchange and displayed their makers’ imitative and ornamental skills to the neighborhood. They reveal the vital communities where their artists live and work today.

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of The New York Public Library is recognized as one of the leading institutions of its kind in the world. The Harlem-based research library collects, preserves, and provides access to information and resources essential for documenting the history and culture of people of African descent worldwide. The Center’s collections number more than 5 million items, including more than 3.5 million manuscripts, 150,000 volumes, 20,000 artworks and artifacts, and 500,000 photographs. The Center also houses rich collections of periodicals, films, videotapes, audio recordings and memorabilia. Through its exhibitions, education programs and public events, the Center seeks to foster an understanding of significant issues and themes of the global black experience.

Exhibitions International

Lonnie Holley Fighting at the Foundation of the Cross, 1988 Wood, wire, boots, and electronic panels 149.9 x 89 x 43.3 cm (59 x 35 x 17 in.)

Exhibitions International, a non-profit traveling exhibition service for museums, organizes and circulates art exhibitions on a wide variety of subjects, with a focus on the decorative arts and design. Its mission, to organize exhibitions of high aesthetic quality that respond to the needs of museums, is fulfilled with the guidance of an Advisory Council, an international roster of museum directors and curators, which reviews all potential exhibitions. To serve the educational needs of museums, a variety of educational materials are developed to accompany each exhibition.