Labor and Leisure: Works by African-American Artists from the Permanent Collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

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Labor and Leisure: Works by African-American Artists from the Permanent Collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

February 4 - May 3, 2009

An exhibition focusing on African-American art from the time of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and 1930s to the Postmodern experimentation of the late 1990s will be on view from February 4 to May 3, 2009 at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. (right: Jacob Lawrence's "Subway - Home from Work" is a 1943 watercolor on paper. Photo by Ron Jennings, © 2009 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts)

"Labor and Leisure: Works by African-American Artists from the Permanent Collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts" will explore the polarities of daily life for American blacks in a variety of media. Included will be art by James VanDerZee (1886-1983), Leslie Garland Bolling (1898-1955), Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000), Romare Bearden (1911-1988), Charles White (1918-1979), Lorna Simpson (born 1960) and Willie Cole (born 1955).

"In depicting the African-American experience, many 20th-century black artists found subjects in the universal themes of labor and leisure," says Emily Smith, VMFA's curatorial fellow in Modern and Contemporary art, who organized the exhibition with Dr. Elizabeth L. O'Leary , associate curator of American art.

"Through content and form, the works convey a variety of responses ranging from historical commemoration and nostalgic reflection to social and political commentary and from intimate glimpses of family and friends to joyful celebration."

Works in the exhibition include White's "Guitarist" (circa 1959), two small poplar sculptures by Bolling dating from the 1930s, Lawrence's "Subway - Home from Work" (1943) and five photographs by VanDerZee including a self portrait from about 1925.

On March 4, Smith presented a lecture on the exhibition at 6 p.m. in the Marble Hall.

The Virginia Historical Society, djacent to VMFA on the Boulevard, is also presenting an exhibition focusing on African-American history and culture. "The African American Image in Virginia" through December 30, 2009.

The VHS exhibition -- organized by Dr. Lauranett Lee, the VHS curator of African-American history -- covers almost four centuries and explores portrayals of free and enslaved laborers, young and old family members, students, professionals and officials.

Items on display include prints, paintings, photographs, magazine and book illustrations, and advertisements. Positive and negative depictions are included, and sometimes paired, as a means of examining the changing status of African-Americans. VHS visitors will see how African-Americans perceive themselves and how they are perceived by others throughout Virginia's history.

February 18, 2009 blog by Emily Smith, VMFA Curatorial Fellow, Modern and Contemporary Art

Exploring the polarities of daily life for American blacks

In our exhibition "Labor and Leisure: Works by African-American Artists from the Permanent Collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts," we selected the themes of labor and leisure for their universality. Walking through the exhibition, I am struck, as certainly others are, by the relevance of these themes to today's turbulent times. As I look at Jacob Lawrence's "Subway-Home From Work," (1943), I admire the way his composition of figures and forms, rendered in his characteristic flat, cubist manner, captured the rhythm of Harlem's streets. Yet to me, Lawrence underscored the hustle and bustle with a somber mood, captured in his bold, yet melancholy, colors and anonymous figures. Perhaps this implied an empathy for the grind of daily toil -- a notion quite familiar to Lawrence who had struggled through the late 1930s to find work.

Similar sentiments and motivations underscore Lorna Simpson's "Untitled," created almost 50 years after "Subway-Home From Work." Simpson lists the days of the week -- in seemingly random order -- on one side of each figure. On the other side are lists of verbs, from "believe" to "fall." They read like poems that describe the plight of a troubled workforce.

But all is not gloomy. Recent studies suggest that times of economic hardship are met with a return to more simple pleasures. To that, I find solace in the images of leisure. The life-size musician in Charles White's "Guitarist" reminds me of a group of friends or family gathered in a backyard, on a porch, in a living room, sharing music with one another. James VanDerZee's "Harry Prampin's School Recital" also suggests community as one imagines the school's auditorium packed with folks from the neighborhood.

Checklist from the exhibition

(All works are from the VMFA Collection)

"Self-Portrait," ca. 1925