Established | October 16, 1943 |
---|---|
Dissolved | c. May 29, 1969 |
Location | 127 Randolph Pl. NW, Washington, D.C., US |
Type | Art gallery |
Founder | James V. Herring, Alonzo J. Aden |
The Barnett-Aden Gallery was a nonprofit art gallery in Washington D.C., founded by James V. Herring and Alonzo J. Aden, who were associated with Howard University's art department and gallery. The gallery, which opened on October 16, 1943, and operated until 1969, was the first successful Black-owned private art gallery in the United States; [1] : 2 [note 1] showcased numerous important artists; and became an important, racially integrated part of the artistic and social worlds of 1940s and 1950s Washington, D.C.
The gallery was located in the first floor of the 127 Randolph Place, NW row home shared by the two founders, who were life partners. Herring joined the Howard faculty in 1921, started the university's art department in 1922, was its head until he retired in 1953, and founded the university's gallery of art in 1928 (it opened in 1930). [2] [3] Aden, a former student of Herring's at Howard who was the first curator of the university's gallery of art until he left that position in 1943, was the director of the Barnett-Aden Gallery, and it was named after his mother, Naomi Barnett Aden. [2] [1] : 2
Artists featured at the gallery included Alma Thomas, Elizabeth Catlett, Lois Mailou Jones, Charles White, Edward Mitchell Bannister, Jacob Lawrence, Laura Wheeler Waring, Romare Bearden, Henry O. Tanner, Bernice Cross. [4] , and Merton Simpson. [5] The collection featured artists of every race, particularly African American artists whose work was shown in few other venues. "...there were few such opportunities in the years following World War II...in those bleak years, the Barnett-Aden Gallery was one of the few private galleries where Black painters, sculptors and graphic artists had a continuing opportunity to expose their works.” [6]
The gallery opened on October 16, 1943, with the exhibition "American Paintings for the Home." It was officially incorporated on August 19, 1947. The early gallery as it existed in 1947 can be seen in the painting First Gallery by John Robinson. [1] : 3–5 Exhibitions, shows, receptions and other events provided a racially integrated gathering place for the art community in a segregated city from the 1940s-1960s. [7]
Eleanor Roosevelt was photographed visiting the Barnett-Aden Gallery in 1944, as First Lady. [2] Romare Bearden said that the first time he saw a Matisse in Washington was at the Barnett-Aden. [8] Therese Schwartz wrote that the Barnett-Aden was the most important art gallery in America south of New York. [8]
The gallery began to decline in the late 1950s. [4] After the death of the founders in 1961 (Aden) and 1969 (Herring), the gallery closed and the bulk of the gallery's collection was transferred via Adolphus Ealey to the Museum of African American Art in Tampa, Florida, (now defunct) as well as to private collections. [4] The collection was shown in the 1970s at the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum of the Smithsonian Institution [6] and the Corcoran Gallery of Art. The majority of the collection was owned by Robert L. Johnson. [9]
In 2015, Johnson donated portions of the collection to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. [10]
Romare Bearden was an American artist, author, and songwriter. He worked with many types of media including cartoons, oils, and collages. Born in Charlotte, North Carolina, Bearden grew up in New York City and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and graduated from New York University in 1935.
African-American art is a broad term describing visual art created by African Americans. The range of art they have created, and are continuing to create, over more than two centuries is as varied as the artists themselves. Some have drawn on cultural traditions in Africa, and other parts of the world, for inspiration. Others have found inspiration in traditional African-American plastic art forms, including basket weaving, pottery, quilting, woodcarving and painting, all of which are sometimes classified as "handicrafts" or "folk art".
Lois Mailou Jones (1905–1998) was an artist and educator. Her work can be found in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Muscarelle Museum of Art, and The Phillips Collection. She is often associated with the Harlem Renaissance.
David C. Driskell was an American artist, scholar and curator; recognized for his work in establishing African-American Art as a distinct field of study. In his lifetime, Driskell was cited as one of the world's leading authorities on the subject of African-American Art. Driskell held the title of Distinguished University Professor of Art, Emeritus, at the University of Maryland, College Park. The David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland, is named in his honor.
James Amos Porter was an African-American art historian, artist and teacher. He is best known for establishing the field of African-American art history and was influential in the African American Art movement.
Alma Woodsey Thomas was an African-American artist and teacher who lived and worked in Washington, D.C., and is now recognized as a major American painter of the 20th century. Thomas is best known for the "exuberant", colorful, abstract paintings that she created after her retirement from a 35-year career teaching art at Washington's Shaw Junior High School.
James Vernon Herring was an African-American artist and professor of art at Howard University.
Keith Anthony Morrison, Commander of Distinction (C.D.), born May 20, 1942), is a Jamaican-born painter, printmaker, educator, critic, curator and administrator.
Sylvia Snowden is an African American abstract painter who works with acrylics, oil pastels, and mixed media to create textured works that convey the "feel of paint". Many museums have hosted her art in exhibits, while several have added her works to their permanent collections.
Thomas Sills was a painter and collagist and a participant in the New York Abstract Expressionist movement. At the peak of his career in the 1960s and 1970s, his work was widely shown in museums. His work was regularly featured in art journals and is in museum collections.
Merton Daniel Simpson was an American abstract expressionist painter and African and tribal art collector and dealer.
Céline Marie Tabary was an artist and arts professor at Howard University who championed African-American art in 1940s Washington, D.C. She emigrated from France in 1938, teaching and working in Washington, D.C. through the 1950s, before returning to France. Tabary won the Landscape Prize in 1944 from the National Museum, Washington, D.C.
Martha Jackson Jarvis is an American artist known for her mixed-media installations that explore aspects of African, African American, and Native American spirituality, ecological concerns, and the role of women in preserving indigenous cultures. Her installations are composed using a variety of natural materials including terracotta, sand, copper, recycled stone, glass, wood and coal. Her sculptures and installations are often site-specific, designed to interact with their surroundings and create a sense of place. Her works often focus on the history and culture of African Americans in the southern United States. In her exhibition at the Corcoran, Jarvis featured over 100 big collard green leaves, numerous carp and a live Potomac catfish.
Benjamin Abramowitz was an American painter, printmaker, and sculptor. First recognized for his contribution at age 19 as senior artist with the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in New York City, he is among the most respected Washington, D.C., artists of the past century.
Samuel Felrath Hines Jr. was an African American visual artist and art conservator. Hines served as a conservator at several institutions, including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., and his paintings can be found in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Edith T. Martin is an American artist and museum professional.
James Lesesne Wells was an African American graphic artist, print-maker, and painter associated with the Harlem Renaissance. He was an influential art professor at Howard University from 1929 to 1968 and is considered a pioneer in modern art education.
Hilda Rue Wilkinson Brown (1894–1981) was an artist and teacher from Washington, D.C. Brown was involved in art education, developing curriculum that challenged the typical mimetic approach of teaching in favor of more individual creativity. The focus of Brown's life was her career as an educator, but she was also a prolific artist in her own right. She made illustrations for African American publications such as The Brownie's Book and Crisis magazine. She was also a painter and printmaker. Her prints are included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of art and the Art Institute of Chicago.
John N. Robinson was an African-American artist who lived and worked in Washington, D.C. He made realist paintings showing the people and places of his family home, his neighborhood, and the city in which he lived. Called "quiet and conscientious" and praised for works of "sincerity and humility," he was particularly noted for portraits that showed his sitters in a way that successfully revealed their individual character. A critic for Washington Post characterized his paintings as "hymns to the ordinary" and said they were "warmed by gratitude and gentleness."
Adolphus Ealey (1941–1992) was an American artist, curator, educator, writer, and entrepreneur. He was African-American and a noted Black art authority, and he was the longtime curator of the Barnett–Aden Collection of Black art.