The Freedom Wall, located at the corner of Michigan Avenue and East Ferry Street in Buffalo, New York, is a mural depicting twenty-eight civil rights leaders active anytime from the 19th to the 21st centuries, ranging from William Wells Brown (born 1815) to Alicia Garza (born 1981). [1] The project was commissioned by the Albright–Knox Art Gallery's Public Art Initiative in 2017, [2] along with a 30-minute film of the same name about the mural. In 2019, WNED-TV broadcast the film about the mural. [3] [4]
Commissioned by Aaron Ott, the curator of the Albright–Knox Art Gallery's Public Art Initiative, the mural was initially intended to be by Chuck Tingley alone, but following comments by the African-American community, African-American artists John Baker, Julia Bottoms and Edreys Wajed were also hired to work on the wall. [3] Each artist completed seven panels of the mural, [5] which took two months. [6]
The mural depicts twenty-eight civil rights leaders, chosen from 300 suggestions. [7] It is fifteen feet high and 300 feet long [6] and located at the corner of Michigan Avenue and East Ferry Street in Buffalo, New York. [1] The figures included are: [3] [5] [7]
|
|
Charles Henry Alston was an American painter, sculptor, illustrator, muralist and teacher who lived and worked in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem. Alston was active in the Harlem Renaissance; Alston was the first African-American supervisor for the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project. Alston designed and painted murals at the Harlem Hospital and the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Building. In 1990, Alston's bust of Martin Luther King Jr. became the first image of an African American displayed at the White House.
The Buffalo AKG Art Museum, formerly known as the Albright–Knox Art Gallery, is an art museum in Buffalo, New York, United States, in Delaware Park. The museum was expanded beginning in 2021, and re-opened in June 2023.
Tavar Zawacki formerly known as 'ABOVE' is an American abstract artist living and working between Berlin, Germany and Lisbon, Portugal. For twenty years (1996–2016) Tavar Zawacki created and signed all of his artworks with his street artist pseudonym, 'ABOVE'. Tavar was born and raised in California until the age of 19, at which time, Zawacki bought a one-way flight from California to Paris, France, bringing with him a backpack full of art supplies, all the money in his bank account (US$1,500), and a 'rise above your fears' approach to starting his art career. Starting in Paris in 2000, Tavar transitioned from painting traditional letter style graffiti of A-B-O-V-E, to his 'Above arrow' icon that represented his optimistic mentality to 'rise above fears, challenges, and anything holding you back from your goals.' During a 20-year period, the artworks of ABOVE could be seen in over 80 cities spanning 35 countries around the world.
Seymour Horace Knox II was a Buffalo, New York, philanthropist and polo player. The son of wealthy businessman Seymour H. Knox, he owned a palatial home designed by C. P. H. Gilbert.
Venus is a twelve-story-high mural painting by Knox Martin on the south side of Bayview Correctional Facility at 19th Street and Eleventh Avenue in Manhattan, New York City.
William Bentley Rowe (1910–1955) was an American artist and art educator who worked primarily in New York and New Mexico. He was a versatile artist who used a wide range of mediums. He also executed several large murals. Rowe was a leading member of the Art Institute of Buffalo. Other well-known members of the Institute included Charles E. Burchfield, Edwin Dickinson, David Foster Pratt, and Isaac Soyer. Rowe was instrumental in the Art Institute’s development and growth during the nineteen thirties and forties.
Albert Henry Krehbiel, was the most decorated American painter ever at the French Academy, winning the Prix De Rome, four gold medals and five cash prizes. He was born in Denmark, Iowa and taught, lived and worked for many years in Chicago. His masterpiece is the programme of eleven decorative wall and two ceiling paintings / murals for the Supreme and Appellate Court Rooms in Springfield, Illinois (1907–1911). Although educated as a realist in Paris, which is reflected in his neoclassical mural works, he is most famously known as an American Impressionist. Later in his career, Krehbiel experimented in a more modernist manner.
Billie Lawless is an American sculptor.
George Afedzi Hughes, is a Ghanaian-born American artist specializing in painting, poetry, and performance art.
Charles Caryl Coleman was an American artist.
Alvin D. Loving Jr., better known as Al Loving, was an African-American abstract expressionist painter. His work is known for hard-edge abstraction, dyed fabric paintings, and large paper collages, all exploring complicated color relationships.
Bertram A. Goodman (1904–1988) was an American artist.
Amanda Browder is an American installation artist known for her large-scale fabric installations on building exteriors and other public sites. Her work incorporates donated materials and local volunteers, creating site-specific art. She is the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, and Transformation Fellowship from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV).
William Y. Cooper was an American painter, writer, illustrator, muralist, printmaker, and art teacher who spent most of his life in Buffalo, New York. His artwork combines an influence of his African heritage and his personal experience in America. Using symbolism, metaphors, color, and line, Cooper illustrates literal concepts in his works. Jazz music and famous African-American people are prominent themes in his art. He produced a young adult novel and a children's play later in his life, but is known for his numerous decorated murals exhibited within the United States and Ghana. Cooper was recognized in 2013 as a "Living Legacy Artist" by the Burchfield Penney Art Center.
Hubert Horace Crawford was an American painter originally from Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He had many artistic talents. He played the violin. He also was a woodworker and designed furniture. He also designed and built his own powerboat, and it is believed that he was the first African American yachtsman in Buffalo. He was also a member of Michigan Avenue Baptist Church and Michigan Avenue YMCA.
The Wall of Respect was an outdoor mural first painted in 1967 by the Visual Arts Workshop of the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC). It is considered the first large-scale, outdoor community mural, which spawned a movement across the U.S. and internationally. The mural represented the contributions of fourteen designers, photographers, painters, and others, notably Chicago muralist William Walker, in a design layout proposed by Laini (Sylvia) Abernathy. Some of the artists would go on to found the influential AfriCOBRA artists collective. The work comprised a montage of portraits of heroes and heroines of African American history painted on the sides of two story, closed tavern building at the corner of Chicago's East 43rd Street and South Langley Avenue, in Bronzeville, Chicago, sometimes called the Black Belt. Images included Nat Turner, Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Gwendolyn Brooks, W.E.B. Dubois, Marcus Garvey, Aretha Franklin, and Harriet Tubman, among others. While it only lasted a few years, until the building was torn down in 1972, it inspired community mural projects across the United States and internationally.
Millie Chen is Taiwanese-born Canadian artist, educator, and writer. Based in Buffalo, New York, Chen is a professor in the Department of Art at the University at Buffalo.
LeRoy Foster (1925–1993) was an American painter from Detroit, Michigan. He is best known for the large murals he painted on the walls of Detroit institutions, such as “The Life & Times of Frederick Douglass,” at the Detroit Public Library’s Frederick Douglass Branch, and “Renaissance City,” at Cass Technical High School. He also painted portraits of prominent figures like singer and civil rights activist Paul Robeson.
Virginia E Tillou was an American artist known for mural paintings, abstract art, still lives, and portraits.
Martha Jackson was an American art dealer, gallery owner, and collector. Her New York City based Martha Jackson Gallery, founded in 1953, was groundbreaking in its representation of women and international artists, and in establishing the op art movement.