Wall of Respect

Last updated
Wall of Respect
Wall of Respect.jpg
Mural by various artists of the Organization of Black American Culture led by William Walker, photograph by Robert A. Sengstacke
Year1967-1971
Mediumpaint on masonry
Location Chicago

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. [1] The mural represented the contributions of fourteen designers, photographers, painters, and others, [2] 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. [3] 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. [4] 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. [5]

Wall of Respect was an example of the Black Arts Movement, an artistic school associated with the Black Power Movement. [6] The scholarly journal Science & Society underscored the significance of the Wall of Respect as "the first collective street mural", in the "important subject [of] the recently emerged street art movement." [7] The Wall became famous as a "revolutionary political artwork of black liberation". [3] Soon after its creation, a six-page feature spread in Ebony magazine brought it to the attention of African Americans nationwide. It became a source of inspiration and pride for the black community. For some, the Wall represented not only artistic freedom, but the freedom and liberation that could be obtained as a result of the Civil Rights Movement. However, soon after its creation, increasingly polarized interpretations of heroic action within the African American community caused conflict over the paintings, [8] notably with the replacement by artist Eugene Eda of more defiant leaders and symbols, such as the fist of the Black Power Movement. In addition, "The Wall" served as the backdrop for community protests, speeches, outdoor poetry readings, street theater productions, and community events. [9]

Wall of Respect catalyzed a larger mural movement in Chicago and across the United States. Chicago is known for the plethora of murals in cultural neighborhoods. The explosion of murals throughout Chicago is due, in part, to the creation of the Wall of Respect. By 1975 at least 200 large outdoor murals existed mostly in African American Neighborhoods. The Wall of Respect's success also sparked a movement of large open-air neighborhood mural paintings across to the United States. In the eight years following the Wall's unveiling, more than 1,500 murals were painted, many taking the same name, or variations beginning with, Wall of . . .. [10]

After a 1971 fire damaged the building on which the Wall of Respect was painted, the entire structure was torn down and the mural thus destroyed. [11] One of the few remaining pieces of The Wall is a smaller panel that consisted of an affixed photograph of Amiri Baraka by Darryl Cowherd, such panels were interspersed among the larger paintings. [9] The larger mural also visually lived on in photography, particularly, the studies by OBAC photographer, Robert A. Sengstacke. [12] For a time forgotten by the mainstream art world, the Wall of Respect continues to be an important cultural reference point for local community members and the subject of scholarly inquiry. Recent efforts, such as an online exhibit organized by the Block Museum at Northwestern University (which includes a clickable map of the Wall's individual portraits), [13] and the edited volume, The Wall of Respect: Public Art and Black Liberation in 1960s Chicago (Northwestern University Press, 2017), aim to recover the Wall's history and make it accessible again. [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black Arts Movement</span> 1960s–1970s art movement

The Black Arts Movement (BAM) was an African American-led art movement that was active during the 1960s and 1970s. Through activism and art, BAM created new cultural institutions and conveyed a message of black pride. The movement expanded from the incredible accomplishments of artists of the Harlem Renaissance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Precita Eyes</span>

Precita Eyes Muralists Association is a community-based non-profit muralist and arts education group located in the Bernal Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1977 by Susan and Luis Cervantes.

Visual arts of Chicago refers to paintings, prints, illustrations, textile art, sculpture, ceramics and other visual artworks produced in Chicago or by people with a connection to Chicago. Since World War II, Chicago visual art has had a strong individualistic streak, little influenced by outside fashions. "One of the unique characteristics of Chicago," said Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts curator Bob Cozzolino, "is there's always been a very pronounced effort to not be derivative, to not follow the status quo." The Chicago art world has been described as having "a stubborn sense ... of tolerant pluralism." However, Chicago's art scene is "critically neglected." Critic Andrew Patner has said, "Chicago's commitment to figurative painting, dating back to the post-War period, has often put it at odds with New York critics and dealers." It is argued that Chicago art is rarely found in Chicago museums; some of the most remarkable Chicago artworks are found in other cities.

William Walker was a notable muralist from Chicago. He was one of the founders of the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC) and one of the leaders in the project involving the Wall of Respect. He was also one of the critical founders of the mural movements in Chicago during the 1960s. He has cited Jacob Lawrence, Charles White, and Chicago painter William McBride, as well as the work of Mexican muralists Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Jose Clemente Orozco as important influences.

Jeff Donaldson was a visual artist whose work helped define the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Donaldson, co-founder of AfriCOBRA and contributor to the momentous Wall of Respect, was a pioneer in African-American personal and academic achievement. His art work is known for creating alternative black iconography connected to Africa and rooted in struggle, in order to replace the history of demeaning stereotypes found in mainstream white culture.

Wadsworth Aikens Jarrell is an American painter, sculptor and printmaker. He was born in Albany, Georgia, and moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he attended the Art Institute of Chicago. After graduation, he became heavily involved in the local art scene and through his early work he explored the working life of African-Americans in Chicago and found influence in the sights and sounds of jazz music. In the late 1960s he opened WJ Studio and Gallery, where he, along with his wife, Jae, hosted regional artists and musicians.

AfriCOBRA is an African-American artists' collective formed in Chicago in 1968. The group was founded by Jeff Donaldson, Wadsworth Jarrell, Jae Jarrell, Barbara Jones-Hogu, Nelson Stevens, and Gerald Williams.

Gaia is an American street artist who has received significant museum showings and critical recognition. Based in Baltimore, he has created large-scale murals worldwide to engage the community where he works in a dialogue by using historical and sociological references to these neighborhoods.

The Organization of Black American Culture (OBA-C) was conceived during the era of the Civil Rights Movement by Hoyt W. Fuller as a collective of African-American writers, artists, historians, educators, intellectuals, community activists, and others. The group was originally known as Committee for the Arts (CFA), which formed in February 1967 in Southside Chicago, Illinois. By May 1967, the group became OBAC and included Black intellectuals Hoyt W. Fuller, the poet Conrad Kent Rivers, and Gerald McWorter. OBAC aimed to coordinate artistic support in the struggle for freedom, justice and equality of opportunity for African Americans. The organization had workshops for visual arts, drama, and writing, and produced two publications: a newsletter, Cumbaya, and the magazine Nommo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jae Jarrell</span> American artist (born 1935)

Elaine "Jae" Jarrell is an American artist best known for her fashion designs and her involvement with the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s. Influenced by her grandfather, Jay Jarrell, and his work as a tailor, Jarrell learned about fabrics and sewing at a young age. It was learning these skills that set her on her path as an artist, fashion designer, and vintage clothing dealer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert A. Sengstacke</span> African-American photojournalist

Robert Abbott Sengstacke, also known as Bobby Sengstacke, was an African-American photojournalist during the Civil Rights Movement for the Chicago Defender in Chicago, Illinois. Sengstacke was well known for his famous portraits of Martin Luther King Jr. and other prominent civil rights leaders. Sengstacke inherited the family–owned Sengstacke Newspaper Company. After retiring from journalism in 2015, Sengstacke moved to Hammond, Indiana where he lived until his death due to a respiratory illness in 2017 at age 73.

Gerald Williams is an American visual artist whose work has been influential within the Black Arts Movement, a transnational aesthetic phenomenon that first manifested in the 1960s and continues to evolve today. Williams was a founding member of AfriCOBRA. His work has been featured in exhibitions at some of the most important museums in the world, including the Tate Modern, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia. In addition to his influence as a contemporary artist, he has served in the Peace Corps, taught in the public schools systems of Chicago and Washington, D.C., and served as an Arts and Crafts Center Director for the United States Air Force. In 2015, he moved back to his childhood neighborhood of Woodlawn, Chicago, where he currently lives and works. In 2019, Mr. Williams was awarded The Honorary Doctors of Philosophy in Art by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, along with his co-founders of the AFRICOBRA, Jae Jarrell, and Wadsworth A. Jarrell.

Barbara Jones-Hogu was an African-American artist best known for her work with the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC) and for co-founding the artists' collective AfriCOBRA.

Carolyn Mims Lawrence is a visual artist and teacher known for her role in the Chicago Black Arts Movement. She earned a BFA from the University of Texas at Austin and a master’s degree in 1968 from the Illinois Institute of Technology with a thesis entitled “Teaching Afro-American Culture through the Visual Arts.” In 1967 Lawrence joined OBAC to create the Wall of Respect, a mural composed of portraits of African American heroes located on the South Side of Chicago. Lawrence collaborated with muralist William Walker to paint the section of the wall honoring Black Muslims.

Napoleon Jones-Henderson is a Black American weaver and multimedia artist most known for his role in AfriCOBRA, an artist collective established in Chicago, Illinois in 1968. Jones-Henderson joined AfriCOBRA in 1969, a year after its founding.

Laini (Sylvia) Abernathy was an American artist and activist. She was an important figure in Chicago's Black arts movement, often working in collaboration with her husband, photographer Fundi (Billy) Abernathy.

Billy Abernathy (1939–2016) was an American photographer. He was married to Laini (Sylvia) Abernathy, an artist and activist.

Eugene "Eda" Wade, sometimes written as Eugene "Edaw" Wade, was an African American muralist, educator, and artist mainly based in Chicago, Illinois. His artworks concentrated on Black power and Afrocentric themes. He was also an active member in the Black Arts Movement.

Robert Paige is a multi-disciplinary artist and arts educator working across textile design, painting, collage, and sculpture based in Woodlawn, Chicago. As an artist and textile designer allied with the Black Arts Movement, Robert E. Paige trained at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and worked at the architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Sears Roebuck & Company and Fiorio Milano design house in Italy. Paige was raised in Chicago's South Side where he continues to live and work, further developing his longstanding career in the decorative arts. His work visually and conceptually interrogates political and cultural themes that reflect both historical and contemporary African American art references, as well as traditional textile practices of West Africa.

Nelson Stevens was an artist known for his involvement with Chicago-based Black art collective AfriCOBRA. Stevens' works are held by institutions such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Brooklyn Museum, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the Tate.

References

  1. ↑ Prigoff, James; Dunitz, Robin J. (2000). Walls of Heritage, Walls of Pride: African American Murals. Pomegranate. pp. 4–11. ISBN   978-0-7649-1339-6.
  2. ↑ Cockroft, Eva (1977). Toward A People's Art: The Contemporary Mural Movement . New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc. p.  143. ISBN   9780525221654.
  3. 1 2 Sayej, Nadja (2018-06-15). "AfriCOBRA: the collective that helped shape the black arts movement". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2019-11-11.
  4. ↑ Ellsworth, Kirstin L. (2009). "Africobra and the Negotiation of Visual Afrocentrisms". Civilisations. 58 (1): 21–38. doi: 10.4000/civilisations.1890 .
  5. ↑ Campkin, Ben; Mogilevich, Mariana; Ross, Rebecca (2014-12-08). "Chicago's Wall of Respect: how a mural elicited a sense of collective ownership". The Guardian. Retrieved 2021-12-02.
  6. ↑ Morrison, Allan (August 1967). ""A New Surge in the Arts"". Ebony. 22 (10): 134–38.
  7. ↑ Refregier, Anton (Winter 1978). "Book Review". Science & Society. 42 (4): 496–499.
  8. ↑ Ellsworth, Kirstin J. (2009). "Africobra and the Negotiation of Visual Afrocentrisms". Civilisations. 58 (1).
  9. 1 2 Baker, Marissa H. "The Wall of Respect: Vestiges, Shards and the Legacy of Black Power and Eugene Eda's Doors for Malcolm X College [Review]". Panorama: Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art. Fall 2017 (3.2).
  10. ↑ "Chicago's 'Wall of Respect' inspired neighborhood murals across U.S." Chicago Tribune. July 29, 2017. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
  11. ↑ Sorell, Victor (1979). Guide to Chicago Murals: Yesterday and Today. Chicago, IL: Chicago Council on Fine Arts. pp. 48–49.
  12. ↑ Campkin, Ben; Mogilevich, Mariana; Ross, Rebecca (2014-12-08). "Chicago's Wall of Respect: how a mural elicited a sense of collective ownership". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2018-12-19.
  13. ↑ Mary and Leigh Block Gallery; Northwestern University; Academic Technologies Division (2000). Wall of Respect. Evanston, Ill.: Mary and Leigh Block Gallery.
  14. ↑ Alkalimat, Abdul; Crawford, Romi; Zorach, Rebecca (2017). The Wall of Respect: Public Art and Black Liberation in 1960s Chicago. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press. ISBN   9780810135932. OCLC   1012340355.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.