homeground: art of the pan-african diaspora

HomeGround- Art of the Pan-African Diaspora -

Cavin-Morris GalleryNew York, New York

HomeGround-Art of the Pan-African Diaspora-

The artists in this exhibition are all culture-bearers. I define culture-bearers as being those individuals who, through visionary experience or choice, have taken upon themselves the weight of carrying tradition personally, and manifesting it by various means for past generations, this generation, and to inspire the next generation to come. It isn’t a job; it isn’t an ideal commitment; it is an ancient calling.

Cavin-Morris has had a deep and abiding interest in the artworks of Africa and the Pan-African diaspora, recognizing their core affect on all aspects of contemporary life. The very first exhibition Cavin-Morris organized was Haitian in content, and was presented just before the flawed but still magnificent and groundbreaking show, Black Folk Art, organized by the Corcoran Gallery in the early 1980’s. Other exhibitions followed, most notably the huge and still underappreciated Souls Grown Deep with its two unprecedented companion volumes illustrating the fullness of the yard show complex. But even these important shows and books only covered the mainland United States. Even then it was obvious to us, through reading Robert Farris Thompson and others, that there were deep and profound connections between makers of African-American art throughout this whole hemisphere. We saw art that had African reference points but that had evolved according to its own American spiritual and social necessities.

We saw art that was still vital and being made today outside of the art-world mainstream. Yet because of its links with tradition and history it would be hard to label it as purely art brut or ‘outsider’ without a great deal of rethinking and qualifications.

So it is a strange anomaly of art history that has kept research and curatorial interest in this work encapsulated by smaller piecemeal categories, rather than to illuminate the myriad important and obvious connections between them. In short, they have been categorized by colonial hegemonies rather than by the heterogeneity of their common roots.

All the slaves came from two major regions in Africa; the Western Atlantic Coast and the Central Kongo regions. From these fairly cohesive homegrounds came a remembered worldview that was restructured to become an American homeground providing an architecture of integrity for a displaced populace in North America, Central America, South America and the Caribbean, each melded to and creolizing the folkways of the colonizers in addition to African social and moral codes of behavior.

This cultural evolution is still in full evidence and still evolving today. The artists in this exhibition are united not only by history itself but also by the way they have chosen to visually manifest their individual relationships with that history.

Vincent Atherton

Woody Joseph

Everald Brown

Very little of this art was made for art’s sake. Much of it has a utilitarian purpose no matter how powerful its formalism might be. It can even be said that those few works that actually were made for sale were done so as to represent and proselytize the cultures of their makers.

Others have written intensively on the phenomenon of the yard show; that symbolic manifestation of African-American homeground appearing in hundreds of yards and environments in this hemisphere. At its most intense a full yard show is the Rosetta stone of the concerns and ethos of the Diaspora. At its least intense it is still abstractly symbolic of these same concerns. Aspects of it run through the production of every vernacular African-American artist.

Grey Gundaker, from whom I have borrowed and, indeed, creolized the concept of these homegrounds defined these yard shows as containing what she calls the following themes: protection

and safekeeping, personal virtuosity, community improvement, and honor to family and ancestors.1 To protection and safekeeping I add amulets and amuletic behavior, to personal virtuosity I add the aspect of cultural resistance that says, “I succeed in resisting just because I exist”, thus including charismatic being and constructive iconoclasm, to community improvement I read in also storytelling and didacticism, the visual function of American griotism, and I further clarify family and ancestors to bring in the aspects of the soul and the spirits--the essential religiosity of the Diaspora--sometimes silent but always present in some form.

A yard show can also take non-yard forms. It is really a charged or protected space created and curated by a charismatic individual. Witness the environments Bill Traylor and Leonard Daley created by hanging their highly symbolic and meaning-fraught paintings and drawings in the almost ephemeral spaces around them. J.B. Murray did this also in the room in his home where he drew and meditated. Kevin Sampson’s arenas of remembrance fulfill the same function in the interior urban setting of Newark yet they are no less landscapes or yard shows in their intentionalities.

Every artist in this exhibition is a mediator between different worlds. Whether Vodou priest like Hector Hyppolite, Robert St. Brice, or Lafortune Felix, or Revivalist elder like Everald Brown, visionary maverick like Leonard Daley, Woody Joseph, J.B. Murray, Ras Dizzy, Minnie Evans, cultural archivist like Kevin Sampson, Castera Bazile, George Liautaud or Bill Traylor, or intimately involved with the conjure culture itself like Oscar Gilchrist, Bessie Harvey or Atherton father and son, each of these artists fulfills some aspect of Gundaker’s points about home ground. From the Africanized church to the raw power of conjure this show covers a wide range of Diaspora spirituality. Some of it documents and some of it uses the actual nkisi or power objects themselves such as the bone elements by Gilchrist, the sculptures and paintings by Errol McKenzie that capture and transform evil energies into positive energies, and the musical instruments and other religious staffs, etc. made by Everald Brown for spiritual worship. Personal virtuosity is represented all through this exhibition in the distinct and powerful styles of each artist. Daley, Traylor, Sampson and Kingsley Thomas are all storytellers although they don’t always make the narratives obvious; Ras Dizzy’s drawings are more often than not about a mythical land called Sheffield which is populated by good and bad people and spirits.

1 Grey Gundaker in Keep Your Head to the Sky: Interpreting African American Homeground, p.14.

Errol McKenzie at his home

Ras Dizzy

We were pleased also to be able to introduce our involvement with the Estate of J.B. Murray. For this first taste we chose a small group of drawings that only hint at the vast and subtle range of his vision and message, including his use of spirit writing to heal and teach the tormented spirits of those unsaved souls of this world and beyond. Even when others began to visit Murray he never lost the direct connection to his vision. No matter how abstract and skilled his compositions were, without his embedding that call he expressed to others through them, and thus using them to proselytize and prophesy to a larger pool of potential saved, his work never lost its original sacred purpose.

We never saw the logic that excluded Haiti and Jamaica in the Caribbean and countries like Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Guyana in Central and Latin America from curatorial agendas despite the common origins of the work. Future curating in this field must focus on putting the weave of continuity back together again to give a true and more cohesive picture of contemporary American art. We hope HomeGround: Art from the Pan-African Diaspora can inspire others to bring the yard show phenomenon to the worlds’ attention in the future.

Shari and I would like to express our thanks to Luise Ross, Bill Bollendorf, Pan-American Gallery, Wayne Cox, Thomas Schulz, James Kearns, Laurie Carmondy, Aarne Anton and Jonathan Demme for their generosity in loaning work to this exhibition. I would also like to thank one of my own ancestors, Samuel Morris for ingraining a love of Haitian art in my upbringing and for sharing his collection of the work of Georges Liautaud which has continued to grow and deepen as a collection after his passing and hopefully will keep on under our stewardship. Thanks also to our staff: Mimi Kano, Marissa Levien, and Jurate Veceraite for their hard work and enthusiasm in putting together both the show and this catalog.

Jah Bless.

Randall Morris Brooklyn, 2012

All artist photography courtesy of Wayne Cox

Castera BazileThe Adoration, 1947Oil on cardboard30 x 24 in / 76 x 61 cmCBa 16

Castera BazileAngel and Demon, c. 1950sOil on cardboard12 x 10 in / 30.5 x 25.5 cmCaB 2

Minnie EvansUntitled, n.d.Colored pencil on paper12 x 9 in/ 30.5 x 23 cmMEv 24

Minnie EvansUntitled, 1943Colored pencil, ink, graphite on paper11.5 x 8.75in /29 x 22 cmMEv 20

Minnie EvansUntitled, n.d.Colored pencil, graphite on paper7.5 x 5.25in /19 x 13 cmMEv 21

Minnie EvansUntitled, n.d.Colored pencil, graphite on paper5.25 x 7 in /13 x 18 cmMEv 22

Minnie EvansUntitled, n.d.Colored pencil, graphite on paper7.5 x 5 in / 19 x 12.75 cmMEv 23

Hector HyppoliteMarassa, c. 1947-48Oil on masonite16 x 20 in/ 40.5 x 51 cmHHy 18

Woody JosephUntitled, 1991Polychromed cedar22 x 7 x 6 in/ 54 x 58.5 cmWJ 10

Woody JosephUntitled (Black Half Figure), c. 1980sStained cedar17 inWJ 8

Leonard DaleyProblem, 1993Oil on canvas32 x 29 in/ 81 x 73.75 cmLE 32

Woody JosephUntitled (Red Head and Hand), c. 1980sStained cedar11 x 8 x 7 in / 28 x 20.5 x 18 cmWJ 9

Robert St. BriceUntitled, 1949Oil on masonite21 x 16 in/ 53.5 x 40.5 cmRSB 18

Robert St. BriceMonkey, 1959Oil on masonite14 x 20.5 in/ 35.5 x 52 cmRSB 15

Robert St. BriceThree Figures, n.d.Oil on wood32 x 24 in/ 81.25 x 61cmRSB 17

Osker GilchristUntitled, n.d.Bone, wire31 x 19.25 x 7 in/ 79 x 49 x 18 cmOG 6

Osker GilchristUntitled (necklace), n.d.Bone, wire24 x 13x 7 in/ 61 x 33 x 17.75 cm OG 7

Vincent AthertonVessel, c. 1980sCedar13.5 x 7.5 x 6 in/ 34.25 x 19 x 15.25 cmLE 6

Vincent AthertonUntitled (Man with Snake), c. 1990sCedar17 x 11.5 x 7 in/ 43 x 29 x 18 cmViA 6

Andre PierreSimbi, 1972Oil on masonite32 x 37.5 in/ 81 x 95 cmAP 14

Andre PierreBaron Samedi, 1993Paint on gourd12 x 9 x 4.5 in/ 30.5 x 23 x 11.5 cmAP 17

Bill TraylorUntitled (Basket with Plant), n.d.Colored pencil on cardboard10 x 8 in/ 25.5 x 20.5 cmBT 20

Bill TraylorUntitled (Two Birds and Bug), n.d.Colored pencil on cardboard14 x 10 in/ 35.5 x 25.5 cmBT 21

Bill TraylorUntitled (Figure in Fron tof Lamp), 1939Pencil on cardboard12 x 3.5 in/ 30.5 x 9 cmBT 19

Bill TraylorUntitled (Figure Chasing Turkey with Bird), n.d.Pencil on cardboard6.75 x 6.25 in/ 17 x 16 cmBT 22

Everald BrownFour Person Dove Harp, n.d.Metal, polychromed wood67 x 29 x 13 in / 170 x 73.75 x 33 cmEB 32

Everald BrownStar Harp, 1998Metal, polychromed wood35.5 x 17.75 x 5 in/ 90 x 45 x 12.75 cmEB 31

Everald BrownBush People, n.d.Acrylic on board24 x 32 in/ 61 x 81.25 cmEB 33

LaFortune FelixKafou, c. 1970sOil on masonite20 x 24 in/ 50.75 x 61 cmLF 22

This page and opposite page:J.B. MurrayUntitled, c. 1978-1988Marker on paper10.75 x 8.5 in/ 27 x 21.5 cmJBM 22

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J.B. MurrayUntitled, c.1978 -1988Tempera, crayon on paper14 x 11 in/ 35.5 x 28 cmJBM 652

J.B. MurrayUntitled, c.1978 -1988Maker on paper25 x 19 in/ 63.5 x 48 cmJBM 3

J.B. MurrayUntitled, c.1978 -1988Tempera on paper28 x 22 in/ 71 x 56 cmJBM 733

J.B. MurrayUntitled, c.1978 -1988Marker on paper17 x 14 in/ 43 x 35.5 cmJBM 154

J.B. MurrayUntitled, c.1978 -1988Tempera, marker on paper25.5 x 19.5 in/ 65 x 49.5 cmJBM 421

J.B. MurrayUntitled, c.1978 -1988Watercolor, crayon on paper14 x 11 in/ 35.5 x 28 cmJBM 655

J.B. MurrayUntitled, c.1978 -1988Marker, crayon on paper14 x 11 in/ 35.5 x 28 cmJBM 414

J.B. MurrayUntitled, c.1978 -1988Tempera on paper25 x 19 in/ 63.5 x 48 cmJBM 502

L’Ouvertture PoissonSous la Mer, 1949Oil on masonite16 x 21 in/ 40.5 x 53 cmLOP 3

L’Ouverture PoissonCongo, 1993Oil on masonite16 x 21 in/ 40.5 x 53 cmLOP 4

Ras DizzyWhen Marshall John Reaches Star 17..., 1998Oil, tempera on mat board17.75 x 11.75 in/ 45 x 30 cmRD 103

Ras DizzyTbe Dread, 1998Oil, tempera on mat board14.25 x 10.75 in/ 36 x 27.25 cmRD 98

AnonymousBaron La Croix, c. 1970sBeads, sequence, textile34 x 31 in/ 86.5 x 79 cmAnon 46

Errol McKenzieUntitled, 1996Oil on oil cloth42 x 24 in/ 107 x 61 cmEMc 6

Errol McKenzieUntitled, 2011Oil on linen43 x 25 in/ 109.25 x 63.5 cmEMc 9

Errol McKenzieBlack Mother Rising, 2007Oil on linen64.25 x 29 in/ 163.25 x 73.75 cmEMc 8

Errol McKenzieUntitled, 1996Cedar9.5 x 5.5 x 3.5 in/ 24 x 14 x 9 cmEMc 3

Errol McKenzieUntitled, 1996Cedar10.5 x 5.25 x 4.375 in/ 27 x 13.25 x 11 cmEMc 7

Lloyd AthertonUntitled (Standing figure), c. early 1990sCedar16 x 2.5 x 2.25 in/40.5 x 6.5 x 6 cmLAt 4

Lloyd AthertonUntitled (Standing figure), c. early 1990sCedar11.25 x 2.625 x 1.75 in/ 28.5 x 6.75 x 4.5 cmLAt 3

Lloyd AthertonUntitled (Amulet), c. early 1990sCedar7 x 3.25 x 3.25 in/ 18 x 8 x 8 cmLAt 1

Lloyd AthertonUntitled (Buddha), c. early 1990sCedar15.5 x 2.25 x 3 in/ 39 x 5.5 x 7.5 cmLAt 1

Lloyd AthertonUntitled (Amulet), c. early 1990sCedar7.75 x 2.5 x 3.75 in/19.5 x 6.5 x 9.5 cmLAt 2

Kingsely ThomasUntitled, n.d.Paint on wood17 x 5 x 4 in/ 43 x 13 x 10 cmKT 15

Kingsely ThomasUntitled, n.d.Paint on wood15.5 x 4.5 x 3 in/ 39 x 10 x 7.5 cmKT 12

Leonard DaleyProblem, 1993Oil on canvas32 x 29 in/ 81 x 73.75 cmLE 32

Leonard DaleyWhite Egg, 1993Mixed media on pressed board21.25 x 23 in/ 54 x 58.5 cmLE 6

Leonard DaleyWhy, 1993Mixed media on canvas52.5 x 28.5 in/ 133 x 72.5 cmLE 9

Leonard DaleyLove is Not Talk Love is Kindness, 1993Mixed media on canvas46.25 x 29.25 in/ 117.5 x 74.25 cmLE 10

Leonard DaleyLiving in Green, 1993Mixed media on canvas36 x 36 in/ 91.5 x 91.5 cmLE 8

Leonard DaleyMarjorie, 1993 Mixed media on canvas26.5 x 38 in/ 67.25 x 96.5 cmLE 42

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This page and opposite page:Leonard DaleyHumpty Dumpty What The Best, 1992Mixed media on canvas55 x 37 in/ 140 x 94 cmLE 44

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Leonard DaleySpirits Rising, 1993Mixed media on canvas30 x 49.5 in/ 76.25 x 125.75 cmLE 1

Leonard DaleyCon Teng Qual Dalok Amanda, 1996Mixed media on canvas33.5 x 36.75 in/ 85 x 93.25 cmLE 21

AnonymousBossou Sequins Flag, c. 1960Sequins on cloth34 x 25.5 in/ 86.5 x 64.75 cmHai 1

AnonymousBossou Sequins Flag, n.d.Sequins on cloth31.5 x 26.5 in/ 80 x 67.25 cmHai 18

Bessie HarveyBoy Is, 1989 Polychromed wood20.5 x 16.25 x 14 in/ 52 x 41.5 x 35.6 cmBH 39

Bessie HarveyAdam and Eve, 1988Found roots, metal, paint42.5 x 17.5 in/ 108 x 44.5 cmBH 92

Leonard DaleyProblem, 1993Oil on canvas32 x 29 in/ 81 x 73.75 cmLE 32

Bessie HarveyEgyptian King, 1985Polychromed wood, hair, beads13 x 9 in/ 33 x 23 cmBH 17

Bessie HarveySnake Eye, 1989Mixed media25 x 14 x 10 in/ 63.5 x 35.5 x 25.5 cmBH 40

Bessie HarveyLightning, 1986Mixed media38 x 10 x 8 in/ 96.5 x 25.5 x 20.25 cmBH 22

Bessie HarveyJonah in Whale, n.d.Mixed media29 x 8 x 7 in/ 73.75 x 20.25 x 18 cmBH 90

Georges LiautaudStation of the Cross, c. late 1970s Cut and hammered steel oil drum36 x 34 x 11 in/ 91.5 x 86.5 x 28 cmGL 59

Georges LiautaudUntitled, n.d.Cut and hammered steel oil drum11 x 11 x 4 in/ 28 x 28 x 10.25 cmGL 76

Georges LiautaudUntitled, n.d.Cut and hammered oil drum31 x 13 x 9.5 in/ 78.75 x 33 x 24 cmGL 90

Georges LiautaudUntitled, n.d.Cut and hammered oil drum16.75 x 11 x 1 in/ 42.5 x 28 x 2.5 cm GL 89

Georges LiautaudUntitled, n.d.Cut and hammered oil drum29 x 12.25 x 7.5 in/73.75 x 31 x 19 cmGL 88

Georges LiautaudUntitled, n.d.Cut and hammered oil drum28 x 25 x 5 in/ 71 x 63.5 x 12.75 cmGL 86

Georges LiautaudUntitled, n.d.Cut and hammered oil drum25.5 x 19 x 1 in/ 65 x 48.25 x 2.5 cmGL 85

Georges LiautaudUntitled, n.d.Cut and hammered oil drum24.5 x 14 x 1 in/ 62.25 x 35.5 x 2.5 cmGL 84

Georges LiautaudUntitled, n.d.Cut and hammered oil drum35 x 25 x 1 in/ 89 x 63.5 x 2.5 cmGL 83

Georges LiautaudLa Sirene, c. 1968Cut steel oil drum72 x 19 in/ 183 x 48.5 cmGL 2

Georges LiautaudUntitled, n.d.Cut and hammered oil drum25.5 x 13 x 1 in/ 64.75 x 33 x 2.5 cmGL 79

Georges LiautaudUntitled, n.d.Cut and hammered oil drum12 x 5 x 2.5 in/ 30.5 x 12.75 x 6.5 cmGL 91

Georges LiautaudUntitled, n.d.Cut and hammered oil drum7 x 4 x 2 in/ 17.75 x 10.25 x 5 cmGL 92

Georges LiautaudUntitled, n.d.Cut and hammered oil drum18 x 10 x 1 in/ 45.75 x 25.5 x 2.5 cmGL 81

Georges LiautaudUntitled, n.d.Cut and hammered oil drum37.5 x 18 x 1 in/ 95.25 x 45.75 x 2.5cmGL 77

Georges LiautaudUntitled, n.d.Cut and hammered oil drum21 x 14.5 x 1 in/ 53.25 x 36.75 x 2.5 cmGL 80

Georges LiautaudUntitled, n.d.Cut and hammered oil drum24.25 x 16.75 x 1 in/ 61.5 x 42.5 x 2.5 cmGL 78

Georges LiautaudUntitled, n.d.Cut and hammered oil drum17 x 15.25 x 5 in/ 43.25 x 38.75 x 12.75 cmGL 82

Georges LiautaudUntitled, n.d.Cut and hammered oil drum18.75 x 10 x 6 in/ 47.5 x 25.5 x 15.25 cmGL 87

Kevin SampsonVenezia-African Jack, 2012Mixed media50.5 x 38 x 22.5 in/ 128.25 x 57.25 cmSK 193

Kevin SampsonThe Golden Spike, 2001Mixed media48 x 16 x 11 in/ 122 x 40.5 x 28 cmSK 125

Cavin-Morris GalleryNew York, New York 2012

Copyright © 2012 CAVIN-MORRIS GALLERY

Cavin-Morris Gallery210 Eleventh Ave, Ste. 201

New York, NY 10001t. 212 226 3768

www.cavinmorris.com

Catalogue design: Mimi Kano & Marissa LevienPhotography: Jurate Vicerate