“Art plucks its material, otherwise unexpressed, in the garden of life.” ~Henry James, The Ambassaors

 

It seems fitting, during Presidents’ Birthday month, here in the U.S., to feature the last photograph taken of Abraham Lincoln before his assassination in April 1865 (left). The burdens and losses brought on by civil strife and personal loss are writ large on the face of a man who was only 56 years old at the time Matthew Brady captured this image in his Washington, D.C. studio. This is also the month that we honor the memory of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. and the many who risked life and limb to move our country out of a sustained period of race inequality and discrimination. The lives of these two men, ironically, now seem inextricably bound.

With the course of our history very much in mind, ARTES readers will find two recently-posted articles that attest to the struggle and the opportunities for black Americans that emerged from the crucible of those contests of will and dissent. The current exhibition mounted by the Maryland Historical Society, Divided Voices, speaks powerfully to the issues that tore a nation apart, pitting brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor and exacting such a dramatic toll on the clear-spoken man from the woods of Illinois, as he wrestled with the issues of the time. In a review by Avi Decktor, head of the Jewish Museum in Baltimore—and no stranger to the issues of prejudice—the crucial role of the battle of Antietam Creek, fought on Maryland soil, is one focus of the exhibit. Remarkably, Lincoln prayed for victory in an encounter that would take 24,000 American lives in a single day, vowing that with a Confederate defeat he would go public with a document that he had only recently drafted. Pictured (above), with Allan Pinkerton (founder of the like-named security company and precursor to the Secret Service) And Gen. McClemand at Antietam on October 3, 1862, two weeks after driving Lee’s troops back to Virginia. It would be the following day that the public would first encounter his Emancipation Proclamation in the pages of Harper’s Weekly, a widely-read publication.

One hundred years later, in 1964, African-American artist, Romare Bearden would begin experimenting with a technique of image-making that would set him on a course to fame and notoriety. His collages, known, in part, as Photomontages or Projections would have a defining and determinative impact on the black civil rights movement of the day. In an article by ARTES managing editor, Richard Friswell, the life and work of this brilliant and inventive artist are examined in the context of other creative idioms that formed the cradle of the post-war African-American intellectual movement in Harlem—literature and music. With his ethnic roots planted deeply in North Carolina soil and his artistic focus honed by life in the urban north, Bearden was able to meld folk tradition and ritual with the plight of blacks in mid-century American cities. Not only did he invent a complex visual language for understanding this variegated history, but he succeeded in moving beyond a prejudicial view of black contributions to mainstream artistic movements of the day to become a principle spokesperson for modern art in the late 20th century.

Above left: Romare Bearden, Profile/Part II, The Thirties, Harlem Brownstone (1980). Private collection

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Warm regards,

Richard Friswell, Publisher & Managing Editor