Gervais Emmanuel Ducasse

Cueillettes de Cafe #28MFN

1972

This painting captures the sense of "double victory" the Tuskegee Airmen fought for--victory abroad and victory at home. The Tuskegee Airmen was the all-black World War II fighter squadron that never lost a bomber. The flag-wrapped Statue of Liberty's ringing of the Liberty Bell against the backdrop of clouds shaped in "V"s mirror the optimism some blacks had. They hoped that helping to win World War II would translate into victory against Jim Crow...

As a child Johnnie Lee Gray loved to go to the movies on Saturday to watch Western serials. He went to the Ritz Theater, an all-black movie house. Blacks were either banned from, or restricted to the balconies, of "white" movie theaters. As with several of his paintings, the artist is the man to the left with the big hat. Artist, Johnnie Lee Gray was born in Spartanburg County, South Carolina in 1941. In his early years, Gray demonstrated artistic talent, painting & drawing as a way to express his emotions & depict his surroundings. Working alongside his grandparents in the fields of their sharecropper farm, & later as a carpenter, textile mill worker, & house painter, Gray learned early on to use the materials of his milieu to create works of art that drew on his memories & experiences as a black American man. After graduating from the county’s segregated Lincoln High School in 1960, Gray enlisted in the Army, where he served for seven years, including an 18-month volunteer tour of duty in Vietnam. As a Vietnam Veteran and self-taught artist, Gray’s work illustrated his experiences in the military as an African-American and the participation of black people in the history of the American and world landscape. Described as “visionary” “outsider” artist, the patterned shapes, visual texture, vibrant palettes and repetitive forms showcased in his paintings are recognizable characteristics of his historical narratives. The PBS television series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow...

Cardboard, acrylic, collage

Summer Air, 2019

From the series Shells, 70x50cm

Composition N3 , 2022, 50x35 cm