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AFRICAN AMERICAN ARTISTS

Collection Info
AFRICAN AMERICAN ARTISTS

Although the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art began exhibiting art by African artists in 1941, it was not until 1973 that African American art was shown in two exhibitions. One was a faculty exhibition from Memphis academic institutions, including LeMoyne-Owen College, the other was Highlights from the Atlanta University Collection of Afro-American Art. Collecting also began in the 1970s with the purchase of works on paper by Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden. A significant painting by Sam Gilliam was acquired in 1980 with funding provided by Art Today. Since then, the museum has dramatically increased its holdings across a range of media, with particular strengths in photography—the largest museum collection of Ernest C. Withers and the remaining archives of the Memphis World newspaper; sculpture—Sonya Clark and Chakaia Booker; sound—Whitfield Lovell; prints—Glenn Ligon and Alison Saar; drawings—Radcliffe Bailey; decorative arts—Loretta Pettway quilt; and couture—Patrick Kelly.

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Man Spirit Mask
Willie Cole
1999
Untitled
Radcliffe Bailey
1999
I Am the Black Woman.
Elizabeth Catlett
1947
Azure
Sam Gilliam
1977
In the Garden
Romare Bearden
1974
Salome
Romare Bearden
1974
Prologue to Troy No. 1
Romare Bearden
1974
Noah, Third Day
Romare Bearden
1974
Anthropomorphic Psychosis
Philip R. Dotson
1975
Southern Realism
Michael Rogers
1981