Spiral was a New York based group of African American artists - primarily painters - that formed in 1963 in the studio of Romare Bearden to explore how they might participate in the Civil Rights Movement triggered by a particular interest in the upcoming March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Discussions progressed to explorations of the changing landscape in American art, culture and politics. Founding members constituted the vanguard of mid-century African American Modernism including Romare Bearden, Charles Alston, Norman Lewis and Hale Woodruff. Membership spread to Emma Amos (the sole woman and youngest member of the group), Calvin Douglas, Perry Ferguson, Reginald Gammon, Feirath Hines, Alvin Hollingsworth, William Majors, Richard Mayhew, Earl Miller, Merton D. Simpson and James Yeargans. Most of these artists also
worked in various modernist associated abstract styles, and adhered to a range of viewpoints on the emerging politics and art. About the time of the membership expansion, the group installed itself at 147 Christopher Street for weekly meetings.
Discussions in the group centered on the intersection of art and politics: what role does race play in the evaluation of their artwork? What role does subject matter play in their work? How can abstraction add a significant voice to the civil rights struggle? How should artists of color construct and maintain their identity in an overtly racist America, including the art world? The Spiral artists came to the group at a crossroads in their careers. Bearden had begun to experiment with a collage aesthetic for which he would become famous while Norman Lewis, Hale Woodruff and Charles Alston had already been painting in Abstract Expressionist inspired styles throughout the forties and fifties. The name was suggested by Woodruff as a reference to the Archimedean spiral that moves outward, embracing all directions referencing the individual interests, styles, and ideologies of its members. They held one exhibition in their Christopher Street location, having named the space Cinque Gallery, titled First Group Showing: Works in Black and White in 1965. Many of the paintings were embedded with explorations of social change and reiterated the personal styles of each artist as every Modernist tactic - abstraction, social realism, collage, printmaking, black and white chromatic reduction, protest art, etc. converged into a single artistic consciousness devoted to liberation for all. Their collective statement to the exhibition: "We, as Negroes, could not fail to be touched by the outrage of segregation, or fail to relate to the self-reliance, hope, and courage of those persons who were marching in the interest of man’s dignity…if possible, in these times we hoped with our art to justify life…to use only black and white and eschew other coloration. This consideration, or limitation, was conceived from technical concerns; although the deeper motivations may have been involved…what is important now, and what has great portent for the future, is that Negro artists of divergent backgrounds and interests, have come together on terms of mutual respect. It is true to their credit that they were able to fashion art works lit by beauty, and of such diversity".
Black and white serves as multiple metaphors. By ‘eschewing other colorations’ Spiral artists demand that the viewer look at the quality of the work, not the color line in which artworks—and people—are often viewed. Black and white has a rich tradition in Modern painting that is radically de-segregated by the Spiral artists. Spiral artists spoke with their own pictorial language, but simultaneously operated from a unified consciousness in terms of the intent of the show. Spiral members were not disenfranchised U.S. citizens in search of hand out exhibitions from the establishment but singular artists operating out of strength and conviction. The fact that the artists of Spiral chose painting, collage and printmaking—seen from the 70s onward as hidebound and conservative—is a testament to the contribution these artists made to mid-century artistic practice as well as a singular contribution to the advancement of civil rights in America.
Romare Bearden:
Photostat Projection from 1965 Black and White Spiral Group show, 1965
Prevalence of Ritual: Baptism, 1964
Jazz, Chicago, Grand Terrace, 1964
Romare Bearden (1911-1988) was born in Mecklenburg County in Charlotte, NC in the seat of Mecklenberg County. He grew up in a middle class family with high expectations that he would be an achiever. He family relocated to the Harlem section of New York City, escaping the Jim Crow laws of the south. Figures such as Duke Ellington, Langston Hughes and a number of artists, writers and musicians frequented the social and political gatherings held at the Bearden home. He spend occasional times away from Harlem, visiting relatives in Mecklenburg County and Pittsburgh. He held vivid memories of these experiences and African American history - another interest - that became subjects explored in his art. Trains, cats, roosters, barns, school houses, shingled shacks, his grandparents' boardinghouse scenes, steel mills, African American steel workers, etc. also formed images that he would recall in his art.
Woodruff:
Africa and the Bull, 1958
Afro Emblems, 1950
Georgia Landscape, 1934-35
Hale Woodruff (1900-1980) was born in Cairo, IL. He received his early training at the John Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis, IN and at the Fogg Art Museum of Harvard University. In 1927 he received the Harmon Foundation Award ($100) and, with additional money supplied by philanthropist Otto Khn, went to Paris for four years where he studied at the Academie Moderne and the Academie Scandinave. Upon his return to the US he established the art program at Spelman College and Atlanta University, and spearheaded a national art competition and exhibition of African American artworks that was one of the most important contributions to the development of African American art in the country. During his Atlanta years, Woodruff traveled to Mexico in the summer of 1936, studying mural painting with Diego Rivera. He was a Rosenwald Fellow in Creative Painting from 1943 to 1945 and lectured for the Association of American Colleges (1942-1945). He began Professor of Art Education at New York University in the Fall 1945. His abstract and semi-abstract oils show strong affinities with modern European masters. He was an important mural painter, especially noted for his murals in the Savery Library at Talladega College, the first recounting the slave ship Amistad and the history of Talledega College from its founding in 1867 in an abandoned Civil War prison up to ts status as a significant southern institution. Woodruff was celebrated as a teacher as much as he was an artist, being named "Teacher of the Year" at NYU in 1967.
*******RESEARCH HALE ASPACIO WOODRUFF AND DISCUSS HOW HE WAS AN IMPORTANT MODEL OF TEACHER, ACTIVIST, AND ART-MAKER. POST YOUR RESPONSE BY MIDNIGHT WEDS. FEB.15*******
Alston:
Walking, 1963
Black and White, 1960
The Family, 1955
Charles Henry Alston (1907-1977) was born in Charlotte, NC, moving with his family to New York City in 1914, four years after the death of his father and one year after his mother married Harry Pierce Bearden (uncle of Romare Bearden). He attended DeWtt High School and Columbia University where he received the MA as a Dow Fellow. He taught at Utopia House (one of his students was Jacob Lawrence), the Art Students League where he was the first African American instructor, the Museum of Modern Art, and City College. He was the first African American supervisor for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Federal Project. He headed the Harlem Hospital Murals Project n 1935 and was the guiding spirit of "306 Group", a collective of artists and intellectuals who met regularly at 306 W. 141st Street in Harlem in the 1930s.
Lewis:
Processional,1964
Harlem Turns White,1955
Evening Rendezvous, 1994
Carnivale #1, 1965 (below)
Norman Lewis (1909-1979) was born in Harlem to parents had emigrated from Bermuda. Having had a longtime interest in art, he amassed a large library of art history books as a young man. Although he remained based in Harlem, he traveled extensively for two years when working on ocean freighters. He was influenced early in life by sculptor Augusta Savage who gave him an open studio at her Harlem Art Center. He worked on WPA projects with such artists as Jackson Pollock. Lewis produced paintings, drawings and murals. He joined 306 Group in 1934, meeting regularly with Charles Alston, Romare Bearden, Ralph Ellison, Jacob Lawrence, and other artists and writers. His earlier work was primarily figurative, as he "painted what he saw" in works Meeting Place (1930 swamp scene), Yellow Hat (1936 formal Cubist painting), Disposed (1940 eviction scene), and Jazz Musicians (1948 depiction of the bebop being played in Harlem at the time). In the late 1940s his work became increasingly abstract. Migrating Birds (1954) won the Popular Prize at the Carnegie Museum's 1955 Carnegie International Exhibition, the New York Herald-Tribune calling the painting "one of the most significant of all events of the 1955 art year."
His later work includes Alabama II (1969), Part Vision (1971), New World A-Coming (1971), and Seachange, completed during the last years of his life.
Although he received numerous awards, exhibited in popular galleries, and received good reviews, his work did not sell nearly as well as his contemporary Abstract Expressionists that he exhibited with, such as Mark Rothko and Mark Tobey. The primary source of support for his wife, daughter and himself was teaching. He received a grant from the Mark Rothko Foundation and a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1972. In 1975 he received Guggenheim Fellowship, one of numerous awards and honors he would achieve.
Gammon:
Scottsboro, c.1970
Freedom Now, 1963
Harlem On My Mind, 1969
Reginald A. Gammon, Jr. (1921-2005) was born in Philadelphia, PA. He excelled as a teacher, painter, and printmaker; and was known as an intellectual artist. His work depicted the civil rights struggle of the 1960s, the dignity of unsung heroes, jazz and blues musicians and observations of everyday life. He received a scholarship to study at the Philadelphia Museum College of Art (then the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Arts). When he began working at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard refurbishing battleships for the war effort, he lost his scholarship. He worked at the shipyard during the day and went to art school at night for the next 18 months. Gammon joined the Navy and served with an all Black unit stationed in Guam from 1944-1946. After the war, he returned to Philadelphia where he turned down a five-year scholarship offer at the Tyler School of Fine Arts so he could help support his family. He worked and went to school. In 1948 he moved to New York, taking a variety of jobs - US post office mail sorter, lampshade painter, advertisement copy designer for Liften, old and Asher, etc.
Gammon joined Spiral in 1963. He worked as an "art expert" with the New York public schools. Teaching in the Saturday Academy Program, he set up an informal studio so that the children in Harlem might work with resident artists. His friend Hughie Lee-Smith recommended him for a visiting lectureship in the "Arts and Ideas" program at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Quickly realizing Gammons' potential contributions to the program, his 10-day lectureship was extended to a one-semester teaching contract. He held a teaching position there for 21 years, retiring in 1991 as Full Professor Emeritus of Fine Arts and Humanities until his death. Settling in Albuquerque, Gammon was one of the founders of the New Grounds Print Workshop & Gallery where he renewed his love for printmaking and created his last body of work: a collection of more than 100 prints of historically important musicians and gospel singers.
*******RESEARCH REGINALD GAMMON AND DISCUSS HIS MULTIPLE ROLES AS AN ARTIST ACTIVIST DURING THE CIVIL RIGHTS ERA*******POST YOUR RESPONSE NO LATER THAN FRIDAY, FEB.17.
Hollingsworth:
Untitled (watercolor), c.1980
Lonely Woman, c.1960
Hilltop (Don Qioxote),
Alvin C. Hollingsworth (1928-2000) was born in New York. He studied at the High School of Music and Art before attending the Art Students League (BA, 1956) and City College (MA, 1959). Interested in the effects of ultraviolet light on fluorescent material, he worked as a comic strip illustrator, and collaborated with electronic music pioneer Edgar Varese in the late 1960s to create a large multi-media work that provided sensory experiences for the spectators. His portraits and murals are in numerous private, corporate and museum collections. He taught at Hostos Community College of the City University of New York. In the late 1960s Hollingsworth created a series of murals for the Don Quixote apartment building in the Bronx, NYC and a series of six lithographs by the same title.
Hines:
Hines with black and white painting, 1965
Four Square, 1982
Yellow and Gray, 1978
Transition, 1953
Felrath Hines (1913-1993) was born in Indianapolis, IN and became known for his abstract, monumental color field paintings. He studied Education at NYU before entering Pratt Institute and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (he would later teach at both institutions before settling in Silver Springs, MD). He worked as supervisory conservator for the Fine Arts Conservation Labs in New York 1962-1964. He worked ten years as Conservator at the Museum of Modern Art (1962-1972), as Chief Conservator at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. from 1972 to 1980, and Chief Conservator at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. from 1980 to 1984.
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Early in his career Hines was inspired by the geometry of Cubism and the "simplicity" of Piet Mondrian and the De stijl movement. As Hines became more influenced by American modernists - Stuart Davis, Ad Reinhardt, Josef Albers, Ellsworth Kelly, and Barnett Newman - he brgan to eliminate line from his compositions, focusing instead on simple shapes and a restrained color palette. (In Four Square Hines utilized slight symmetry and subtle tonal variations to create the optical effect of a pyramidal form moving forward in space. Hine's interest in the science of color may have been influenced by his professional career as a painting conservator.
Hines was active in the Civil Rights movement and participated in the March on Washington. During this time he was labeled a "Black artist", a title he did not expect and did not like. Not theoretically opposed to participating in African American Art shows, he wanted his imagery to remain universal and not be seen as only relevant to black social causes or to African Americans. In 1971, he declined the opportunity to participate in the Whitney Museum exhibition "Contemporary Black Artists in America". He focused on nonrepresentational subject matter and harmoniously balanced shapes and colors. Hines intended to create works with conceptual meaning: "an artist's work is to rearrange everyday phenomena so as to enlarge our perception of who we are and what goes on about us". Hines wanted his work to be absorbed visually, mentally, and spiritually by all people regardless of gender, ethnicity, or race.
Amos:
Sand Tan, 1980
Does Black Wear Off, 1999
Two Standing Women, 1966
Emma Amos (b. 1938) was born and grew up in Atlanta, GA where her parents owned a drugstore. A painter, printmaker, weaver, teacher and writer, she began drawing at age six. At sixteen, after having attended segregated public schools, she entered a five-year program at Antioch University in Ohio, spending her fourth year abroad at the London Central School of Art. Upon receipt of the BA at Antioch, she returned to the Central School and earned a diploma in etching. Her first solo exhibition was in 1960, the year she moved to New York. hale Woodruff invited her to join Spiral, making her the youngest and only female member of the group.
Mayhew:
Toccata, c.1970
West, 1965
bonfire, 1962
Richard Mayhew (b.1924) was born in Amityville, NY and moved to New York City inn 1945. He studied at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Art Students League, Pratt Institute, Columbia University and at Academia in Florence, Italy. Developing a love for nature at a very early age. He also studied the human anatomy and worked part of his time through school as a medical illustrator. His third love was music, especially jazz, performing with theater groups and singing with jazz combos in his early adult years. He had his first solo exhibition in 1955 at the Brooklyn Museum. His second solo show at the Morris Gallery was two years later. Both exhibitions were acclaimed by critics, especially for his use of color, light and form, where his work was compared to Monet and Winslow Homer. Mayhew studied at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire, receiving a fellowship that allowed him to study painting at the Academia in Florence. He resided in Italy for three years. Mayhew received twelve prestigious awards and fellowships between 1958 and 1983, and taught at Pennsylvania State University where he was named Professor emeritus when he retired.
Simpson:
Confrontation IIA, 1967
Untitled, 1965
Angry Young Man, 1965
Merton Simpson (b.1928)was born in Charleston, SC and began drawing after being hospitalized at childhood with diphtheria. When Simpson moved to New York in 1942, he began studying at Cooper Union and later at New York University under Hale Woodruff. He joined the Air Force in 1951 and became the official Air Force aritst, painting portraits of officers including General Dwight David Eisenhower. In 1952, Nocturnal City was shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His military service ended in 1954, his work was in exhibitions at the Guggenheim Museum and he opened a gallery on Madison Avenue presenting African and Modern art. He joined Spiral out of a sense of social consciousness. Participation in the group probably influenced his important Confrontation series, a group of mostly black and white canvases expressing the anger and frustration of the Civil Rights era.
William Majors (1930-1982) was born in Indianapolis, IN. He taught at the Vermont Academy where he continued to paint, draw, and print and was acclaimed by the Museum of Modern Art for his etching and printmaking. His paintings received good critical reviews in local and New York papers.
Calvin Douglass (1931-?) was born in Baltimore, MD and resided on New York's Staten Island.
Percy Ferguson, James C. Yeargans, and Earl Miller were also members of Spiral.
*******HOW WOULD YOU RESPOND TO THE POSITION THAT SPIRAL WAS A PART OF THE BLACK ART MOVEMENT?*******POST YOUR RESPONSE BY MIDNIGHT SUNDAY, FEB. 17.
24 comments:
1. Hale Woodruff was an important model of teacher because he would stress the elements of modern art as well as the importance of self discipline. Woodruff believed that self discipline helped organize the ideas, materials, and techniques of his own work. Along with self discipline being a avid point of excellent teaching a last point would be that Mr. Woodruff would encourage all his students to explore all phases of their own artwork.As an activist artist Woodruff studied with mexican artist Diego Rivera and much of his work would reflect french modernism and african influences. As an artist Hale was widely regarded as a visionary artist who was engaged in social issues and encouraged his students to do the same as well.
2. Reginald Gammon (one of the artists for spiral along with Woodruff) was a teacher, painter, and printmaker.In 1969 Gammon helped Benny Andrews form the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition. The Black Emergency Cultural Coalition picketed the Metropolitan Museum of Art along with the Whitney Museum of Mordern Art to protest the exclusion of black artists and curators at both places.
3. My response to Spiral's position in the black art movement would be similar to the original beliefs and ideas of the artists. With the Spiral artists working in such a wide variety of materials they were able to expand their ideals on to some other people. The artists group used materials from abstraction painting to oil painting. the struggles they show in their artwork is the march on washington and civil rights era.
Woodruff was most influential in the promotion of the African American artist. He used his extensive education and talent to inspire up and coming artist and gave them a venue to exhibit their work. He founded the Atlanta University’s Art Department and also arranged exhibitions there of African American artist that were not allowed to exhibit in main stream shows and galleries. Woodruff was more than just a teacher, he inspired his students to excel in their art and in their community. He promoted their work in annual shows that he organized like the “Atlanta University Annuals. Woodruff studied Mural paintings briefly under Diego Rivera and painted the “Amistad Incident” a very moving portrayal of the Slave ship incident. Woodruff was a gifted artist, an inspiring teacher and a promoter of talented African American.
Hale Woodruff
Though Hale Woodruff was a big player and Civil-Rights activist in the 1960s art world (especially the African American art world), I think his most important contribution to 20th century art is his work as a teacher. He cultivated a rich, vast, and varied education, having been educated in the fundamentals in Indianapolis, in the masters in Paris, in mural-painting in Mexico under Diego Riviera, and African aesthetics by his own cultural interests. He singlehandedly kick-started the Atlanta University studio art department, becoming one of the first ever university professors of studio art in Georgia. He brought a major Whitney Museum exhibit to his university and built their art department from the ground up, providing innumerable opportunities for young aspiring artists in the South. He also simultaneously taught classes at Spelman and Morehouse, reaching a wide range of students with his talents. He later went on to teach at NYU for many years to much acclaim. In class we talked about how well Woodruff mediated discussions in Spiral, came up with ideas, and brought people together, and if you couple those traits with his teaching talents I imagine he was incredibly inspirational to young artistic minds. I think his contribution to not just the African-American art world, but the art world in general, is often sadly overlooked and understudied.
It seems that Reggie Gammon practiced a lifestyle of generous, hands-on social activism his whole life. He lost out on a lucrative scholarship to help build navy ships for World War II, and even served in the Navy for two years. He again turned down a scholarship offer so he could work to feed his family, doing whatever jobs he could find. He was a major member of Spiral in the 1960s and was known as one of the more upbeat, go-getting members. He is often credited with being a major source of support to Romare Bearden in his early collage-making days, encouraging Bearden to make some of the most important and innovative art of the Civil Rights Era. In 1969 he and Benny Andrews got together to form the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition, a group that picketed exhibits at the MOMA, the Whitney, and other major museums when they excluded black artists from their shows. He later opened up a weekend art studio for children in Harlem and taught at West Michigan University. Reggie Gammon seemed to live his life actively, working hard to help others and get involved with whatever problems he faced, from World War II to the Civil Rights Movement to social issues in Harlem.
Woodruff was a famed artist, activist and teacher living in France in the 20’s and early 30’s. in Paris, he attended Académies Scandinave and Moderne, and studied under Henry Ossawa Tanner, a leading contemporary black artist. In 1931, Woodruff returned to the United States and taught at the Atlanta University and established the university’s art department. His early work reflected his exposure to cubism while in France; later he became heavily influenced by Diego Rivera, with whom he studied under in 1936 leading him to embrace a regionalist style, rooted in the landscape of the segregated south; drawing parallels between Mexican art and African art which would lead to an exploration of the impact of African art on twentieth-century modern art. In 1942, Woodruff developed the Atlanta University Art Annuals, a national annual exhibition of the works of black artists that ran successfully until 1970, and established the university’s permanent collection of African-American art. In 1943 he received the Julius Rosenwald Foundation Fellowship for creative painting. Three years later he was offered a teaching position at New York University, remaining there until his retirement in 1968. four years earlier he and Romare Bearden established a weekly discussion group of African American artists called spiral lasting only three years; however, SPIRAL laid the groundwork for the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
Woodruff: Woodruff was important because he received training in Europe. He learned formal aspects of Western art that would serve him throughout his life as an artist. I think that his "traditional" training in someways legitimized not only his personal art, but what he taught his students as well. Being self-taught is good in some ways, but in my opinion, one must learn the rules before they can break them. There are many examples of how traditionally trained artists who later shun these same rules are taken much more seriously and are considered in a much more favorable light: Picasso, Jackson Pollock, many post-impressionists and 'modern' painters all received traditional or classical training and revolutionized how we see the world. By applying what he learned both in France and Mexico, compositional/formal elements in Europe and mural painting/western "folk" aesthetics from Mexico, into his art allowed him to simultaneously gain acceptance by the white establishment (the "in" crowd) and create a unique style that resonates with everyone-the emerging black art community included.
Gammon: I think that his role as a teacher was instrumental in his efforts as activist. A successful activist, whether advocating black rights or any other agenda, must be an established and recognized member of society to be taken seriously. Having an idea is only part of it, one must be able to articulate accurately the establishment and present alternatives to the status quo. I feel his background as teacher facilitated that effort. He held the same position for 21 years, which furthered his importance and allowed him to gain traction within the status quo: people are more inclined to take seriously someone who paid his dues to society (especially in education) over the average Joe off the street.Education, obviously, isn't everything, but it helps if you're trying to have an impact on society.
Spiral Group: I have remarked extensively on being taken seriously in my previous 2 comments. I think that's what this group was striving for: black artists strove for recognition AND legitimacy in this pivotal era of American history. This can be expanded to all African Americans: they deserved and demanded to be treated equally, with respect, that they have as much to contribute to society as anyone else. The Spiral Group had differing motives, but the basis for every black movement at this time was the search for legitimacy. The artists associated with the Spiral Group were instrumental, largely due to the fact that they were established before and this game them an air of legitimacy that spoke volumes.
Hale Woodruff used his influence as a teacher and artist to expose new generations of African Americans to activist ideas and ways to express their opinions on the racism they faced. He is credited with establishing the studio art program to Atlanta University while a teacher there. He also created the Atlanta University Art Annuals, which showcased twenty nine nationals art exhibitions for black artists from 1942-1970. Through his many black artist collections he had featured in Atlanta galleries, he was able to expose the community and students to art that they may have not had the opportunity to see or knew existed. He believed that art is something of high importance and vital to the education and history of African Americans. He stated in 1968, "The one thing I think that must be guarded against, is that, in our efforts to create a black image and to assert our quality, our character, our blackness, our beauty, and all that, the art form must remain one of high level."
Hale Woodruff was one of the most influential models in the history of African American Art. With establishing an art program at Spelman College in Atlanta and the National Art Competition and exhibition of African American Art, he was the biggest influence on the country of African American Art. Woodruff, to me, was much more than a teacher to his students. He would encourage his students to expand their art throughout their communities and grasp where they come from. As an artist, Woodruff studied the work of Diego Rivera and with his famous mural paintings, he would reach to the masters of oil paintings in Europe, but focused his work on slavery and what was happening in the African American Community.
Reginald Gammon is a former member of SPIRAL, an educator, printmaker, and painter. The work of Gammon depicted the everyday struggles of the Civil Rights Era and during his time in SPIRAL had the chance to be a part of the only exhibition done by them called "Black and White," this exhibition called out directly to the Civil Rights Movement and Gammon's "Freedom Now" piece was displayed there. After SPIRAL had broken apart, in 1969 Gammon and Benny Andrews came together to form the BECC (The Black Emergency Cultural Coalition). The purpose of this group was the protest against The Whitney Museum of Modern Art and The Metropolitan Museum of Art because of the exclusion of African American Artists in these two places.
REGINALD GAMMON was an artist from the 1960’s, concentrating in the areas of printmaking, painting and teaching he reached out to make a difference during the Civil Rights Movement. Gammon began his artistic career studying at the Philadelphia Museum College of Art with a scholarship, after he graduated from high school in 1941; unfortunately working in a shipyard stripped him of this scholarship the following summer. Although Gammon was offered another scholarship opportunity when he returned from serving in the war (1944-46), he turned it down to take care of his family and spent two years working in the day and attending school at night. In 1948 Gammon packed up and moved to New York City where he spent his free time painting and his days working numerous little jobs to support himself. It was in 1963 when Gammon, along with several other well-known artists, joined the artist group “Spiral.” This Group of artists was very influential during this time of the Civil Rights Movement. The members of Spiral congregated to share ideas, picket gallery openings, and exhibiting their artwork on the streets in their one and only gallery opening called “Black and White”. Gammon by this point has established himself as an “expert” in the art field and began teaching. During the time he was teaching he also opened many opportunities’ for the children of Harlem when he set up a studio for them to come work as they pleased. Gammon was a very influential individual in the world of art, playing a huge role in the famous group Spiral, in his acts of duty for the society, and in his teachings.
SPIRAL was a group of black artists that strived for a change in the society, a change in which the people would open their minds and eyes. Spiral was a group of artists with different opinions and beliefs during this time period of the Civil Rights Movement, but all members believed in pursuing the same cause. African American artists wanted their ideas to "spiral" out into the community and did so through many efforts, but most importantly through their art.
Reginald Gammon is a very interesting African American artist that to me embodies the grass roots of the Black Art Movement. After graduating High School in 1941 he received a scholarship at the Philadelphia Museum College of Art (the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Arts). Unfortunately because he had to get a job at the ship yard it cost him his scholarship. Gammon was determined to pursue his education so for the next 18 months he worked during the day and went to art school at night. Then he was drafted into the Navy and served for 2 years in Guam. After he was discharged from the Navy after the war he was offered a five year scholarship at Tyler School of Fine Arts. Gammon turned down this scholarship so that he could work and support his family. Still determined to get his education he again worked during the day and attended art school at night. Gammon had a long hard road to travel to get his art degree. This was Gammon’s strength, the desire to persevere in the face of adversity. When he moved to New York City where he worked at different jobs and still did his paintings nights and weekends. Gammon became known for his work and in 1963 he was invited to join Spiral. Gammon was considered to be the intellectual, a strong thinker and political activist. His painting Freedom Now was a strong statement showing the unity and determination of the Black Rights Movement. Gammon was instrumental in the Black Arts movement and was an inspiration to those around him.
How could Spiral not be a part of the Black Art Movement? Spiral had in its membership some of the best artist, teachers, writers, and thinkers of that time, gathered into one group. With such an accomplished group it is surprising that there were no casualties. Even though the discussions were sometimes intense and heated they all worked together for the common goal of promoting The Black Arts Movement. When you have thinkers and artist of this caliber exchanging ideas and for Spiral lasting as long as it did shows the commonality of thought of this group.
Throughout his life Reginald Gammon contributed his talents as artist, activist and teacher. He received an education in art from the Philadelphia Museum College of Art and The Stella Elkins Tyler School of Fine Art. Gammon also procured various jobs to utilize his artistic talents such as painting lampshades and designing advertisements. He created art until his dying days in Albuquerque. Throughout his life he created art in many mediums from oils to printmaking. He was honored with many awards and numerous exhibitions as late at 2006. Perhaps the most impressive line on Gammon’s resume to prove his relevance as a high-minded African American artist is his invitation to join Spiral. While his artistic training and production stands alone, this group exemplifies his achievements as artist and activist.
Gammon created Freedom Now for Spiral’s first and only show. It rippled out into society as an emblem of the civil rights era. Gammon truly shared the group’s mission of finding the voice for African American artists within the civil rights movement. With Andrews, another member of Spiral, he formed the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition and avidly protested civil rights issues in and around the NYC art scene. He used his command of figural depiction to illustrate civil rights issues using the Scottsboro trials and events of the civil rights movement as inspiration.
In addition to his talents in art and social activism, Gammon had a glowing gift as a teacher. This quality first came to light when he opened an informal studio in Harlem for children. This experience gave Harlem youth real life experience and inspiration to develop skills, high aspirations and an invaluable head start in the world. Gammon’s 21-year career at the Michigan University in Kalamazoo speaks volumes to his obvious talents as a teacher and his incredible impact on students over the years.
Hale Woodruff was an African American artist and art educator who through his work and knowledge contributed to African American culture greatly. Woodruff was known for his mural paintings, but in addition was a draftsman, and printmaker. He received many awards for his success as an artist. One of the first being the bronze award from the Harmon Foundation for his painting The Old Woman, which allowed him to study abroad. Woodruff traveled a lot and studied up under artists like Henry Ossawa Tanner and Diego Rivera. They were influential in helping Woodruff improve as an artist. While in Atlanta and New York, Woodruff completed three mural series: The Negro in California History (1949), a collaboration with Charles Alston, on display at the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company in California; The Amistad Mutiny (1939), displayed at Talladega College; and his most important work, The Art of the Negro (1951), displayed at Clark Atlanta University Art Galleries. The Art of the Negro traces the history of African art and its impact on modern art, thus showing its importance. Hale not only contributed art to our culture but others thing among this. In 1942, Woodruff developed the Atlanta University Art Annuals, a national annual exhibition of the works of black artists that ran successfully until 1970, and established the university’s permanent collection of African-American art.
Woodruff was also a great educator. After returning from France he joined the Atlanta University faculty, and became one of the first college professors of studio art in the state of Georgia. In addition, he conducted art classes on the Spelman College campus for Atlanta University's Laboratory High School and for Spelman and Morehouse College students. As a teacher he stressed the ideas of modern art as well as the importance of self-discipline. He showed how self-discipline helped organize the ideas, materials, and techniques in his own work, and encouraged his students to learn self-discipline as well. "He encouraged his students to explore all phases of their proposal before the paint was placed on the canvas," according to the Journal of Negro History. He also influenced his students' choice of subject matter by encouraging them to paint from their own environments, often taking small groups outdoors to sketch. "He encouraged students to study their heritage, from which they might learn a sense of artistic structure unlike that of any other art," according to the Journal of Negro History.
Other than how his work contributed to the appreciation and recognition of African Americans he was also a key member in Spiral, a group influential to the black arts movement.
Reginald Gammon was key member to the Spiral Group. Just being a member of this group alone is an important role as an artist activist during the Civil Rights Era. Gammon’s Freedom Now contributed greatly to Spiral’s “Black and White” art show. This show was a pointed statement at the Civil Rights movement. Gammon benefited the most from Spiral because of the recognition he got from the painting. In 1969, Gammon and Benny Andrews formed the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition. This highly political group of artists picketed the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of Modern Art to protest the exclusion of black artists and curators at both institutions.
Spiral was definitely part of the black arts movement. Their purpose was to stimulate an ongoing exchange of evolving ideas. They were the first formal group to respond to the march on Washington. Obviously, they had a different impact than a group such as AfriCOBRA. However, the Spiral group was the root from which other groups emerged. They raised all the questions and started the discussions that defined art during the Civil Rights Era.
Reginald Gammon, a prolific artist, teacher, activist, and founder of BECC, dedicated his life to the arts. After graduating from high school in 1941, Gammon received a scholarship to study art at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Arts (Philadelphia Museum College of Art). In 1963, Gammon was invited to join Spiral. In 1965, Spiral held its only group exhibition in New York City. Called "Black and White" this show was a pointed statement about the civil rights movement. Gammon's piece Freedom Now became on e of the most celebrated pieces of the movement. The group disbanded shortly afterwards. In 1969, Gammon and Benny Andrews formed the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition, a highly political group of artists who picketed the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of Modern Art to protest the exclusion of black artists and curators. Gammon landed a teaching job as an "art expert" with the New York public schools. Teaching in the Saturday Academy Program, Gammon set up an informal studio so that children from Harlem could work with resident artists. Beginning January 1, 1970, this four-month position ended 21 years later with his retirement in 1991 as Full Professor Emeritus of Fine Arts and Humanities. Moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1992, Gammon quickly became immersed in the local art community. Gammon joined the New Mexico Afro-American Artist Guild and the Albuquerque United Artists. He participated in Afro-American Guild exhibits and was their treasurer from 1999 until his death. He was artist-in-residence from 1992-2005 at the Harwood Art Center where he had a painting studio. Gammon was one of the founding members of New Grounds Print Workshop & Gallery (1996) where he renewed his love for printmaking. He developed his last body of work, a collection of over 100 prints of historically important jazz musicians and gospel singers, at New Grounds.
HOW WOULD YOU RESPOND TO THE POSITION THAT SPIRAL WAS A PART OF THE BLACK ART MOVEMENT?
Spiral, a group of African American artists that included Romare Bearden, Richard Mayhew, Hale Woodruff and Alvin Hollingsworth. Spiral was put together as a think tank for black artist residing in New York, as for being a part of the Black Art Movement, Spiral was more of an elitist group of artists with no real hand in the movement, but would lead to the founding of other groups and ideals associated with the movement. Hale Woodruff would be one of the artists who had a direct hand in the movement including the march on Washington. So to clarify, Spiral may have not played any specific role in the Black Art Movement, it did essentially create a fundamental outline and ideals of how later groups would structure themselves, such as OBAC, AfriCobra, even inadvertently the Black Panther Party and the Nation of Islam.
In many ways Spiral worked within the Black Arts Movement, but also forged its own identity within the civil rights era. NYC was the essential birthplace of the BAM and also home to Spiral. Through publications and activism, BAM successfully infiltrated the country with its radical ideas. The singular show put on by Spiral along with the exclusivity of the group affected a more indirect impact on the nation; while many of the images and ideas lasted, the group itself did not actively publicize its mission. BAM disseminated to a broader spectrum of communities around the country in a tangible way, while Spiral issued a sort of silent statement about African Americans and their art. BAM and Spiral also differed in the definition of “ black art” and the “black aesthetic”. BAM inextricably linked the black person to their art. Spiral also explored the notion “black art”. However, members of the group reached different conclusions. For example, Hines refused to enter his work into a show of “Contemporary Black Artists in America” because he viewed his art as decidedly universal, free from the limitations of the African label. With all of these apparent differences, both BAM and Spiral struggled toward a shared goal. As illustrated repeatedly in class, an admirable quality of the African American activists of the civil rights era was the ability to maintain individual beliefs while simultaneously fighting for a common cause. In this way a connection is clearly drawn between Spiral and BAM, two groups who made leaps and bounds for the African American artist during the civil rights era.
sources: http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/blackarts/historical.htm
SPIRAL played a vital role in the Black Art Movement because of the members of this group. They all had different beliefs and thoughts about the Black Arts Movement but they all had the same objective, to get a voice to African Americans and the art of African Americans.
Gammon was asked to join Spiral in 1963. He was a painter, teacher, and printmaker. In 1969, Gammon teamed up with Benny Andrews to form the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition. The purpose of this group was an attempt to end the prejudice against African American artists. At the same time, he began his role as "art expert" in the public schools of New York. This position was only supposed to last four months, but Gammon ended up retiring twenty-one years later in 1991. When he moved to Albuquerque in 1992, he jumped right into getting involved with the surrounding art community. He then became part of the New Mexico Artist Guild as well as the Albuquerque United Artists.
One of the things I did not mention on the subject of Reginald Gammon was that he had a 10 day lecture position at Western Michigan University in 1970 that was extended for a full semester and then he stayed there for 21 years until his retirement in 1991.
Gammon:
Reggie Gammon was certainly a one of the pioneering and innovative figures on the forefront of the efforts of African American artists during the Civil Rights Movement. He represents a true artist, one who never let obstacles stand in the way of incorporating art into his life. Gammon turned down two scholarships from prestigious institutions so that he could serve his country and support his family. He did not let this discourage him and he continued to create art that gained him an invitation to the Spiral group in 1963. During his time with the group, Gammon created one of the most iconic images of the movemnet: "Freedom Now". This piece reverberated throughout the black communities in American and inspired many to join in the fight for equal rights in their own way, just as the Spiral group did. Gammon's artwork played a key role in advancing the mission of the group to represent the African American artist in an overtly racist nation. His efforts in the Civil Rights Movement did not end with Spiral. After the group disbanded, Gammon joined Benny Andrews in establishing the Black Emergency Culture Coalition. This organization picketed and protested outside of the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of Modern Art as a result of the exclusion of black artists from the exhibitions. Gammon was not only an activist through his art, he was also an activist through his life and through his actions. He was fighting the injustices of the nation in the art world-- ironically a world where free expression was encouraged for all. He actively changed the way that people viewed African American artists and showcased the positive legacy that African Americans have left on America.
I don't know how anyone would look past Spiral being a part of the Black Arts Movement. It was composed of so many different types of artists and people who had an appreciation of art in general. Their different opinions formulated together are is what caused Spiral to have such a great impact in the Movement.
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