The HCAC public history focused digital archive cataloging is an ongoing process, and we may update this record as we conduct additional research and review. We welcome your comments and feedback if you have more information to share about an item featured on the site, please contact us at: HCAC-DigiTeam@si.edu
Born in Georgia, Robert Willis was an artist who studied art at Morehouse College. Pacific Movements is a watercolor painting of a landscape during a storm. The piece shows pitched tents surrounded by trees blowing in the wind under a dark clouded sky and rolling ocean waves.
Ernest Chrichlow was a narrative painter and illustrator from Brooklyn, NY. In 1940, he started a picture book series displaying Black children in positive roles. Paulette depicts a young Black girl playing with a toy. She is wearing overalls, a navy shirt, white sneakers, and a white bow. Behind her is a Heinz Food poster with a white baby.
Roy DeCarava was a painter and printmaker before becoming known as a Harlem Renaissance photographer. Pickets depicts two men in winter wear standing in a picket line; they both wear sandwich boards. This lithograph was created in response to the frustration with wages and working conditions after the end of the wartime no-strike pledge.
William S. Carter was an abstract, landscape, still-life, and figurative painter from St. Louis, Missouri. Pieta is an interpretation of Michaelangelo's Madonna della Pietà. The gestural ink markings create facial features and show eyes looking downward on top of a pastel-colored backdrop.
Benjamin Britt was a figurative, surrealist, and abstract painter and art teacher from Winfall, NC. Pink Sand #2 is a surrealist depiction of a post-apocalyptic urbanscape. In the background is a lone figure walking away from a dilapidated pink-tinted city surrounded by pink sand. In the foreground is a warped tree and other organic debris.
Howard E. Lewis was an Art professor and Korean War veteran from Columbus, OH. Pitiless Sun is an abstract depiction of a desert landscape during an eclipse.
Jacob Lawrence was a renowned painter from Atlantic City, NJ. Playland shows a room with people standing around a table with a crowd. The majority wear black trench coats and fedoras. Three people wear yellow dresses, and two wear striped clothing and headwear. Gambling occurs in front of a decorated wall with various suits of playing cards.
John Woodrow Wilson, a sculptor, painter, and printmaker from Roxbury, MA, was known for his creative portraits. Portrait of Claire is a portrait of a young Black woman. Her black hair is styled upwards, and a pink ornament is pinned. She wears a yellow collared blouse, a blue vest, and blue bottoms.
Franklin Shands was a painter from Cincinnati, Ohio. Portrait of Jo is a portrait of a woman looking sternly into a distance as a light shines on the left side of her face. The woman, named Jo, wears her black hair pinned upwards, wears a blue top, small earrings, and red lipstick.
Merton D. Simpson was an abstract expressionist painter and African art collector from Brooklyn, N.Y. Portrait of The Wise Men is an oil painting of the three male Biblical magi. The men on the left and right hold texts, and the central man's head is visible between them. Simpson uses muted colors throughout the piece.
Dr. Arthur L. Britt was an artist and educator from Cuthbert, GA. Poverty Toy Chest is an installation that displays items impoverished children use for recreational play. It shows the disparity and ingenuity of people with little resources.
Al Tyler was an artist known for his figurative murals and landscape paintings. Prayer for Freedom shows two scenes from the fight for Civil Rights. On the left, black and white people are leaving a courthouse, and on the right, armed officials are stopping Black men from entering a building.
James Adair was an artist from Atlanta, GA. A prayer Meeting is an abstract depiction of a group of people practicing a religious ritual. Adair uses broad brush strokes of green, red, and yellow to create this scene of piety.
Alexander S. McMath was a painter and educator from Clinton, SC. Prelude to a Kiss is a non-figurative abstraction consisting of gestural brush strokes.
John Farrar was a child prodigy who won the 3rd Atlanta Art Annuals at age 15. His winning piece, Queenie, is a realist depiction of a dog lying on a white sheet in a dark room.
James Conroy Yeargans was a painter from Kansas City, MI. Quest of Blue is an abstract painting with colored layers that create a myriad of forms. The word “quest” can be seen as the letters are connected by gestured strokes and lines.
Calvin Burnett was a graphic artist, illustrator, painter, designer, and art teacher from Cambridge, MA. Recurring Dream depicts a girl plagued by supernatural nightmares. The sleeping Black girl rises in the air as a white hag floats above her.
William H. Johnson was a painter from Florence, SC. Red Cross Knitting Center depicts seven Black women in lab coats and aprons. The women are knitting in support of the Red Cross' relief efforts. The Red Cross began knitting campaigns in 1917 during World War I.
Romeyn van Vleck Lippman was a 19th-century painter and educator. Revival depicts three figures standing in a position of grief and consolation. The central Black boy is looking down grievingly, a Black woman is behind him with an averted gaze, and to his left is a veiled elderly White woman gazing at him while holding his chest.
Margaret Taylor Goss Burroughs was an artist, historian, teacher, and writer from St. Rose, LA. Ribbon Man: Mexico City Market is a watercolor scene of a mother buying ribbons for her children. The ribbon seller joyously sells his colorful ribbons in the middle of a market in Mexico City, MX.
John Woodrow Wilson, a sculptor, painter, and printmaker from Roxbury, MA, was known for his creative portraits and stylistic approach to social justice. Roxbury Landscape shows a gated park under a blue, white, and yellow sky. Behind other buildings, there is a tall church and a courtyard with bare trees, depicting Autumn in Wilson’s hometown.
John Woodrow Wilson was a sculptor, painter, printmaker, and educator from Roxbury, MA. Roxbury Rooftops depicts an urbanscape from the perspective of the rooftops. The buildings closest to the viewer are shown in hues of red, orange, and yellow. Buildings further away are more brown, green, and gray.
Leon Lank Leonard, Sr. was a painter, sculptor, and educator from Waco, TX. Sad Jester combines gestural line art, expressive brushwork, and abstract forms. These techniques are layered to create a face that is centered in the composition. There are mixes and hues of blue, red, green, yellow, orange, and black.
William Hayden was a painter and educator from Lexington, NC. Saturday Night Function is a juke joint scene depicting Black people dancing, playing instruments, and socializing. Hayden illuminates the interiorities of African-American nightlife in the mid-1900s.
Harvey W. Lee Jr. was born in St. Louis, MO, and he moved to Daytona Beach, FL. to teach art history professor at Bethune-Cookman College in 1952. Seascape depicts a house by the sea. The cubist painting uses intersecting stark black lines with shades of brown, green, blue, and red to create a full composition.
Robert A. Daniel was an artist from Tallahassee, FL. Seated Figure is a portrait of a Black woman sitting in a green chair in front of an ironing board. She seems to be resting from doing domestic labor.
Jack Adams was an artist from Atlanta, GA. Seated Figure depicts a wearied woman resting after domestic duties. She sits in a green chair in front of an ironing board, dressed in a purple dress, blue headdress, stockings, and brown boots.
Hayward Oubre was a multimedia artist and educator from New Orleans, LA. Seated Woman is a sculpture of a bodacious woman with a solemn expression. Her right arm is crossed over her chest, and her left arm hangs between her legs.
Cecil D Nelson Jr. was a painter born in Champaign, IL. Self Portrait - Confronted Age, 16 depicts a Black male teenager haunted by racial violence. He sits in a chair holding a paintbrush with his hand on his head, wearing a shirt with a target symbol. There is also a rope, mask, and torn newspaper with the headline “lynch.”
