#close looking

How would you describe this person’s expression? What emotions do you associate with these colors? How do artists create works of art that empower people and imagine a more just future?

Let’s start by looking closely at how this woman is depicted. She is placed in the center of the painting, filling the majority of the space on the canvas. Her mouth is open as she speaks into the microphone she holds in her hand, and her eyes look left into the distance, somewhere beyond the frame. Her hairstyle radiates like a halo around her head. The bright, vibrant colors almost seem to pulse with energy, and the whole composition - from her central position, to the lines that lead from the bandolier-like trim of her jacket, to the vivid colors around her head - pulls the viewers’ eyes again and again towards her face.

The artist, Wadsworth A. Jarrell, incorporated various words throughout the painting; in fact, they actually make up the figure, her clothes, and her background as though they were tiles in a mosaic. Looking near the woman’s face we can see the words “Beautiful,” “Resist,” and “Seize the time;” near her head is the phrase “Get ready for revolution.” These are phrases of the Black Power Movement, which was thriving when this painting was created in 1971. The Black Power Movement sought to fight racial, economic, and political inequities experienced by African Americans, and to empower black communities in all facets of their lives. Jarrell belonged to a black artist collective known as AfriCOBRA (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists), which sought to demonstrate the “expressive awesomeness that one experiences in African art and life in the U.S.A.” through the use of bright colors and inclusion of meaningful text. The artists in the collective were interested in shining a light on the richness and abundance of joy, beauty, and resilience of their communities.

Over the woman’s shoulders are the words: “I have given my life to the struggle. If I have to lose my life to the struggle that’s the way it will have to be.”  These words were spoken by the subject of the painting herself, Angela Davis. Davis is a professor, activist, and prominent member of the Black Power Movement. At the time of this painting, Davis was fleeing a warrant for her arrest in connection with the murder of a prison guard - an accusation of which she was later found not guilty. In an interview, Wadsworth Jarrell stated that, when painting public figures like Angela Davis, he “presented their positive strength as leaders. During the 1960s, most African American artists rooted their art in the European aesthetics taught them in art schools. In AfriCOBRA we were more interested in developing an aesthetic rooted in African American and African cultures - a new language, which we called an African American or Black aesthetic. Ours was art for the people.” Looking at the painting, how do you think the “positive strength” of Angela Davis has been communicated? What tools has the artist employed? How does this change the way you see the painting?

Davis remains an active advocate of racial, gender, and economic justice. In 2016, she was asked by an interviewer, “Is the struggle endless?”  Davis responded: “I would say that as our struggles mature, they produce new ideas, new issues, and new terrains on which we engage in the quest for freedom. Like Nelson Mandela, we must be willing to embrace the long walk toward freedom.” 

Black lives matter. The lives of Black people deserve to be held sacred and to be protected; Black people deserve to be free of violence. The experiences of Black people need to be heard and believed. We live in a country where this is not the case and has never been the case, and it is the responsibility of those of us who continue to benefit from systems of white supremacy to engage in the work of taking those systems apart and joining in the radical reimagining of what society can and should be. It is and will be an ongoing process; it is work that may never be "finished" and it is work that cannot be allowed to fall to the wayside when the news and social media feeds have focused attention elsewhere. For me, it means understanding my own positionality, how I can contribute to the work of people who know much more than me, and how I can listen to others more deeply. As a white, cisgender woman I struggle with how I can be a part of that long walk to freedom, and how I can be an ally and an advocate while amplifying the voices of people of color. Jarrell’s painting of Angela Davis reminds me to consider whose voices I listen to, when I listen to them, and how I listen to them. In a similar way, this painting asks those questions of artists and institutions as well. How can artists use their voices to empower and imagine a more just world today? How can art, artists, and art institutions be used as positive vehicles for moving our communities and our nation to a place of greater equity? Join us in the comments below to continue the conversation.

Most people spend about 17 seconds looking at a work of art. It’s time to hit pause. Join us on Saturday, April 14, for Slow Art Day, a global event designed to help you explore the art of seeing with mindful looking.

Imagine holding this quilt in your hands. What might it feel like? How would you describe the materials used? What words come to mind as you look at the patterns?

Viewers of this quilt and others like it have often remarked that, while at first it seemed chaotic or haphazard, there is an internal order or rhythm that emerges the longer one looks. Stitched from multiple pieces of cloth—whether from scraps, from cloth objects no longer usable or needed, or from reams of cloth purchased for this purpose—quilts like this one are remarkable works that demonstrate skill in design and in geometry. Whether cut from cloth purchased specifically for quilting or whether the pieces had another “life” before being incorporated into this quilt, all were carefully selected and meticulously placed by the artist Anna Williams, an African American woman whose quilting work gained recognition by collectors in the 1990s and continues to serve as inspiration for textile artists today. 

Anna Williams was born to the southeast of Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1927 where she was raised by her mother and grandmother, both workers on a local plantation. After helping them in the fields during the day, Williams would spend her evenings learning to sew and quilt from her mother and grandmother. “I would pick up the strings of materials that fell to the floor, and I started making dresses for my dolls using the strings,” Williams recalled. 

While Williams learned traditional patterns used in quilting from her family, she, like many quilters, improvises when she makes her own quilts rather than adhering to a specific pattern. This quilt is made up of triangles pieced together to form blocks. This “pinwheel block” pattern forms the underlying structure of the quilt, but Williams allows herself the freedom to deviate from it with additional strips of cloth as needed. 

Quilts are the product of great labor. There is the creative labor of selecting the cloth with patterns and colors that will fulfill the creator’s vision, and there is the physical labor - the many hours spent carefully cutting and stitching the pieces together. Often historically associated with women (though men have also been identified as quilters), this labor and the creativity involved in the creation of quilts went largely unrecognized until the mid-twentieth century, when museums began to hang quilts as forms of abstract art. Today, quilts continue to be shown in Museums, but are recognized in a multitude of ways - from being hung like abstract art to being appreciated as their own, unique aesthetic and art practice. 

Beyond their functionality and decorative beauty, however, quilts are also acts of care. Quilting is often a group activity, bringing together a community. In such gatherings or quilting bees, the stories shared between the artists are valued and the quilting community provides each other with both social and emotional support. When they are finished, quilts are used to care for the community and become layered with new memories. Another quilter, Lucy T. Pettway of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, described using the quilts she made for her children to lay on: “used to spread down quilts all the time at night. I spread a quilt down and let the children sleep until they get cool, you know. Then we'd get in the house.” The process of quilting can also be an act of self-care and means of expression.. As Williams herself noted, her nightly routine of working on her quilts was a way to “keep my mind off my troubles.”

What other ways can art be a part of care networks? What is the relationship between labor and acts of care? Share your thoughts with us, and explore some more of the quilts in our open collection.