PAFA Presents After Tanner: African American Artists Since 1940 PHILADELPHIA – In conjunction with its major exhibition of works by Henry O. Tanner, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) presents After Tanner: African American Artists Since 1940, on view January 28 – April 15, 2012.
Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937) was a mentor and role model for younger artists during his lifetime and has been a source of pride for many generations of artists since his death. An exhibition drawn largely from PAFA’s collection and supplemented by several major loans, After Tanner: African-American Artists Since 1940 broadly celebrates what Tanner’s career inspired and made possible in its wake.
Tanner was a trailblazer, bravely choosing his own path and attaining international stature in the arts despite innumerable societal challenges. He was also an innovator of African-American genre painting and in religious subjects, where he made his most lasting and powerful contribution to art history. It is not unreasonable to assert that Tanner’s professional example together with the quality of his work made it possible for subsequent generations of African-American artists to pursue their aspirations in the art world and transform American art in the twentieth century.
“It is important to remember that Henry Ossawa Tanner’s career bridged the 19th and 20th centuries,” says Robert Cozzolino, Senior Curator and Curator of Modern Art. “He navigated a period of rapid change in the art world. While he has been firmly associated with 19th-century styles, PAFA’s Tanner retrospective will show how modern he was and what an extraordinary experimenter he was with regard to imagery and technique. Younger artists took note and admired the integrity with which he managed his career. After Tanner is an opportunity to consider the innumerable channels for expression Tanner’s example opened up for African-American artists working in the wake of his career.”
Some of the artists included in the exhibition sought out and met Tanner, including William H. Johnson (in 1926) and Hale Woodruff (in 1928). Other artists, such as Reginald Gammon made paintings in homage to Tanner. Gammon's 1967 portrait of Tanner, based on a 1930s photograph, was a highly personal image for the artist, made on a panel given to him by his friend Romare Bearden. A double homage to two important figures in American art history, it is an icon of creative power and lineage. Faith Ringgold celebrates a key moment in Tanner’s biography -- the moment when he decided to become an artist – by imagining it in a recent print commissioned by PAFA.
Others, such as Bearden and Alma Thomas, took up religious themes that meant a great deal to Tanner, and reworked them by using new materials and a modernist visual language unique to their time. Contemporary artists such as Laylah Ali, Willie Cole, Glenn Ligon, Quentin Morris, and Kara Walker explore identity and a complex cultural past in ways that Tanner could not have imagined.
The installation runs parallel with Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit, upstairs from the exhibition in the Annenberg Gallery of the Samuel M. V. Hamilton Building. On Sunday February 5th at 2PM artist Willie Cole, whose work Branded Irons (2000), is featured in After Tanner, will give a lecture at PAFA in the Hamilton Auditorium of the Historic Landmark Building.
###
Founded in 1805, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is America's first school of fine arts and museum. A recipient of the 2005 National Medal of Arts presented by the President of the United States, PAFA is a recognized leader in fine arts education. Nearly every major American artist has taught, studied, or exhibited at the Academy. The institution's world-class collection of American art continues to grow and provides what only a few other art institutions in the world offer: the rare combination of an outstanding museum and an extraordinary faculty known for its commitment to students and for the stature and quality of its artistic work.
HOURS
Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Wednesday to 8 p.m.
Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
ADMISSION
(includes the Historic Landmark Building)
Adults $15; Senior (60+) and Students with I.D. $12;
Youth ages (13 - 18) $10; Child (12 and under, excluding groups) FREE.
Sunday admission to Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit is FREE throughout the run of the exhibition.
ADMISSION TO HISTORIC LANDMARK BUILDING
Adults $10; Senior (60+) and Students with I.D. $8;
Youth ages (13 - 18) $6; Child (12 and under, excluding groups) FREE
fter Tanner: African American Artists Since 1940