Artist Spotlight: Benny Andrews (1930–2006)

For Benny there was no line where his activism ended, and his art began. To him, using his brush and his pen to capture the essence and spirit of his time was as much an act of protest as sitting-in or sitting-down was for me. I can see him now: thinking, speaking, articulating what needs to be done and in the next few moments trying to make real what he had been contemplating. He was honest to a fault, and I think it was his determination to speak the plain truth that shaped his demand for justice and social integrity. He never aligned with any political group, but would offer the full weight of his support to anyone he thought was standing for truth.... 

 – John Lewis, Congressman and civil rights leader 

Andrews at Queen's College, 1997. © Benny Andrews Estate

Benny Andrews’s long and prolific career is eloquently synthesized in Lewis’s account of the artist’s character. His commitment to both art and activism manifests in the many series, paintings and drawings he created. Recently exhibited at the Georgia Museum of Art in “Storytelling: The Georgia Review’s 70th Anniversary Art Retrospective” and soon to appear in “Expanding Tradition: Selections from the Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Collection,” the truthfulness and impact of Andrews’s work (both inside and outside of the art world) has not gone unnoticed. It is our honor to exhibit pieces by Andrews twice within just a couple of months. His lifelong dedication to art and activism is an important reminder of why we create, promote, and invest in art.

Benny Andrews, Circle Study #2, 1972. © Benny Andrews Estate

Born and raised as the son of sharecroppers in Plainview, Georgia, Andrews was one of ten children. The first in his family to graduate from high school, he went on to graduate from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1958 after he served as a staff sergeant in the Korean War. Upon finishing school, Andrews moved to New York City. After spending a few years working in the city, Andrews received an invite from Bella Fishko to become a member of the Forum Gallery. His first New York solo show was mounted later that year, and he began meeting artists such as Bob Thompson, Jacob Lawrence, and George Segal (three artists whose work can also be found within the Georgia Museum of Art’s galleries.) Representation with Forum projected Andrews into the New York art scene, and his introduction to other artists became integral as he encouraged others to protest and oppose acts of discrimination from New York’s leading art institutions.

At once exhibiting an interest in abstraction, surrealism and figuration, Andrews’s work has a unique way of achieving unification despite its pastiche-like quality. While he may paint a large surrealist landscape (i.e. Circle Study #11) in one stroke, he creates a mixed-media portrait in the next. On view in “Expanding Tradition” is Poverty (America Series), which is composed of oil and graphite on paper with painted fabric collage. Seen in videos chronicling his process, Andrews roams the archives of his studio, drawing not only inspiration from the works that line the walls but oftentimes cutting figures or images out of past canvases themselves. This method of creation reads in the collage-like nature of his product, a remarkable blend of textures, colors, and, ultimately, of experience. Of his incorporation of fabric, Andrews says in American Vision (June/July 1992), “Where I am from….We wear rough fabrics. We actually used the burlap bagging sacks that seed came in to make our shirts. These are my textures.”

Benny Andrews, Poverty (America Series), 1990.
© Benny Andrews Estate

Drawing from his rural upbringing, heritage, and the cultural climate of his moment, Andrews’s output of work is extensive, socially critical, political and personal. Politically engaged as Andrews’s work is, however, it cannot be said that his oeuvre exists only for the time in which he experienced and created these representations of poverty, racism, and sexism – the themes in his work remain relevant today and are poignant reminders of the necessary role that artists play in the fight for justice, equality and love.

Sarah Dotson
Publications Intern

“Expanding Tradition: Selections from the Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Collection”

Mildred Thompson, Open Window Series V, 1977

Opening this Saturday, “Expanding Tradition: Selections from the Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Collection” is the highly anticipated showcase of over 50 works by artists in the Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Collection of African American Art and celebrates the inception of the Thompsons’ endowed curatorship, currently held by Dr. Shawnya L. Harris. “Expanding Tradition” builds upon the 2009 exhibition “Tradition Redefined: The Larry and Brenda Thompson Collection of African American Art,” organized by the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland, College Park.

In 2011, the Thompsons donated 100 works of art to the Georgia Museum of Art, and this exhibition provides an overview of certain aspects of the Thompsons’ commitment to art collecting over the last several decades, in tandem with discussions about the shifting artistic and political landscape for African American artists found in their collection. Artists include contemporary artists such as Willie Cole, Whitfield Lovell, Kevin Cole and Kara Walker as well as historical artists such as Elizabeth Catlett, Charles Sebree, Beauford Delaney and Benny Andrews. Rare Great Depression–era works by Norman Lewis, Charles White, Dox Thrash and Rose Piper will also be exhibited.

Left to right: Larry D. Thompson, Shawnya L. Harris and Brenda A. Thompson

“Expanding Tradition: Selections from the Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Collection” is on view from January 28 to May 7, 2017. The accompanying catalogue, published by the museum, features a statement of the history and meaning of their many years of collecting as well as a lead essay by Harris, which provides a detailed survey of the artists in the exhibition.

Related events include:

90 Carlton: Winter, the museum’s quarterly reception (free for members of the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art, $5 non-members)
Friday, February 10 at 5:30 p.m.

Tour at Two with curator Shawnya Harris
Wednesday, February 15 at 2 p.m.

“Conversation on Collecting,” a discussion with the Thompsons and Curlee Raven Holton, executive director of the David C. Driskell Center
Thursday, February 23 at 5:30 p.m.

Black History Month Dinner ($55 members, $75 nonmembers)
Friday, February 24 at 6 p.m.

“Artful Conversation,” hosted in the galleries by assistant curator of education Sage Kincaid
Wednesday, March 22 at 2 p.m.

Artists’ Panel Discussion
Thursday, March 23, time TBA

Family Day
Saturday, April 15, 10 a.m. to noon

All events are free and open to the public unless otherwise indicated.

Tradition Redefined: Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson

Last month, we introduced Shawnya Harris, our new Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Curator of African American and African Diasporic Art. Harris’s position on our curatorial staff was funded by an endowment by Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson, generous donors who have created a lasting legacy here at the museum. This week, we celebrate the Thompsons for their contributions to the education and cultural enrichment of the museum and its community.

Tradition Redefined: Brenda A. and Larry D. Thompson

In 2011, the Thompsons donated 100 works to the Georgia Museum of Art from their private collection of pieces by African American artists. This initial donation echoes the donation by the museum's founder, Alfred Heber Holbrook, who donated 100 American paintings to the people of Georgia in 1945. The Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Collection of African American Art includes paintings, prints and sculpture from the 1890s to present, some of which are on view now in the permanent collection wing at the museum. An upcoming exhibition in early 2017 will feature selections from the Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Collection and highlight additional works by important, yet underrecognized African American artists. In addition, this exhibition will celebrate the inception of the Thompsons’ endowed curatorship. According to museum director William U. Eiland, the Thompsons "have quite simply changed the course of this museum. In effect, the Thompson endowment and the gift of their collection guarantees the ongoing study and exposure of African American artists in Georgia for posterity."

Radcliffe Bailey, 7 Steps (1994). From the Larry D. and

Brenda A. Thompson Collection of African American Art.

On view at the Georgia Museum of Art.

On February 26, the museum will present the Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Award, named in their honor, at its annual Black History Month awards dinner. The award recognizes a living African American visual artist with a significant Georgia connection. This year's winner is artist Emma Amos. To purchase tickets for the dinner or to become a sponsor, click here.

About Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson: Both Larry and Brenda Thompson have significant ties to the University of Georgia and the museum. Larry joined Georgia Law in 2011 as the John A. Sibley Professor in Corporate and Business Law. Having served as former deputy attorney general for the United States and former senior vice president of government affairs, general counsel and secretary for PepsiCo., he now teaches about corporate law and white-collar crime. Previously, he was a partner in the Atlanta office of King & Spalding and served as the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, where he directed the Southern Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force and was a member of the Attorney General’s Economic Crime Council. Brenda, a member of the museum’s board of advisors, received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Saint Louis University in 1980. She was an assistant professor at Morehouse College in the department of psychology before focusing on child and adolescent mental health, first as a clinical psychologist and then as a school psychologist. A longtime patron and leader in the arts, she also serves on the board of trustees for the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia and for the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Samantha Meyer and Madison Bledsoe contributed to this post.

Meet Shawnya Harris, our new Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Curator of African American and African Diasporic Art

Shawnya Harris, Larry D. and Brenda A.
Thompson Curator of African American
and African Diasporic Art

If it hadn’t been for a vacant seat on a shuttle bus and a welcoming smile, the Georgia Museum of Art might never have had Shawnya Harris as its inaugural Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Curator of African American and African Diasporic Art. The way Harris tells it, she stepped aboard the bus at the annual College Art Association conference only to be greeted by the grin of Lynn Boland, the museum’s Pierre Daura Curator of European Art, who encouraged her to take the seat next to him. As they chatted, she was intrigued by his ability to pursue academic research, organize exhibitions and work with the public, all at the same time. They spent the rest of the drive talking about the Thompsons’ collection, which she knew from the David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland.

Harris holds both master’s and doctoral degrees in art history from the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, and she received her bachelor’s degree in African American Studies from Yale University. It was during Harris's undergraduate years that she decided she wanted to work in museums. The way the university integrated its gallery into the curriculum, combined with the enthusiasm of certain crucial professors for visual arts, hooked her. One of those teachers was Robert Farris Thompson, a specialist in Black Atlantic art, and Harris was inspired by his eclectic way of approaching material, fusing fine with vernacular art in an effort to tell a sweeping, inclusive story.

Robert, one of our preparators, and
Shawnya exchanging a laugh.

Harris comes to the museum from Elizabeth City State University, Elizabeth City, North Carolina, where she taught courses in African American art, 20th-century art and art appreciation, as well as survey courses on the history of Western art. In addition to teaching at UNC Chapel Hill and Middle Tennessee State University, Harris served as director of the University Galleries at North Carolina A&T State University, in Greensboro, North Carolina, and worked as an art consultant at North Carolina Central University’s art museum and as a research assistant at UNC Chapel Hill’s Ackland Art Museum.

Her eyes light up when she talks about what she wants to accomplish in her position at the Georgia Museum of Art. The upcoming reinstallation of the permanent collection, for example, is a way to juxtapose artists of color with their peers, helping them become part of the narrative of art history rather than confining them to their own section in the galleries. 

Harris will start teaching at the Lamar Dodd School of Art next academic year, with Introduction to African American Art, a survey course that will allow her to use the museum’s permanent collection. Here, as elsewhere, she plans on conveying what she learned from her own teachers: an enthusiasm for the subject and for the work. To Harris, that is the most important thing she can pass on.

Adapted from an article in Facet, the museum's quarterly publication. The official press release can be read here.