African-American Folk Art Sculpture by the late Lucy Robinson of Baltimore collection Jim Linderman
Unusual and dramatic work created by the late Lucy Robinson, African-American b. 1921, Baltimore, MD. Ms. Johnson was self-taught artistically, and she invented a form of sculptural art in which crepe paper was twisted tightly into cordage and applied to bottles, cardboard, tree branches and found objects. The work here dates to the mid 1970s. The "God is Love" globe is 1.5 feet tall, and measures some 50 inches around at the widest point. Much of her work incorporates text, abstracted human figures and design elements of her own creation. A good share of the pieces are religious. The artist passed away in 2012, and a relative asked a Baltimore woman to administer the collection. At the time of the artist's death, an exhibition was being planned, but to this day her work is shown publicly only in offices of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. These are works the artist gifted to the staff.
I acquired the works shown (top) from the Phoenix, Arizona based Nowhere to Land shop in Tucson, AZ. The bulk of the remaining work is cataloged and stored, but at the time of this post several pieces are being offered by the seller HERE. Among the available works is the enormous "Zodiac Horoscope" globe shown below:
Biographical material below was taken from the Obituary website with minor changes. It is the most complete information on the artist:
Lucy Ellen Robinson was born in Baltimore, Maryland on June 22, 1921 and departed gracefully on March 4, 2012. She was the daughter of the late Arthur Raison and Alice Beal Robinson (nee Lomax). She was ninety years old. Lucy was affectionately known as "Sister" to her family, friends and everyone who knew her. born in Baltimore, Maryland in the old "South Baltimore," she grew up learning to cook and clean before she could even read. Lucy was the oldest of four children; the lat Alexander Raison, the late Jeanette Robinson, and the late Flora Mae Claiborne. Lucy attended the Baltimore City Public School System but had to leave while in high school to help out at home. this however, did not deter her from her dreams. Lucy worked several jobs while growing up but her passion was art and music. she recorded several songs in the 1070's including a Christmas son song titled, "Daddy, Please come home for Christmas." She also had numerous copyrighted poems and books. Among them were, "The Witch from Creeky Hollow," "The Roach from No Man's Land," "Yes there Is a Better way," "Christ is coming Back Again," and "If I Could end This War Today." In the early 70's while recuperating from a surgical procedure, Lucy developed her own unique form of art. She was able to create beautiful pieces of colorful crafts from recycled materials such as rocks, seashells. empty soda and glass table tops, water-cooler containers and fish tanks to name a few. She would take different shades of crepe paper, transform it into a rope like material by hand, and use her wonderful imagination to turn it into something spectacular. She taught her amazing art form at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School's Summer Arts Program until 1977. Lucy's work has been sold at numerous craft shows and flea markets throughput Maryland, but she was so generous that she gave her art away as gifts. Over the lat thirty-five years she has made and given gifts to too many people to count. Among those recipients were President and Mrs. Barack Obama, governor Martin O'Malley, the late William Donald Schafer, Oprah Winfrey, Ray Lewis, and Dr. Benjamin Carson. Her work adorns the shelves and desk of numerous offices of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, the Afro-American Newspaper, City Hall, and Margaret Brent Elementary School. At the time of her death, she was patiently awaiting a possible exhibition of her work at the Reginald f. Lewis Museum. Lucy continued to create her magnificent and beautiful crafts until her untimely death.
Group of five original works by Lucy Robinson circa 1975 "God is Love Globe" and four vessels. Collection Jim Linderman
An African-American effigy made of cement with bead eyes and gold paint. Circa 1920 (?) found in the Whitehaven neighborhood of Memphis, TN in the mid 1980s. Purchased at an African-American family yard sale. They likely "inherited" the piece, as they said it was "always sitting on the back steps." Inscribed around base "JIM LADY" An early African-American Folk Art Figural Sculpture pieces from the United States.
African-American Folk Art Figure collection Jim Linderman
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A little Civil War man from Jekyll Island, Georgia. Circa 1865, made as a whimsey from lead, I believe, and I assume the same lead used to make bullets. That is a guess. When I obtained the little fellow, he was in two parts, which is not surprising as lead is soft and he was buried a long time. I have rejoined him temporarily for the photo. You can see what he was found with below…relics. Relics of a war we have still not come to grips with. How can we? African American Slave Made Folk Art Figure? Or Mere Whimsey.
When I purchased this fellow, I had not mere whimsey in mind. I was thinking of the famous slave-made iron figure also unearthed, but from a blacksmith's shop and slave quarters in Virginia, not a Civil War resting place. The figure which has been written about by scholar John Michael Vlach is frequently used to illustrate African craft, sculptural traditions and skills which were transmitted across the Atlantic…setting the stage for a war fought over freedom and commerce just before the industrial revolution.
The similar stance, diminutive size and presence was evident immediately. Were there slaves (or African-American freedmen) around the campfire in Jekyll Island when this fellow was melted in a spoon and shaped in the sand? Or was this simply a way for a bored soldier, of either side, to spend some time.
Jekyll Island is called "an affordable Georgia Beach family vacation spot" today. As with much of the low-country along Georgia and South Carolina, what was once plantation is now golf course. Fifty years AFTER the importation of slaves to the United States became illegal, they were still coming to Jekyll Island. The second to last shipment of slaves imported to the states arrived there in 1858…some 450 men torn from their homes and made to work. I do not know how many men were on the boat when it left Africa, but one source says the ship Wanderer arrived with 409 slaves. The mortality rate for passage was 12 percent, so that would be about right.
The people who arranged the illegal shipment knew what they were doing and knew the rewards. They choose to profit.
The Union Army arrived on St. Jekyll Island in 1862. By that time the plantation was deserted, but after the war the man who owned the island returned and split it up among his sons.
So is my mere whimsey a more profound object now? It is to me. Did it just happen to be found during the same dig, but made earlier by an African-American man who lost his home but retained his esthetics?
"Relic" man Metal (lead?) circa 1860 Height 4" Collection Jim Linderman
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No, the pictures above are not from the Outsider Art Fair 20th anniversary.
Viewing the 20th anniversary outsider art fair from afar, through slide shows, it appears after all that time the field (as I hate to call it) is still confused, too inclusive and loaded with baggage. At best a misnomer, the term has been squabbled over for so long I gave up, but with distance and time, I will revisit.
Shown here is the material which first attracted my eye, the Black Folk Art show of 1982. A magnificent exhibition of material which was mistakenly included under the rubric of outsider art around the same time, but a show which to this day remains as one of the best curated art shows of my lifetime.
The true defining criteria for anyone being marketed as an outsider is a complete lack of training in the arts. No schooling and I'm not fooling. I have always felt anyone aware enough of the art world to claim to be an outsider doesn't qualify AS an outsider. I don't mind artists, dealers or collectors fighting over the definition, if they still do..but once again it is obvious a few ringers are slipping in. People who even begin to utter "I am an outsider artist" do not pass the test. And no, art school "drop-outs" do NOT qualify either. Neither does anything from an "other-worldly" environment, culture or country if it is part of the regional milieu.
The other primary criteria is that the artists work in some form of isolation. This could be as a result of institutionalization, a lack or educational opportunities, a religious fervor, an undefined particular visionary impulse...you name it...but while creating their initial body of work they have no idea anyone else is doing it, and they make it all from their own devices. No looking at Sotheby's catalogs or finding a "how to paint" brochure at the flea market. None. NONE.
However, the "trained or untrained" aspect, dicey enough, isn't the most unfortunate definitional failure of the material or the show. It is the inherent dichotomy of lumping together artists who come from no school and FIT into no school together in one place. How can a group of artists be labeled and lumped as outsiders when by definition they have absolutely nothing to do with each other?Which is why I show the photographs above. You see, these artists DID come from a "school" of sorts. All the artists included in the Black Folk Art show had something in common...all were from fairly early generations which were descendants of slaves. They thus, to some degree or another, shared the common experience of having been displaced...and all held again, to some degree, a shared African-American esthetic which was retained, unconscious or not, in their work. They shared a common origin (to the extent that their ancestors were taken from one huge continent and brought to another) and they shared an inherent consistency of cultural artistic expression. Which is why together they formed a successful exhibition. Not really a "school" mind you, as originally none of them had any idea the others existed, but an esthetic. They lacked educational skills, formal training and awareness of the arts but that was the result of racism more than any other circumstance.They were mistakenly included originally as "outsiders" when the field formed, and their works still appear here and there as by far the best work in the outsider show. Bill Traylor, Sam Doyle, William Edmondson. Even the lesser known and lesser skilled George Williams, whose frontal totemic carved figures look quite smart above. I say the best work, but that still doesn't mean they belong there.
There is other good work at the show...I presume the magnificent Electric Pencil work was there, and I suspect James Castle was represented, but they were true isolates with completely unique consistent visions. In other words, they qualify but they do not belong.Unfortunately the few rare genuine articles and the Black folk artists from the exhibition pictured above continue to be presented in a forum which persists to lump together all manner of eccentrics, wanna-bees and what a good friend of mine used to refer to, with little irony, as "failed trained artists" on the walls with no intellectual validity or foundation other than a good weekend bourse. In other words, a good show to visit but not to write about.Pair of original "installation view" photographs by Michelle Andonian 1983 Collection Jim Linderman
One of the most culturally rich areas of the country is the low coastal area of South Carolina, where descendants of slaves still retain a bit of their roots and skills. One tradition surviving is the sweetgrass baskets still being made by African-American craftpersons who sell their wares along the roads (and increasingly in Charleston shops and boutiques.) It is unusual to find an early sweetgrass basket these days, as collectors prize old examples to contrast with their newer pieces. Even more unusual is to find a nesting set of them. This is the only set I have ever seen, and I have sought them for going on 20 years. I found them in an antique shop way up north. They are a bit ragged, but they are right. I show them here to illustrate genuine antiques can still be found and so can deals. The entire set cost twenty dollars.Nesting set of early Gullah African-American baskets, circa 1940? Collection Jim Linderman
More information on the Sweetgrass basketmakers of South Carolina is HERE
