MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) – As we continue our tribute to Black History Month, we’re delving into art, in particular, African American artwork in two of this city’s largest galleries, many of whom had to maneuver around closed doors in their own country.
Now, more doors are opening for today’s Black American artists.
The Dixon Gallery & Gardens off Park Avenue in East Memphis was once the private residence of Hugo and Margaret Dixon, who donated the entire 17 acres and their collection of French impressionism and post-impressionism art to Julie Pierotti, the Dixon’s Martha R. Robinson curator.
“As we’re talking about French art, you know in the period, really 1850 to about World War II, Paris is the center of the art world, and a lot of American artists, including Black American artists, went to Paris if they could,” she explained.
There are two still life paintings in the Dixon residence, Bowl of Cherries and Sunflowers, by African American artist Charles Ethan Porter, who she said, “was really the first Black American artist to go to Paris that studied art and really to become a painter.”
Pierotti said Porter went to Paris armed with a letter of recommendation by writer Mark Twain, and by 1882, had immersed himself into the Parisian art world, becoming the only Black artist in history to specialize in still life. But upon his return to the United States, the genre was out of vogue, leaving him to die in relative obscurity with only about nine of his 54 documented works in museums.
Despite Porter’s relative obscurity at the end of his career, he still inspired other Black American artists to try Paris, like Henry Ossawa Tanner. Tanner moved to Paris in 1891 and remained there throughout a very successful career. His work was recognized internationally, and being the son of a minister, was mostly religious in nature. One such painting, “View of the Siene,” also hangs in the Dixon Gallery.
According to Pierotti, Tanner was, “really the first Black…