MINIATURES
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. Arliss Watford
GLASSMAN (1935-
1988 Polychromed wood 12 x 6 x 4
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The Blanchard-Hill Collection The Sidney Mishkin Gallery of Baruch College celebrated Black History Month with its February exhibition, "Black History and Artistry: Works by Self-Taught Painters and Sculptors from the Blanchard-Hill Collection." The exhibition, curated by Sandra Kraskin, director of the Sidney Mishkin Gallery, featured more than fifty works by thirtythree black artists from the collection of Edward Vermont Blanchard and M. Anne Hill. The exhibit included works by Thornton Dial, Sr., Sam Doyle,
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Willie Leroy Elliott Jr., Minnie Evans, William Hawkins, Frank Jones, Annie Lucas, Charlie Lucas, Willie Massey, Ellis Ruley, Simon Sparrow, Mose Tolliver, Bill Traylor, and Joseph Yoakum.
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CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN OUTSIDER/FOLK ART Representing David Butler Clementine Hunter Rev. Howard Finster Lee Godie O.W."Pappy" Kitchens Sr. Gertrude Morgan Jimmie Lee Sudduth Willie White and many other important Outsider artists
GASPERI GALLERY 320 JULIA STREET • NEW ORLEANS, LA 70130 (504)524-9373
14 SPRING 1993 FOLK ART
Ezekiel Gibbs 1889-1992 Ezekiel Gibbs, whose paintings and drawings focus on his life experiences, died in Houston, Texas, on November 21. His autobiographical works document a difficult life as a farmer on the Texas Gulf Coast,followed by a move to Houston. The depictions of people and work- and churchrelated activities reveal an optimistic attitude and a fervent love for life. Gibbs was the oldest folk artist to be included in the Museum ofAmerican Folk Art Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century American Folk Art and Artists, by Chuck and Jan Rosenak. The death in 1972 of Gibbs' wife, Josephine Johnson Gibbs, after a sixty-two-year marriage, and the ensuing loneliness sparked Gibbs' interest in creating art. Gibbs worked first at the St. Francis Senior Center and subsequently at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts Outreach Program for Older Americans (Glassell School of Art). In the beginning, he painted
and drew on scraps of paper and grocery bags using watercolor, tempera, pencil, wax crayons, and oil pastels. Characteristic of his style are dots and dabs of color adding a sense of movement and enlivening the backgrounds. Currently, a Gibbs retrospective is on exhibit at the University of Florida in Gainesville. The artist was included in "Black History/Black Vision: The Visionary Image in Texas," a 1989 exhibition and catalog, and was featured in a six-part television series on aging produced in 1988 by Houston's Channel 8. Gibbs is survived by three children, eleven grandchildren and sixteen greatgrandchildren. —Lee Kogan
CHUCK ROSENAK
PA•VicX ileuft4 • ns.A1.1,fAii, -PAM • e Statue of Liberty, 1991: glass, mirror, paint on board, 15"x 27'