Thelma Johnson Streat: Faith in an Ultimate Freedom

Thelma Johnson Streat: Faith in an Ultimate Freedom

W Figure 1

Figure 2

ith a vibrant personality that could fill a room and inspire the people who inhabited the space therein, there was little that Thelma Johnson Streat could not accomplish. She was a painter, textile designer, book illustrator, dancer, singer, folklorist, and educator.

She taught those who were fortunate enough to witness her marvelous abilities through powerful examples of cultural diversity.

Thelma Johnson Streat was born in Yakima, Washington in 1911. She spent much of her early childhood in Pendleton, Oregon and later, in Boise, Idaho and Portland, Oregon, living on farms nestled among the lush Northwestern forests and

rolling pastoral hills. It was in Pendleton, where she initially became fascinated with Native American culture. Her father, an interior decorator, was her first teacher and inspiration.

Her family subscribed to The Crisis and Opportunity magazines, which instilled pride and invoked a political awareness of her identity as an African American. Despite that, Streat commented later in a newspaper interview that being the only African American family in the town left her feeling lonely and isolated, and turning her energy to creative interests felt like a reprieve.

Streat’s talent was prodigious from the very beginning. At age seven she began painting and by age seventeen, her technical mastery was

sufficient to win an Honorable Mention for her painting depicting Father Mayer, priest of the Grotto and Sanctuary of Our Sorrowful Mother in Portland (titled, A Priest [fig 1]) at the Harmon Foundation Exhibition in New York City in 1929. That same year she exhibited with the Oregon Federation of Colored Women.

She graduated from Washington High School in Portland in 1932, and by then she had decided to pursue a career as an artist. The following year, Streat enjoyed her first major success as a professional artist: she sold four of her paintings to the famous African American singer, Roland Hayes, who was living in Los Angeles at the time, including a portrait

of the singer. That same year, she had two works shown in a non-jury exhibit at the New York Public Library sponsored by the Harmon Foundation.

Streat received additional art training at the Museum Art School in Portland (1934-35) and the University of Oregon (1935-36), and was a frequent local exhibitor. Her early work was mostly portraiture and representational in style.

draftsman.

Three years later Thelma and Romaine moved to San Francisco, and Thelma began working with the WPA. The WPA in San Francisco occupied the top floor loft of what was once a pickle factory, and employed artists of all media to complete public art projects in and around the San Francisco area. Streat worked alongside Thelma met Romaine Virgil sculptor Sargent Johnson and Streat in 1935, and they were Ruben Kadish. Johnson, and married (she would later be his protege, Lester Matthews divorced and even remarried, were the only other African but chose to keep Streat American artists working as her professional name on the project in the Bay throughout her life) . The area. Kadish, who was the drawing, Romaine, (fig 2) was project supervisor commented executed in the mid-1930s, that Streat presented herself and is indicative of her early, as “simple and naive”, but representational style. It also quickly added, “I thought reveals Streat’s ability as a that to be an act”. This was

a particularly perceptive remark that would become an insight into Streat’s overall approach to her artwork. Ann Gibson, in her book, Abstract Expressionism: Other Politics, supports this notion: “Her most valuable contribution, in fact, may be her deliberate play with the vaunted Abstract Expressionist notion of ‘authenticity’, the insistence that the artist be sincere, transparent, natural.” Gibson continues to suggest that Streat intentionally parodied the “avant-garde reverence for the primitive and childlike as a guarantor of authentic feeling in her neo-primitivist paintings.”

An article announcing National Negro Art Week in Portland, which appeared in The Oregonian, (June 1938),

states that an exhibition of artworks, including some by Thelma Streat will occur at the J.K. Gill Art Gallery. It claims Streat’s work had been purchased by “Asst Secretary of War, Louis Johnson, Roland Hayes, and Langston Hughes.” It also notes that her painting, Displeased Lady , was shown a month earlier at the San Francisco Museum of Art. By the 1940’s Thelma had found the elements that defined her style and implemented them with grace in art and performance. Her work was beginning to receive both public and critical recognition on a national level. Streat, along with Sargent Johnson, were the only two exhibitors listed as being from California at the

American Negro Exposition, held in Chicago in 1940 at the Tanner Art Galleries (Fine Arts Palace).

awkward bulk emphasized by the colored girl, Thelma Streat, beside him, tall and slim in her blue jeans. Art-inAction below has just come The same year she participated alive and the artists, like a in Art in Action, at the Golden hive of bees, are all at work.”

Gate International Expo, San Francisco, CA. (figs.

Rivera later wrote a letter 3 and 4). Streat assisted to a Los Angeles-based muralist Diego Rivera (who dealer and collector, Galka purportedly owned a selfShayer, saying, “The work of portrait done by Streat), with Thelma Johnson Streat is, in the Pan-American Unity my opinion, one of the most mural, at Treasure Island. Art interesting manifestations in in Action was an interactive this country at the present. exhibit funded by the Federal It is extremely evolved and Art Project. Fairgoers could sophisticated enough to watch how different art forms reconquer the grace and purity (paintings, sculpture, textiles, of African and American etc) were created and see the art.” Rivera refused to artists at work. Beatrice Judd acknowledge the appropriation Ryan, the state supervisor of the “American” identity for the exhibit, described

by Euro-Americans, and the scene: “Rivera stands regarding the subject of high upon the scaffold, his the mural, he said, “about

the marriage of the artistic expression of the North and of the South on this continent, that is all. I believe in order to make an American art, a real American art, this will be necessary, this blending of the art of the Indian, the Mexican, the Eskimo.” (Dorothy Cravath, “Conversation with Diego Rivera” in Elizabeth Bancroft, Diego Rivera, n.p.).

Streat’s contact with Rivera was likely the catalyst to her interest in and ultimately, her standard, for multiculturalism.

She carried this throughout her career, perhaps culminating artistically in an exhibition described ten years later in The Oregonian , (Oct 14, 1950): “Thelma Johnson Streat, Portland artist and dance mimist was presented in a dance recital at an exhibition

Figure 3

Figure 4

of her recently completed paintings this week in New York City. The International School of Art sponsored the program and exhibition...

Paintings were done for her One World exhibition which opened this week...”

Figure 5

She exhibited at Stendahl Galleries in Los Angeles in 1940 and the M.H. de Young Museum in San Francisco the next year. In 1942, Streat became the first African American woman to have a painting purchased by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Her painting, Rabbit Man, (fig 5) was purchased by Alfred Barr, the long-standing director, and exhibited later that year in “New Acquisitions: American Paintings and Sculpture”.

Rabbit Man revealed the

convergence of influences on Streat’s work. Growing up in Washington, Idaho and Oregon, the artist would have been familiar with the history of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce as well as the abstracted symbolic imagery used by Northwest coast Native American people.

Streat borrowed many of the style formalities of this art for her own work. The defining stylistic elements of Northwest Coast art are the use of ovoids, “U forms” and “S forms” , also known as formlines. Coined by Bill Holm in his 1965 book, Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of Form, the "formline is the primary design element on which Northwest Coast art depends, and by the turn of the 20th century, its use spread to the

southern regions as well. It is the positive delineating force of the painting, relief and engraving. Formlines are continuous, flowing, curvilinear lines that turn, swell and diminish in a prescribed manner. They are used for figure outlines, internal design elements and in abstract compositions."

The content of much of this art involved totemic imagery.

Abstracted totemic symbols of animals were used to communicate the real and perceived characteristics of that animal, and combined, typically represented a sort of kinship group.

Streat was familiar with the past discrimination that the Nez Perce and other Native American peoples faced in the late 19th and early 20th

century. She recognized the similarity to the situation now facing African Americans.

The image in Rabbit Man is (stylistically and in content) clearly influenced by totemic symbolism. The rabbit symbolized the ability to overcome obstacles, not by force or dominance, but by the characteristics of being quick-witted, positive and alert. The composition is constructed by using ovoid shapes and stacked vertically like a totem pole but the face is of an African American.

Lizetta LeFalle-Collins, in her essay on Streat contained in The St James Guide to Black Artists, supports this idea: she writes, “ A stylized rabbit head is decorated with geometric patterns and has slits for eyes, reminiscent of

the designs of the Coast Salish Indians of British Columbia.

Atop the rabbit head is a smaller spherical head of a man, also with geometric patterns but with glaring eyes.

This two-part mask, one part human and the other animal, is characteristic of the Coast Salish practices.�

The compositional structure of the figure and the pattern decoration in Rabbit Man is also similar to African art. Anne Gibson makes the comparison to a Kota reliquary figure. While she limits the comparison to composition, it is possible Streat went further, also paralleling the purpose: reliquary figures were meant to serve as guardians for the bones of the ancestors--is Rabbit Man a guardian

of tradition? Was Streat attempting to make the point that traditional cultures could exist and even succeed in a modern world without sacrificing their heritage?

Thelma Johnson Streat was literally the embodiment of multiculturalism, being of both African and Native American descent, and she was the living proof of the potential she espoused.

Rabbit Man is a singular, powerful message to and about the African American people.

Streat participated in a group show at the Raymond & Raymond Gallery in New York (An Exhibition of an American Group) in 1942.

The following year, she exhibited Robot (fig 6) at the International Exhibition of

Figure 6

Watercolor at the Art Institute of Chicago. Robot, similarly to Rabbit Man, uses basic design techniques utilized by the Northwest Coast Native Americans, except in this work, the subject is humanlike. Totemic symbols were often people, either real or folklore, and their inclusion communicated a particular story, anecdote or moral lesson.

Lizetta LeFaille-Collins states that Robot was an illustration for a children’s book. Mills College Art Museum has a version of Robot in their collection (there are at least three existing works with this title, each unique, but similar) and note that it was used as an illustration for a children’s book, and Judy Bullington, in her essay about Streat,

titled, "Thelma Johnson Streat and Cultural Synthesis on the West Coast" (American Art, vol. 19, No 2, Summer 2005--the magazine of the Smithsonian American Art Museum), claims another version of Robot was “created as illustration(s) for children’s books”. There is no supporting evidence of this notion, but if it is true, it is consistent with Ann Gibson’s notion that Streat was playing the counterpoint to the New York avant-garde.

Bullington claims, “Streat’s images were distinctive in their insistent child-like playfulness and graphic resolution. Her mode of expressionism is historically significant as a counterpoint to Jackson Pollock’s Jungian-informed ideals of the collective unconscious,

Robert Motherwell’s need to capture ‘felt experience’, and Mark Rothko’s symbolically charged and myth-laden paintings.”

The term “robot” was first introduced in 1920 by Czech playright Karel Capek. In 1939, the humanoid robot known as “Elektro” was debuted at the World’s Fair in New York. Seven feet tall and weighing 265 pounds, it could walk by voice command, speak about 700 words (using a 78-rpm record player), smoke cigarettes, blow up balloons, and move it's head and arms. If we are to assume that underlying the “child-like” and “playful” images found in Streat’s neo-primitivist paintings is real multi-cultural-social commentary, it is not a stretch to see that in Robot she has

depicted the African American trapped in the body of Elektro, a mindless, slightly entertaining workhorse.

Describing the figure, LefailleCollins points out, “The facial features and extremities... are minimalized, as they are in the traditional art forms of Native American, Oceanic, and African cultures.” But Streat is not simply mimicking a past art form. She is utilizing the reference to make a point. The figure’s hands and feet are bound and static.

The lack of facial features represents the loss of identity as an individual. The title places the subject in a modern world and this subject is shackled. Ann Gibson points to Du Bois’ idea of “double consciousness”. Du Bois wrote in his The Souls of Black Folk : “It is a peculiar

sensation, this doubleconsciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his twoness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.”

That wasn’t all Streat had in mind. Her concern, her warning for the loss of individualism and identity trying to “fit in” was clearly directed toward African American people, but it was simultaneously a message to the artist, black or white: do not lose your identity as

an individual by rejecting responsibility and conscious choice. Gibson wrote, “Streat negotiated the split position in which American culture placed her.” She resisted the notion of singularity: she proved that she could be a successful artist and yet not abandon her cultural heritage or meaningful content in her work; and she proved that she could be accepted as an African American woman by predominantly white circles without donning the costume of Elektro. Ann Gibson, in her essay written for Abstract Expressionism, The International Context, (edited by Joan Marter), writes, “unlike their white counterparts, however, African American multiculturalists like (Sargent) Johnson, Streat, and the East Coast’s

Hale Woodruff were not in retreat from their assumed racial heritage, but engaged in projects of ethnocultural redemption and retrieval.”

sees defense plants with signs which say ‘only whites need apply’; refusal of Negro blood

by Red Cross banks; separate army and navy barracks; black soldiers marching through In 1943, Streat received restricted districts; restaurants threats from the Ku Klux Klan where Negro soldiers and for exhibiting a painting titled, sailors cannot eat.”

Death of a Black Sailor , at the American Contemporary Streat was staying in Chicago Gallery in Los Angeles. The and was planning to open a painting was done as a mural studio there, so she had by design, and addresses the this time most likely met irony of the efforts of African Charles Sebree, another American soldiers in the African American painter and struggle to preserve global costume/set designer. Sebree freedom and human rights, had painted two works of a when they were often denied similar theme at nearly the those rights at home. In an exact same time, although it article written for The Chicago is impossible to determine Defender (national edition) the exact chronological order the same year covering the in which the works were news of the exhibition and executed. The Rescue of the threats to the artist, the Dorie Miller , which is in the work is described: “The sailor collection of the Corcoran

Gallery, is said to have been done in 1942. Sebree’s Boys Without Penises (fig 7) was believed to have been painted at the end of 1943, shortly after the death of Dorie Miller.

Figure 7

Streat’s Death of a Black Sailor was exhibited in December of 1943, but was assumably painted earlier in the year. Sebree had been in the Navy and stationed at a segregated camp in northern Illinois. He and his friend Owen Dodson, wrote and performed a play, Ballad of Dorie Miller, for their fellow enlistees at Camp Smalls.

The news of the heroism of an African American sailor named Doris “Dorie” Miller during the attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941) had reached them and they were inspired.

Black service men had traditionally been restricted to roles such as cooks and menial laborers on ships, but Miller left his position in the kitchen when the attack began, and rescued his (white) commanding officer, who had been mortally wounded, and then proceeded to man an anti-aircraft gun, firing at Japanese planes overhead. In 1942, Miller was awarded the Navy Cross by Chester Nimitz. Eventually, Miller was promoted to Chief Petty Officer, Ship’s Cook Third Class, and was aboard the escort Liscome Bay in November of 1943, when it was struck by a torpedo and sank, killing 600 of it’s crew members, including Miller.

young African American boys: Miller, his friend, Owen Dodson, and himself. Like Streat, Sebree’s artwork had both elements of revealing and concealing. Sebree was also the subject of discrimination on two levels: he was African American and gay. Miller’s figure is separated from the other two, but in contrast to the heroic figure depicted in the news stories, he appears distant and passive. Sebree portrayed Miller in this way to symbolize the impotence of the black soldier. In spite of his heroics, he was still mostly denied the freedoms for which he fought to protect; he was poor and uneducated, and ultimately had little future waiting on him after the war.

Sebree’s painting, Boys Without Penises depicts three

Sebree’s earlier work, The Rescue of Dorie Miller

(which perhaps should have been called, “The Rescue by Dorie Miller”) is more literal, depicting the powerful figure of Miller dragging the nearly prostrate figure of the white officer to safety. This work would have met with more resistance because it portrayed the black sailor as strong and heroic and the white officer as weak and helpless. Sebree did not suffer any negative repercussions for these works, but after writing and performing a play glorifying Russia (who was, of course, an ally of the U.S.), Sebree and Dodson were condemned as communists, and Sebree had to essentially manufacture his own discharge from the military to avoid further problems.

Streat, rather than feeling

intimidated by the threats in Los Angeles, drew inspiration.

She did, however, change her approach to her commentary: she began a series of murals illustrating the positive and productive role of African Americans in both the military and in domestic areas, such as manufacturing, medicine, education, etc. At the same time, Streat also exhibited at The Little Gallery in Los Angeles. The Little Gallery was owned by actor Vincent Price and was an important exhibition venue for Streat because it allowed the artist to either have direct contact with famous and influential clients, or at least have her work be exposed to them. As a result, Streat’s work eventually was included in the collections of many celebrities. She held a major exhibit there in 1943.

Like many other artists, especially African American artists, who struggled to get gallery representation on the East Coast, Thelma Streat devoted some of her time to designing decorative arts: ceramics, textiles, woven rugs and even tableware, to supplement her income. Her work in these mediums was exhibited at the City of Paris Galleries (Oakland, CA) in 1943. She had exhibited artwork there once before in 1939. Beatrice Judd Ryan, who was her supervisor when she had worked for the WPA was the Director of the Artist and Craftsman Shop for the gallery, so it is likely that Ryan helped Streat gain the exhibition. That same year, Streat presented an exhibition of “Primitive Negroid Designs” at the Vera

Jones Bright Gallery in San Francisco.

In 1944, Thelma moved to Chicago, and entered a competition for a mural design at the Southside Community Art Center. The Southside Community Art Center was a highly important center for African American art in Chicago. It opened in 1940 with an exhibition of paintings which included works by Charles White, Archibald Motley, Jr., Henry Avery, William Carter and others.

It was dedicated by Eleanor Roosevelt in May of 1941 and the event was broadcast nationally. While there is no written evidence of whom Streat may have met in her time there, it seems reasonable to assume she would have had contact with

Figure 8

Figure 9

other artists working and exhibiting there--and every African American artist of importance in Chicago during the 1940s spent time there, not to mention musicians such as the Nat “King” Cole trio, who played on occasional Saturday nights, and authors such as Willard Motley and Richard Wright.

industry. The intent of the law was to promote equal opportunity and prohibit employment discrimination.

The subject of equal opportunity in the workplace, and specifically, the Executive Order 8802 was frequently addressed in Streat’s mural designs. She depicts the white figures in the compositions as giants with extraordinarily long arms, sometimes holding what appears to be a club or stick. Thelma tied for first prize in the competition with William Carter. The two were asked to submit new designs and the outright winner would be decided at a later date.

The style of these mural designs was notably different than her main body of work.

This duality of styles, dictated by purpose, is typical for many artists.

Streat also exhibited at the (newly created) women’s division of the Chicago Urban League in 1944, and the G Place Gallery in Washington Her entry was titled, The D.C. In 1945, she exhibited Negro in Professional her work, Mother and Baby Life (fig. 8) , and depicted on Desert at the Albany mostly African American Institute of History & Art, women in various positions NY; The Negro Artist Comes of employment. The figure of Age. The scan of the black in the foreground has her and white illustration from the hands raised, clutching catalog page is pictured here, a paper which reads (fig 9). The catalog states “Executive Order 8802”. This Streat executed several mural that the work was 9” x 14” executive order was issued designs and even “miniand the medium was gouache.

by Franklin Roosevelt in murals” (over-sized studio Bullington revisits an essay 1941 and prohibited racial works averaging 30” x 60”,

by Alain Locke which discrimination in the defense but painted in a mural format). accompanied

this exhibit: “There can be no doubt of the increasingly important place of the Negro artist in the social commentary vein that is becoming so characteristic of much recent American art. That with the Negro artist is expressed with such broad human sympathy and controlled restraint is fortunate for its increased social effectiveness...With great temptation in that direction, the Negro artist is seldom the crude or even overt propagandist...By stages, it seems, we are achieving greater democracy in art---and let us hope through art.”

12 murals which were 3’ x 6’.

Each mural would represent a different contribution by African Americans (men and women) to industry, agriculture, medicine, science, meatpacking, and transportation. These murals would be made into prints that could be easily distributed to schools and libraries throughout the country. Her first step was to find out what children appreciated visually and she did this by teaching children’s art classes for two years in Chicago.

By 1945, three murals had been sponsored; the first by She became the chairman a “New York City group, the of the Negro Labor Murals second by Chicago group Committee, headquartered (depicting meatpacking), in Chicago, as well as the and the third, by Portland Children’s Visual Education group. “ (The Oregonian, Project. Her plan was to create August, 19, 1945 , Catherine

Jones. There were no details given about who these “groups” were, but the family of the artist believes they were individual patrons and supporters in those specific cities). An article published in The Chicago Defender in 1945 reports that Streat had returned to “the West Coast” for the summer, but planned to return to Chicago that autumn to continue her work on the mural projects.

The summer of 1945 marked a critical turning point for Streat’s artistic career.

Catherine Jones writes for The Oregonian (August 19, 1945; “Freedom for Negroes Linked With the Arts”): “One midsummer night recently, Portlanders interested in the fine arts crowded the terrace of a home on Broadway drive

and overflowed to the roadside above the terrace to watch a Negro woman dance her interpretation of the Negro’s faith in an ultimate freedom.”

What she was describing was Thelma Johnson Streat’s groundbreaking performance combining her artwork, interpretive dance, and spoken narration of a prose poem written by her sister, Juanita Johnson, titled, “The Negro Speaks of Faith”, which took place at Alda Jourdan’s studio on Sunday, July 8th. According to Jones, Streat’s performance “will be similar to the dance which she presented recently at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, when she used one of her large paintings as a background.” The performance was announced first in The Oregonian (July

Figure 10

Figure 11

5, 1945) and was mentioned nationally a little over two weeks later: The Chicago Defender, (July 21, 1945): “Frisco Artist in New Role", “Thelma Johnson Streat, well known for her labor murals here, was presented Sunday in her new creative dances at the Alda Jourdan studios.”

(Alda Jourdan was a Portland painter and photographer), but there were no details given. In Jones’ article published in The Oregonian, (August, 1945), she wrote, “Thelma Streat hasn’t confined her creative efforts to paintings. Her interest is in abstract form and in an experimental mood she has tried expressing it not only in painting, but in music and the dance. She has composed a symphony, learned to dance and created dances which are an expression of abstract

form. She has performed these dances at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, using an abstract painting for background and verse read by a narrator as accompaniment.

It was such a program as this which she has presented recently here in Portland. Her theme was the Negro’s faith in an ultimate freedom, and the difficulties he has had maintaining that faith.”

She also mentions Streat’s completion of her most recent work, Shed a Tear for My Daughter (fig 10), and that Thelma had an upcoming exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York that fall. Although attempts to substantiate the aforementioned performance (pre-June, 1945 at MOMA) with the MOMA archives has

proven unsuccessful, it was mentioned again in an article in The Oregonian, (June 17, 1945): “the artist presented recently a dance recital called Dance of Freedom which she terms an expression of pure form in which she performed before one of her own large paintings, using the painting as a part of the forms expressed in her dance. No music was used...a commentator’s voice was heard as she danced.” (fig 11) The next account of a similar performance appeared in The Chicago Tribune, (September 17, 1945): “Kimball Hall Opens Season with Recital

by Thelma J. Streat” by Albert Goldberg. Goldberg writes, “It is a misnomer to describe her as a dancer... some of this posing achieved

a degree of expressiveness thru a plastic quality that seemed to derive more from the art of graphic design than from any commonly accepted choreographic standard.” It is doubtful that Goldberg thought that was a good thing, but he was precisely accurate.

Streat’s performances were not choreographed in a traditional sense, and the connection between her movements and her two-dimensional artwork was integral.

Ann Gibson, in her essay, “African American Contributions to Abstract Expressionism”, likened Streat’s multi-dimensional approach to the Abstract Expressionist painters: “(Harold) Rosenburg suggested that the process of ‘action painting’ (his term

for Abstract Expressionism in 1952) was an ongoing struggle in which, with each stroke on the canvas the artist visually discovered himself anew. The struggle sprung ‘from the saving moment of his story when the painter first felt himself released from... (the) myth of past ‘selfrecognition’. The release that this produced, enabled the aesthetic decisions that made the painting similar to the ‘outpouring’ of emotion that was transcribed in the dancing of Wigman and Graham (and more importantly for Streat, the more ‘locally sourced’ dances of Dunham and Horton) into movement.”

Streat’s movements were both cathartic and emancipatory; the “choreography” was directed movement by movement and with each one

of these “aesthetic decisions”, the artist was self-affirmed.

Typically, Streat’s agenda was pluralistic: that which can be achieved by an individual can be achieved by a race, and that which can be achieved by a race can be achieved by all of humanity.

These ideas, processes, and conflicts were all very relevant to Streat and her work addresses them, but in a radically different way than say, Pollock. Gibson points out: “Streat was dancing with her paintings (1945) before Jackson Pollock’s bodily movements were publicly Clement Greenburg wrote associated with his process about the necessity of letting of pouring (1951)...While go of past identities and Pollock’s art has become agendas (self-recognition) celebrated as performance, in order to experience a true he was ambivalent, to say self-discovery. Simply stated, the least, about going public the artist, or anyone for that in this way. Indeed Streat, matter, should recognize the in contrast to Pollock, often past, but not let it control danced for the public in front them or define them. For the of her paintings.” Streat Abstract Expressionist, he saw attempted and seemingly any preconceived notion--even succeeded in revealing a such as subject matter--as path of emancipation for interference to the process of (simultaneously) herself, the self-awareness, and ultimately, African American race, and all emancipation. people of any race or culture.

Thelma was, first and foremost, a teacher, and the lesson she wished to teach everyone was that seemingly contradictory or conflicting agendas could be resolved.

This did, in fact, require dismissing “(the) myth of past self-recognition” , but not in a nihilistic way, rather more like setting it aside so that it did not cloud the learning process or limit one’s aspirations.

Thelma Johnson Streat was a woman. She was an African American. She lived in Portland, Oregon in the 1930s.

It would have been much less surprising to read that Thelma grew up, was married and never traveled more than 100 miles from where she was born---than learn she had become a successful artist and dancer, traveled the globe and impacted future

generations with her teaching.

Streat identified something in herself at an early age, and she had an unstoppable determination to share this with others. She learned how to use her creative process in art to resolve inner conflicts and discovered it to be emancipating. Her total agenda as an artist from that point on became one concerned with teaching others how to achieve and enjoy “the ultimate freedom”.

In August of 1945, Streat’s mural, The Negro Woman in Industry was exhibited in the lobby of the Portland Civic Center, and a program including a dance presentation by the artist, The Negro Speaks of Freedom, was performed.Helen Clement writes for The Oakland,

California Tribune, (March 17, 1946), “Thelma Johnson Streat at S.F. Museum of Art”, “On Wednesday evening, March the 20th, at 8 p.m., at the San Francisco Museum of Art, Thelma Johnson Streat, a familiar figure in the San Francisco realm of artists, will not only have a loan exhibit of her paintings, but she will present a program of dance interpretations, which will augment the themes she is endeavoring to express through her paintings.” Clement also notes, “One dance authority describes her interpretations as a ‘direct outpouring of feeling transmitted by body movements’.”

which solicits the utmost of interpretive force by means of both literal and symbolic gesture. Her lower body remains relatively static; the fluency of expression arising above the waist and being especially communicative through the arms and hands....

Aside from the plain message of the work, as it fell upon the ear, there was this plastic reinforcement by sight which sometimes made the sound needless, and sometimes magnified its sense a hundred fold.” (Hilmar Grondahl, The Oregonian, Sept 17, 1947, p.7).

Streat’s decision to supplement her twodimensional art with Another article describes movement and sound was Streat’s performance: “Thelma clearly an effective one and Streat works in a medium was used in a very similar

way to in which artists today market themselves simultaneously with their artwork. Her artwork became much more provocative because it engaged the viewer.

Thelma had always been keen on self-promotion, partly because it was necessary just to get on “equal” footing with her white male contemporaries, and partly because she understood that recognition and association between her art and herself increased audience awareness of the artwork and the message she hoped to convey through it.

Her movements and choice of narration enhanced the mostly abstract artwork, but did not distract from it. In Grondahl’s description, the elements magnified and

reinforced one another. In his recent essay, "In the Arms of the Negress: A Brief History of Modern Artistic Practice", Huey Copeland, who is an Associate Professor of Art History at Northwestern University, writes: “While still poorly represented in museum collections, amongst monographic titles, and within the critical literature, of late, the art of black women has gained a foothold in the mainstream art world.

This sea (of) change is best emblematized by the career of Kara Walker, whose success has derived from her black construction paper silhouettes, which perversely re-imagine American slavery from the perspective of, in her words, “an emancipated negress.”

Walker’s work highlights the fact that modern and

contemporary art has time and again called upon fictions of African diasporic femininity.

As her role-playing suggests, these fictions—Mammy, Superwoman, Sable Venus— arguably take their measure from the négresse, a figure first named in seventeenthcentury France, who continues to represent difference doubled, race and gender unmoored from any particular black female subject. Dancer, folklorist, and painter Thelma Johnson Streat would selfconsciously construct herself and her art using the same primitive motifs as her white male counterparts.” (fig 12) Bullington echoes Copeland: “Streat subtly and subjectively realigned conventions of modernism to raise questions of cultural identity, often combining abstract painting

Figure 12

and performance in innovative ways. Modernists who appropriated formal elements from so-called primitivist sources often did so with little or no concern for the original context from which these forms were derived.”

Figure 13

By 1946, Thelma had signed a two-year contract with the National Concert Bureau.

Shortly after introducing dance movements into her art, Streat traveled extensively to study music and dance of various cultures. In an article written for The Chicago Defender (Broadway Raves over a New Dance by Streat, August 13, 1949), Marian Houston reports: “Miss Streat studied dancing of the Haidah Indians in Queen Charlotte Islands; the life,

music and dance of the Yaquis in Mexico and traveled in Haiti, Java, Hawaiian Islands and Australia shortly after beginning her dancing career.”

similarly and when questioned about the simplicity of their style of painting, responded similarly. Carr said, “I think and then draw a line around my think.” Streat said about Streat was fascinated with her own art, “they’re more the indigenous cultures of sophisticated than they look.” the Northwest Coast Native (Bullington pp 103,104). She Americans. In British backs this up in an interview Columbia, she studied dances for a London newspaper of the Haida with Chief article, written for The Khahtsahlano, and he showed Evening Standard (March 7, her ceremonial masks of his 1950), when she describes one people. Bill Rose, covered the of her paintings, offering an visit for The Vancouver Sun insight to the symbolism: “In (August 6, 1946); “Brilliant the center is an abstract figure Negro Artist is here to Study of myself holding a flower, the Indian Lore”. token of my gratitude. On my Streat admired the paintings left is the symbolic figure of of Canadian painter Emily the English people on roller Carr, who painted the totems skates. On my right of the Coast Salish Peoples is a fat blue pig-dog smelling in a similar neo-primitivist a polka dot flower, symbolic style (fig 13). The two artists of English pantomime. Over approached their subjects my head is London Bridge. In

the sky are two yellow moons: a moon crying for the past destruction of London; and one laughing for the the hope of peace.”

Streat deliberately simplified her imagery in order to make it more accessible and completely universal. A figure, whether it be African American, Native American or Latin American became interchangeable, because she was attempting to speak to all races of people and all cultures simultaneously.

This approach was extended to her dance performances and her addition of narration or the singing of spirituals.

Bullington points to a quote from writer Zora Neale Hurston: “Real spirituals were not just songs (but) unceasing variations around

a theme....Each singing of the piece is a new creation.”; and then a quote from Streat herself: The oneness of the spirit in the arts of all people dissolves all racial, religious, and social lines between peoples that too often make men hate each other....I found that all rhythmic forms of primitive peoples are basically the same--those of the Haida culture of British Columbia, the Ibos of Haiti, the aborigines of the Hawaiian Islands, the Mayans of Mexico are all in essence alike.”

into a communicative universal symbol by the “deliverer”, and that symbol is witnessed (be it heard or seen) and then converted back into a subjective definition for the “receiver”. The exact definition of the symbol may differ slightly for each participant, but to a great degree there is a universal understanding among the participants. That type of understanding is what Streat believed would bring about tolerance and cooperation among cultures and races.

Rivera spoke of cultural “blending” as an essential element of creative input, but it was equally relevant to the “output”. This is a fundamental dynamic of symbolic interaction: a subjective idea is converted

Sharon Patton in her book, African American Art writes, “By 1947, only four African American abstract painters- Romare Bearden, Norman Lewis, Rose Piper and Thelma Johnson Streat had had solo shows in New

York.” The same year Streat was commissioned by Koret of California, the largest manufacturer of women’s sportswear in the U.S. to create textile designs. The idea was to demonstrate how art and fashion overlapped.

Streat made painted designs and Stephanie Koret, the chief designer, would produce clothing designs based on Streat’s work. ( The Chicago Defender, Oct 4, 1947, “Woman Painter to design Fabrics” ).

The notice of divorce of Thelma and Romaine Streat appeared on November 20, 1948 in The Oregonian. The news of Streat’s wedding to her white manager, folklorist and playwright, Edgar Kline appeared only a month later (“Negro Dancer of

Portland Weds Caucasian Manager”, Dec 14, 1948 The Oregonian). The article went on to report, “Streat recently went to Seattle from Hawaii where she presented 28 concerts of Negro and Indian dances under the sponsorship of the Honolulu board of education. She also exhibited her paintings.”

The newlyweds traveled extensively throughout Europe, Canada, Mexico, and the United States. She danced for the Queen of England, and in France, in 1949, was the first African American woman to have her own television show. She also performed at the Teatro Posada del Sol, Mexico City; the Grande Salle Pleyel and Television Français, Paris, France; BBC Television, London, England; Mansion House, Dublin,

Ireland; and the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, England.

life. She claimed it was not necessary for promoting her career. She said she moved Streat was in Paris in 1949, around a lot because in order and in a letter written to her to portray people accurately, grandmother, she mentions you needed to live with themKatherine Dunham and also -“you don’t get it in night meeting Josephine Baker. It clubs”. ( The Oregonian, Sept is no surprise that Streat was 4, 1951: “Portland Interpretive influenced by the likes of Dancer Wins World Acclaim, Martha Graham and Katherine Professes She Prefers School Dunham. She was also Work to Club Glitter”). influenced by Lester Horton, who was in Hollywood.

When the late Sir Charles Burgess Meredith’s New Cochran, one of the world’s World Film Studio completed most active impresarios, three short documentaries enthusiastically called concerning Streat’s multiThelm(a) Streat ‘the most dimensional performances. versatile performer whom I have ever had the good Thelma was a hard worker, fortune of witnessing’ he took and preferred doing a good job into account many, but not and especially working with all, of her major talents...Most children over the glitzy life of of her...skills will soon be on a celebrity. She worked 8-10 view to San Franciscans with hours/day and shunned social the American premiere of her

one woman musical-dancedrama, Bringing Back Those Wonderful Days.” (The Daily Recorder, Sacramento, CA, Feb 13, 1953). Streat also played the lead role in Kline’s play, "Song of Songs" in Mexico City.

Upon returning to the United States from their world tour, the couple opened a school in Hawaii and eventually another on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia in 1956. The schools taught multiculturalism to children.

“The Edgars said they hoped to further the understanding and tolerance of other countries and races through children.” For the next two years, they toured the country doing presentations for children under this agenda.

On May 24, 1959, the headline in The Oregonian read : “Famed Painter-Dancer Dies After Heart Attack”. She was 47 years old, and had begun studying anthropology at UCLA.

minded African American artist who used appropriate restraint in expressing a broad humanistic vision.”

Bullington urged “today’s historians” to continue to examine and assess Streat’s contributions to the art world and society in general.

Ideally, this exhibition will serve, not as a summary, but as inspiration for even more investigation into the life and work of this amazing woman

There have been a number of exhibitions which either featured or included the work of Thelma Johnson Streat since her death, but very little critical evaluation of it. This catalog and exhibition will and her art. j hopefully shed, if not a new light, at least additional insight into the meaning of her work.

Judy Bullington concluded her essay with the following: “If art represents a vision beyond the real, then Streat’s vision was of a more unified and tolerant society. In this regard, she exemplified Alain Locke’s paradigm of a socially

Exhibitions 1938 San Francisco Museum of Art, Displeased Lady

1943 Art Institute of Chicago; The International Exhibition

J.K. Gill Art Gallery, Portland, OR

1940 American Negro Exposition, Chicago

1945 South Side Community Art Center, Chicago

Albany Institute of History & Art, NY; The Negro

Action

Artist Comes of Age; Mother and Baby on Desert

1946 Newark Museum, Work of Negro Artists; Rabbit Man

Golden Gate International, San Francisco, CA; Art in

of Watercolor, Robot

Stendahl Galleries

1941 De Young Museum, San Francisco, CA

University Religious Conference, Los Angeles, CA,

1942 Raymond & Raymond Galleries, NY

Paintings by Negro Artists, Rabbit Man San Francisco Museum of Art

Museum of Modern Art, NY; New Acquisitions:

American Painting and Sculpture; Rabbit Man

1949 Hester House, Houston, TX, Contemporary Negro

San Francisco Museum of Art; Western Living-Designs

Art, Rabbit Man

for Fine Modern Houses

Julius Carlebach Gallery, NY

1943 City of Paris Galleries, San Francisco

1950 United Negro College Fund Offices, NY, Rabbit Man

Vera Jones Bright Gallery

1951 Honolulu City Hall, HI, The Negro Soldier

American Contemporary Gallery, Los Angeles, CA;

Death of a Black Sailor

1955 Haleola Gallery, Honolulu, HI

Little Gallery (owned by Vincent Price), Beverly Hills,

1956 Hudson Bay Company, Vancouver, BC; Edmonton,

CA

Raymond & Raymond Galleries, NY

AL

1956 Haleola Gallery, Honolulu, HI

2009 PBS History Detectives

1971 Newark Museum, Black Artists: Two Generations,

Rabbit Man

1991 Kenkeleba Gallery, NY; The Search for Freedom:

African American Abstraction 1945-1975, Red Dots,

Flying Baby and Barking Dog

Art Hop, Portland, OR

2010 Gallery 114, Portland, OR

Oregon Historical Museum, Portland, OR

1998 Reed College, Portland, OR; Treasures From Reed’s Collection, Black Virgin 2003 Portland Art Museum

Collections Museum of Modern Art, NY; Rabbit Man

Her work was also a part of the private collections of Diego Ri-

Reed College, Portland, OR; Black Virgin

vera, Eleanor Roosevelt, Vincent Price, Roland Hayes, Kather-

Mills College, Oakland, CA

ine Dunham, Fanny Brice, Queen Elizabeth, Anthony Quinn,

San Francisco Museum of Art

Helena Rubenstein, and Burgess Meredith.

Honolulu Academy of the Arts Knoxville Museum of Art; Girl With Bird

The totemic symbolism of the Salamander represents transformation and natural intuition. The imagery in this work may be interpreted as direct: the nocturnal salamander, central in the composition, is congruous with nature, and is biting the foot of the faceless white man. Streat most likely intended it to be slightly more universal, so that the representation would mean that any obstruction or assault against what is natural will be met with resistance. Nature will attempt to regain a harmonious state, and ultimately, by whatever means necessary.

24

Salamander Totem c. 1945 watercolor and graphite on paper 7 ½” x 9”

25

 

Night Man depicts a character of folklore who appears to have been caught mid-stride in some covert activity that was mischievous but harmless. His hands are raised, palms out, to shield himself from the gaze of the viewer.

26

Night Man c. 1945 watercolor on (irregularly shaped) paper 12” x 9¼” signed and titled

27

Dancer c.1945 watercolor and ink on paper 11” x 7 ¼” signed and titled

28

In this image, Streat portrays the female figure as powerful but graceful. The smooth lines and symmetry are pleasing to the eye, but the figure is confident and relaxed, aware of her potential and ability.

 

29 

The mirrored image composition in Shed a Tear addresses the recognition of dualities: both in the artist’s identity and the universal nature of things. W.E.B. Du Bois wrote about “double consciousness” and how it related to the African American, pulled in opposite directions by two cultures. Similarly, Streat depicts two distinct people, facing opposite directions, but connected as one. Throughout her life, she was expected to hold seemingly contradictory agendas together: her racial (and cultural) heritage with her success and celebrity status in a predominantly white art scene. Her goal was to lead by example and show all races and cultures how to embrace the duality of differences and similarities. Streat also subtly reveals her belief that educating children was the best hope for future understanding and tolerance.

30

Shed a Tear (For My Daughter) c. 1945 oil on paper mounted on board 40" x 30" signed and dated

31

 

Streat consistently used this formal composition, almost like a template. That could possibly be a tribute to the method of totem pole carving, in which the template has self-induced limitations (the pole) with subtle variations offering possibly diverse meanings. Alain Locke wrote about how conscious restraint was sometimes more effective than recklessness in promoting a desired reception. In this example, the figure’s identity is hidden behind a black mask. Streat sometimes found she could effectively disguise her "blackness" by posing as black.

32

Masked Figure c. 1945 oil on board 12” x 7 ¼”

33

34

Streat’s The Thinker is a homage to Rodin’s sculpture of the same name. Streat would have most likely seen a casting at the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. The museum acquired it in 1924. Originally, Rodin made the work to depict the poet Dante, but it has since come to represent all artists at the pivoting moment of creation. Dante’s Divine Comedy begins with a pilgrim in moral confusion, but ends with a vision of God. Streat’s “Thinker”, dressed in ethnic costume, represents her own personal journey and eventual enlightenment.

The Thinker c. 1945 mixed media on paper 7” x 8 ½ signed and titled

35

 

The Heron was a traditional totemic symbol of the Haida people.

It generally symbolized patience and grace. It is curious how the artist decorated the background with an oval pattern, but subtly changed the one above the heron’s head to resemble a halo. Thelma lived her life in a gracious way. Her life mission, which was to teach fairness, understanding, and tolerance was achieved only after many years of perseverance, but her work is still teaching us today.

36

Haida Heron Totem c.1945 watercolor on paper 8” x 5”

37

Mural Study - Executive Order #8802 c. 1941 tempera on paper 28” x 55”

38

This double-sided, large work reveals the two distinct styles in which Thelma worked. The mural study is direct and narrative. She purposely drew the figures in a cartoonish way (and called these studies “cartoons”). That style allows her to address several things at once without a need for a literal composition. Executive Order 8802, enacted by President Roosevelt in 1941, prohibited racial discrimination in the military industry. The central figure holding the banner seems to be an African American sailor. The white supervisor figure with unusually long arms and a club is threatening. He wears a black mask, which hides his face and identity--not because of fear---but because he denies his humanity, his ability to reason. He is required to play a role to act in this way. African Americans were only allowed to clean and cook in the military, which would explain the figure to the left mopping the floor.

The other large group of African Americans appears anxious and out-ofplace. Executive Order 8802 eventually led to progress in equal opportunity in the workplace and was not restricted to only the war industry.

39

The other side of this work illustrates the modern/ abstract style of Streat’s work. Some of the elements incorporated into this image were used in other works by Streat, most notably in a work titled London Bridge. The central figure is Streat, holding a flower, “as a symbol of my gratitude”. The blue “pig-dog” (smelling a flower) in London Bridge symbolized “English pantomine”; here the creature is being tempted by a fish on a line. The smiling and frowning yellow moons in LB represent the sadness over the past destruction of London and the hope for its future; a similar pluralism is present here relating to the fish. Although it is unclear what the specific meaning is here, it is certainly about resisting the temptation of the shortcut. The larger fish in the blue background represents existing resources available, or potential. This message is likely intended for the individual and humanity at large: strive to see the bigger picture and do not waste precious energy chasing a carrot (or fish) on a string.

40

Untitled (Reverse) c. 1941 tempera on paper, 28” x 55”

41

42

Herd of Cattle

c. 1945 oil and mixed media on illustration board 25” x 23 ½"

Thelma Streat grew up primarily on ranches in rural Oregon, and livestock and produce production was a large part of the economy there. Even if she had limited exposure to this personally, she would have been very familiar with it. The Pendleton Woolen Mills was located in the town where she grew up, and the Pendleton Round-Up, a well-known annual rodeo, began in 1910. Like most of Streat’s work, it is founded in a literal, personal reality to the artist, but it also conveys a message. The central animal raises its head, above the herd, in order to see and make decisions, rather than follow “the herd” with its head down. Streat believed social consciousness started with individual responsibility. Her message in Herd of Cattle is: you are part of a family, a race, a species, yes, but raise your head, look around and take responsibility.

43

This untitled work depicts a central figure painted in a consistent manner of how the artist portrayed herself in other works. Of course, Streat’s identity as an artist was always a symbol of any individual or any group of people, therefore any accomplishment or dilemma experienced by a figure in her paintings could be shared or felt by anyone. The structures in the background resemble one room schoolhouses that were common in the early 1900s, and all have the letter “S” on the roof. This would seem to signify the "School of Streat”. The mushroom-like depictions on either side of her most likely represent the growing minds of “students”. It seems that the general message of this work is to open one’s mind, educate one’s self....there are teachers and schools (she meant this literally and figuratively), there is room, and everyone is welcome.

44

The Teacher (Untitled)

c. 1945 watercolor on board 5” x 8”

45

African Mask c. 1945 mixed media with silkscreen on paper 6 ½” x 7” titled verso

46

Streat worked in other mediums than oil and watercolor, and did produce multiples, although she did not generally approach the process like a traditional printmaker. Many times she would start with a silkscreen print as a foundation and then paint or draw over the image making it unique (as in the case of African Mask). She made so few copies of any particular image (e.g., Totem Pole Figure), and because of the variations arising from the silkscreen process itself, the works should be considered unique. Streat did a project later in her career creating a folio of (photographic) reproductions of some of her work so that people could own an image of a Streat inexpensively.

 

47

 

Painted in the early to mid-1950s, Hawaiian Girl in Yellow seems to be a work of a more personal nature for Streat. She and her husband, Edgar Kline were living in Hawaii and had opened a school there. This work may be a portrait of one of her students.

It is reminiscent in style to some of the portraiture of Diego Rivera done in the 1950s. Streat met Rivera around 1940 in San Francisco, assisting him on the Pan-American Unity mural, and his style and to a degree, his philosophy, was an influence upon her.

48

Hawaiian Girl in Yellow c. 1950 oil on paper 22 ½” x 17 ½” signed

49

 

Streat had worked on the Pan-American Unity mural with Diego Rivera and other WPA projects with Sargent Johnson in the late 1930s-1940, and this experience introduced her to the genre of muralism and its effectiveness for social commentary. She exhibited the mural design Death of a Black Sailor in 1943 in Los Angeles, which created controversy and brought threats from the KKK. Thelma responded by making a series of mural designs focusing on the positive contributions of the African American to education and industry. In 1944, she entered The Negro in Professional Life (mural study) in a competition at the Southside Community Art Center in Chicago. It tied for first place with an entry by William Carter.

50

The Negro in Professional Life Mural Study, featuring the Meatpacking Industry c. 1944 ink and graphite on paper 12 ½” x 30”

51

The Negro in Professional Life Mural Study, featuring Railroads c. 1944 ink and graphite on paper 12 ½” x 30”

52

The Negro in Professional Life Mural Study, featuring Women in Work c. 1944 ink and graphite on paper 12 ½” x 30”

53

 

Streat was chairman of the Negro Labor Mural Committee in 1944, which was headquartered in Chicago. Her plan was to execute 12 murals this size, depicting various contributions African Americans made to industry, agriculture, science and transportation. This mural, concerned with African American meatpackers, was sponsored by a group of patrons in the city of Chicago.

These murals, once completed, were to be made into large prints that could be easily and inexpensively distributed to schools and libraries across the nation. The style in which they were painted was determined by Streat to be appealing to children--the drawing, palette, composition, etc. In order to discover what would be appealing, Streat taught art classes to children in Chicago from 1943-1945. By 1945, three murals were completed. During the summer of 1945, she returned to California, intending to come back and finish the project in the fall of that year. However, her work went in a different direction, with the introduction of dance and narration to accompany her abstract work, and by the late summer, she reluctantly abandoned her mural project.

54

Mural Study - featuring the Meatpacking House c. 1944 watercolor on paper 31” x 65 ½”

55

The Negro’s Contribution to Medicine and Veterinary Science, Mural Study c. 1945 ink and watercolor on paper 15 ⅜” x 15 ½”

56

57

58

White Bulls on Blue c. 1943 watercolor and graphite on paper 8 ½” x 11”

Streat developed designs for textiles throughout her career. African American artists struggled to get gallery representation (especially in New York), and many turned to designing decorative arts to bolster their income. Thelma exhibited designs for fabric, ceramics, woven rugs and even tableware at the City of Paris Galleries (department store) in San Francisco in 1939 and 1943. In 1947, she was commissioned by Koret of California to create painted designs, which would then be used by Stephanie Koret, the chief fashion designer, to develop a line of sportswear for women. Koret was the largest manufacturer of women’s sportswear in the U.S. at the time.

59

Three Blue Bulls c. 1943 mixed media/paper 8 ½” x 11”

Figure Leading a Red Bull (Untitled) c. 1943 mixed media on paper 8 ½” x 11”

60

This was a design for a ceramic (or tableware) project. In 1939 and 1943, Streat had a showing of decorative arts which she had designed at the City of Paris Galleries in San Francisco. Three Blue Bulls was most likely used as a design for a textile.

Figure Leading a Red Bull (Untitled) may have been as well, but it is less clear. In this composition, Streat plays with the notion that the much smaller man can reduce the much larger, powerful bull to a friendly cooperative creature by his wits and even more so, by his good nature.

The figure is not a bullfighter, he’s a bull-charmer, in a field of flowers.

Jumping Rope c. 1943 mixed media on paperboard (in the round) 10” diameter signed verso

61

 

Ann Gibson points out the similarities of these figures of Streat’s to the reliquary figures made by the Kota people of northeastern Gabon. These figures stood guard atop baskets holding the bones of ancestors. This figure unceasingly stares directly at the viewer, perhaps offering protection to traditional cultures. Streat used abstraction to speak more universally, but strongly believed that modernism did not require abandoning one’s traditions or culture.

62

The Watchman (Untitled) c. 1945 watercolor and graphite on paperboard 11” x 7 ½”

63

64

Baby on Bird (Untitled) c. 1943 oil on board 20” x 28” signed

The Haida totemic symbol of the eagle represents power, grace, and intellectual ability.

The three winged creatures in the sky might be seen as angels (Christian) or as owls (Native American). In either case, they would represent the wisdom and guidance of the dead. The emergence of a new life--rebirth-in a modern world, but utilizing the knowledge and heritage of the past seems to be the theme of this work. Streat uses “form lines”, the distinctive design element seen in the art of the Northwest Coast people. Bill Holm, in his book, Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of Form describes them as “continuous, flowing, curvilinear lines that turn, swell and diminish in a prescribed manner.

They are used for figure outlines, internal design elements and in abstract compositions.”

65

"My gran, he flew back to Africa, just spread his arms and flew away home...

Drifting night in the windy pines, Night is a laughing, night is a longing."

(A verse from “O Daedalus, Fly Away Home”, written by Robert Hayden, an African American poet, and published in Poetry Magazine, 1943.) For additional information regarding Hayden’s poem and his work for the Federal Writer’s Project, see notes, pp. 82-84.

Streat has combined symbolic references from Greek mythology, Native American and African folklore. Daedalus was an innovator, and seeking freedom from his tower cell, built wings for himself and his son Icarus. Hayden uses the reference in his poem to symbolize a spiritual condition, one of transcendence and detachment. The Native Americans used the symbol of flight to represent transition and freedom. Streat encourages, not to attempt escape and be ruined by means of a failed ambition--like Icarus, but instead, free your mind and live where you stand.

66

Flying Totemic Figure c. 1943 watercolor/paper 7” x 8 ¼”

67

Portrait of a Man (Edgar Kline) c. 1945 oil on paperboard 25” x 13” 68

This work is untitled, but it is likely a portrait of Edgar Kline, Streat’s husband and manager. Kline was a playwright and folklorist. The two met in 1945, and Kline became her manager. Thelma divorced her husband of ten years, Romaine Streat in 1948, and was wed to Kline a month later.

The two opened a school in Honolulu called Children’s City, and taught children the principles of multiculturalism.

69

Streat executed several small scale murals such as this one, although the majority were done in tempera. She again addresses the subject of Executive Order 8802, employing it as a standard in her campaign for equal opportunity in labor for African Americans. In this work, she has utilized an actual newspaper clipping as collage in the lower left. The technique of backlighting the heads of figures creates an interesting halo effect. Streat distinguishes between the white figures who are either helpful or sympathetic to the black figures and the white “overseers” who are seen as overly large and threatening.

Mural Study for the Executive Order #8802 Murals c.1941 oil on canvas 36" x 48" 70

71

Streat was known to have painted images anew that were especially popular with her patrons. At least three similar works of this subject have been executed (one is in the Melvin Holmes Collection of African American Art, San Francisco). Judy Bullington, in her essay, Thelma Johnson Streat and Cultural Synthesis on the West Coast , writes “The undercurrent of African themes in Streat’s work is evident in paintings like Two Kings ...using superimposed profiles of black pharaonic figures with frontal eyes in the style of ancient Egyptian art. One aspect of African American religious practices, the singing of spirituals, also featured strongly in Streat’s performances.”

Many well-known Negro spirituals (O Mary Don’t You Weep, Don’t You Mourn, Didn’t Old Pharaoh Get Lost, and Turn Back Pharoah’s Army) tell the moral lesson of the Pharoah’s failure: “Didn’t old Pharoah get los’ in the Red Sea?” Streat uses this symbol as a warning to African Americans not to lose sight of the idea of equality and true freedom. Pharaohs of any color will fall--whether in the face of God, or by the hands of the people they oppress.

72

Black Kings

c. 1945 oil on paperboard 13” x 10” signed

1941 oil on board 13” x 10”

73

Robot c. 1943 gouache/paper 12 ½” x 9” signed and titled

74

Robot was exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago’s International Exhibition of Watercolor in 1943. Bullington likens the image of Robot to the work of Canadian painter, Emily Carr because it’s effective simplicity. It is broadly believed that both Streat and Carr found abstract images to be more easily grasped by children than adults. Streat did believe that through education and communication with children, the prospect of real social change increased over time, but she was also keenly aware that abstracted images were immediately more universally communicable and therefore more effective as a language of multiculturalism.

75

Portrait of Romaine Streat is an early drawing of her first husband, whom she wed in 1935. She was studying at the Museum Art School in Portland at the University of Oregon at the time. Portrait of Marion Anderson was done in 1939, after Ms Anderson sang in front of the Lincoln Memorial (Washington, DC) on Easter. It is ironic that this performance was only made possible by the support of Eleanor Roosevelt (see notes, pp. 84-85), and that a few short years later, Thelma would have the opportunity to meet Ms Roosevelt, who quickly became a fan of her work.

These drawings, as well as Portrait of Thelma Bushnell, were all executed in the late 1930s, and reveal Streat’s skill as a draftsman and her ability to render a subject in a realistic style.

Portrait of Romaine Streat

76

c. 1935 charcoal on brown paper 24” x 16” faintly signed

Portrait of Thelma Bushnell c. 1938 pastel on paper 11½” x 7½”

Portrait of Marian Anderson c. 1938 ink and graphite on paper 7 ½” x 9 ½” signed and titled

77

Desert Scene with a Woman, Coyote, and Tortoise c.1946 oil on board 18” x 24” signed 78

It is tempting to think that this is a self-portrait. The central figure is a strong, symmetrical female. She occupies the entire height of the composition, so as to symbolize being grounded at the bottom, and yet her head reaches the very top, representing high aspirations. To the viewer’s left is a seemingly quick-moving desert animal--the coyote; and to the viewer’s right is the slow-paced tortoise. The desert environment in which these creatures live is challenging, it is lonely, and it exposes one’s weaknesses. The totemic symbol of the coyote typically symbolizes a balance between wisdom and playfulness. The tortoise spirit animal walks its path in peace, with determination and serenity, with confidence inspired by knowing the strength of its back. Streat’s life and artistic career, which were impossible to separate, expressed the strength of this duality. She held together seemingly insurmountable contradictions, both personally and professionally, and then offered that lesson of success as a teacher to the present and future generations.

79

Totem Pole Figure is one of the few images Streat executed as a multiple. It does not have a noted edition size, but it is unlikely that there were more than a handful printed.

Streat traveled extensively for research. Bullington writes: “Paintings of totems by Streat (referencing Totem Pole Figure) and Carr (referencing Emily Carr’s painting titled, A Skidgate Pole) illustrate how these artists combined an understanding of the native peoples of British Columbia gleaned through ethnographic field studies with a concern for creating accessible abstract forms.”

80

Totem Pole Figure c. 1946-47 silkscreen print 14” x 11” signed in pencil

81

Streat addresses the subject of Executive Order 8802, employing it as a standard in her campaign for equal opportunity in labor for African Americans. The technique of backlighting the heads of figures creates an interesting halo effect. Streat distinguishes between the white figures who are either helpful or sympathetic to the black figures and the white “overseers” who are seen as overly large and threatening. The mural study is direct and narrative. She purposely drew the figures in a cartoonish way (and called these studies “cartoons”). That style allows her to address several things at once without a need for a literal composition.

The vignettes include commentary on the issues of separate barracks, the denial of blood donation by African Americans, separate seating in restaurants, and denial of equal opportunity in the workplace. Executive Order 8802, enacted by President Roosevelt in 1941, prohibited racial discrimination in the military industry. It eventually led to progress in equal opportunity in the workplace and was not restricted to only the war industry.

82

Executive Order #8802 (Study) c. 1941 oil on board 21” x 27.50” signed

83

Notes

"Lots uh slaves wut wuz brung ovuh from Africa could fly..Dey dohn like it heah…an go back to Africa…"

Legend of the Flying African

O

DAEDALUS, FLY AWAY HOME

Drifting scent of the Georgia pines, Coonskin drum and jubilee banjo.

Pretty Malinda, dance with me.

Night is juba, night is conjo, Pretty Malinda, dance with me….

Night is an African juju man Weaving a wish and a weariness together to make two wings.

O fly away home, fly away.

Do you remember Africa?

84

O cleave the air, fly away home.

I knew all the stars of Africa.

Spread my wings and cleave the air.

My gran, he flew back to Africa, just spread his arms and flew away home…

Drifting night in the windy pines, Night is a laughing, night is a longing.

Robert Hayden, from Poetry Magazine, July 1943.

Hayden was born in 1913, a year after the birth of Thelma Johnson Streat. His birth name was Asa Bundy Sheffey. He suffered from extreme near-sightedness, and spent most of his time reading.

Hayden worked for the Federal Writer's Project in the 1930s in his native Detroit, and focused on African American history. He studied at the University of Michigan, and after graduating, taught for 23 years at Fisk. He was the first African American to be appointed Consultant of Poetry to the Library of Congress.

While Hayden was part of the Federal Writer's Project in Detroit during the 1930s, other members in Georgia collected oral histories of African Americans on the Sea Islands (Jekyll, St Simons, and Tybee) near Savannah. An elderly African American man named Wallace Quarterman recounted the long-standing story of how the tortured slaves escaped by flying back to Africa. The story can be traced back to 1803, when a group of Igbo (now Nigeria) slaves arrived in Savannah to be sold at the slave market. The Igbo were fiercely resistant and when they were bought and transported down the coast near St Simons, they mutinied. Historical reports from a plantation owner claim that the Igbo landed in St Simon and died in the swamp, but the story that was told by African Americans over the years was that the Igbo "rose up in the sky, turned themselves to buzzards and flew right back to Africa." It is clear that Hayden was aware of these stories, because Georgia is the setting for his O Daedalus, Fly Away Home.

Streat would have been aware of this as well, due to her keen interest in folklore and cultural traditions, and she likely read Hayden's poem in 1943. The symbolism of transforming the hardships of slavery into the freedom of flight has been used frequently by African American writers and artists, including more recently by Toni Morrison, in her novel, Song of Solomon. Streat elected to dress her flying figure in Native American costume, because for her the message is intended for everyone.  

85 

 

Notes The homeland of the Native American had been appropriated by the Euro-American, so their flight of freedom, even in myth, would be purely a spiritual one.

It is quite possible that Streat's Night Man is a version of Daedalus, seen as in Hayden's words: "Night is an African juju man, weaving a wish and a weariness together to make two wings." Night Man is a magical figure, existing in the world of dreams---a world for children, where things seemingly impossible are possible--a world out of the reach of any would-be oppressor. j

M

arion Anderson was an African American singer who was inspirational to both blacks and whites. She was 42 years old when she was asked to perform in Washington, DC in front of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday. The Daughters of the American Revolution attempted to refuse her permission to the venue to sing for an integrated audience, but First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and her husband, President Franklin Roosevelt stepped in and saw that it happened. She sung for a live audience of over 75,000, and the performance was broadcast nationally on the radio. In the drawing Portrait of Marion Anderson, Ms Anderson's head is surrounded by concentric circles, representing the radio waves. Anderson would have been a huge role model for Streat, because she broke down barriers with her talent, but then took advantage of the fame to promote civil rights. j

E

leanor Roosevelt dedicated the opening of the Southside Community Art Center in Chicago in 1941, and the ceremony was broadcast nationally on NBC radio. Streat was connected with this well-known institution for a number of years in the 1940s.

86

Streat had the opportunity to meet the First Lady in 1951 and Roosevelt wrote Streat a letter praising her abilities and her personally. It was reported in various newspaper articles that Roosevelt owned a work by Thelma Johnson Streat. Here is an excerpt from Eleanor Roosevelt's daily journal: July 3, 1951 I had a visit the other day from Miss Thelma Johnson Streat, who is going to give her opening per- formance in this country on July 15 at the Ziegfeld Theatre, here. She has been in France, England, Ireland, Mexico and Hawaii. She was born in Yakima, Wash., and is part Cherokee and part American Negro.

Miss Streat began her career as a painter and designer. She has now developed into a dancer with a peculiar art of her own, a kind of lyric dance evolved from the ritualistic and tribal lore of many primitive races. I was very much interested in talking to her and I hope she may have the same success here that she has had abroad. j

 

87 

References Books Abstract Expressionism: The International Context, edited by Joan Marter, essay by Ann Gibson, African American Contributions to Abstract Expressionism, Rutgers University Press,, 2007.

Abstract Expressionism: Other Politics, Ann Eden Gibson, 1997, Yale University.

African-American Art, Sharon F. Patton, Oxford University Press, 1998, New York.

Afro-American Artists, A Bio-bibliographical Dictionary, Theresa Dickason Cedarholm, 1973.

Art, Women, California: Parallels and Intersections 1950-2000, ed. Diana Burgess Fuller and Daniela Salvioni, University of California Press, 2002.

Artists in California, 1786-1940, Edan Milton Hughes, Crocker Art Museum.

Emily Carr: an Introduction to Her Life and Art , Anne Newlands, Firefly Books/Bookmakers Press, Ontario, 1996.

From the Auroral Darkness: The Life and Poetry of Robert Hayden , Dr. John Hatcher, 1984, University of Michigan. (“O Daedalus, Fly Away Home”, written by Robert Hayden, was originally published in Poetry Magazine, 1943).

Thank you to Michelle Harvey, Archivist, Museum of Modern Art, New York, (Museum Archives).

The International Review of African American Art , The Many Faces of Charles Sebree, Volume 18, Number 3, 2002, Hampton University Museum.

88

Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of Form, Bill Holm, University of Washington Press, 1965 .

The Souls of Black Folk , W.E.B. Du Bois, A.C. McClurg & Co., Chicago, 1903.

St James Guide to Black Artists , edited by Thomas Riggs; essay on Thelma Streat by Lizzetta LeFalle-Collins (pp.512-513), Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture, St James Press, Detroit, 1997.

Who Was Who in American Art, edited by Peter Hastings Falk, Sound View Press, CT, 1985.

Magazines “Thelma Johnson Streat and Cultural Synthesis on the West Coast”, Judy Bullington, American Art, vol. 19, No 2, Summer 2005--the magazine of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

“A Deep and Personal Expression, The Art of Thelma Johnson Streat”, magazine of The Portland Museum of Art (Winter, 2003) Art Hop 2009 promotional article, Art on Alberta featured artist: Thelma Johnson Streat, Portland, Oregon.

89

References Newspaper Articles The Chicago Defender “Chatter and Some News”, Helen F. Chappell, Jan 4, 1941.

“Coast Painter Gets Two Threats by Klan”, Dec 4, 1943, p.5.

“Mostly About Women (Thelma Johnson Streat) by Wilma”, June 23, 1945.

“Woman Painter to Design Fabrics” , Oct 4, 1947.

“Frisco Artist in New Role”, July 21, 1945, p. 17.

“Broadway Raves Over New Dance by Streat”, Marian Houston, Aug 13, 1949.

The Chicago Tribune “Kimball Hall Opens Season with Recital by Thelma Streat”, Albert Goldberg, Sept 17, 1945.

The Oregonian “Exhibit to Mark Negro Art Work at Gill Gallery”, June 26, 1938.

“Thelma Streat Comes Home, Artist Tells Plans in Child Education”, Catherine Jones, June 17, 1945.

“Dance Program Set”, Catherine Jones, August 5, 1945.

“Freedom for Negroes Linked with the Arts, Thelma Johnson Streat Uses the Dance, Music and Paints as Outlets to Express, in Abstract Form, the Faith of Her Race”, Catherine Jones, Aug 19, 1945.

90

“Artist Dancer Plans Recital” , Gladys Bowen, Aug 22, 1946, p. 10.

Untitled newspaper article by Catherine Jones, Sept 14, 1947 , p. 12.

“Ballet Guild Artists Give Rare Exhibition of Dances”, Hilmar Grondahl (Music Editor), Sept. 27, 1947.

“Museum Exhibit Links Advertising, Art; 1947 Industrial Designs Also on Display”, Catherine Jones, Nov 30, 1947, p. 10.

“Divorces Granted”, Nov. 20, 1948, p.5.

“Negro Dancer of Portland Weds Caucasian Manager” , Dec. 14, 1948.

Untitled newspaper article by Catherine Jones, July 31, 1949, p. 7.

“Dancer Appears at Recital at Exhibition of Paintings”; Column: Hostess House: News for and about Women, Oct 1950.

“Portland Interpretive Dancer Wins World Acclaim, Professes She Prefers School Work to Club Glitter”, Wilma Morrison, Sept 4, 1951.

“Famed Painter Dies after Heart Attack” , May 24, 1959.

91

References New York Times “New Season in the Offing”, article discussing new acquisitions by MOMA, Aug 30, 1942.

Untitled article announcing Streat’s show with the Interplayers at Carnegie Hall, July 31, 1949.

“African-American Abstraction, an Exploration”, Roberta Smith, June 28, 1991. Review of exhibition at Kenkeleba Gallery.

The Oakland Tribune “News of Activities of Negroes” , Lena Wyslinger, Sept 15, 1940.

“Thelma Johnson Streat at S.F. Museum of Art” , Helen Clement, Mar 17, 1946. .

The Irish Press “The News That’s Going Around”, May 6, 1950.

The Evening Standard “The Londoner’s Diary”, March 7, 1950 (London, England).

Honolulu Star Bulletin “Honolulu Artist Records Eruption on Piece of Canec”, July 1, 1952.

92

The Daily Recorder (Sacramento, California) “Thelma Streat at the Curran Starting Feb 26”, Feb 13, 1953.

The Pittsburgh Courier “KKK Threatens Woman Painter”, Dec 4, 1943, p.3.

Newspaper clipping from Sioux City (IA), “Visiting Hawaii Child Welfare Leaders See Folklore as Link for All Children”, Sept 18, 1958.

Newspaper clipping from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, “Colorful Hawaiian Couple Seeking Canadian Folklore”, 1956.

Unknown clipping (most likely from a Chicago newspaper, dated 1944), “2 Artists Tie In Art Center Mural Contest”.

The Vancouver Sun

93

References Essays, Exhibition Catalogues, and Announcements “The Negro Comes of Age: A National Survey of Contemporary Artists”, essay for the exhibition catalog by Alain Locke, Up Till Now; Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, NY, 1945.

“Two Worlds: African American Abstraction in New York at Mid-Century” by Ann Gibson, essay for The Search for Freedom: African American Abstraction 1945-1975, exhibition catalog for Kenkeleba Gallery, New York, May 19-July 14, 1991.

Black Artists: Two Generations, The Newark Museum, May 13 – Sept. 6, 1971, exhibition catalog, Samuel C. Miller (director).

“Spirituals and Neo-Spirituals”, by Zora Neale Hurston in The Gender of Modernism, A Critical Anthology (ed. Bonnie Kline Scott, Indiana University Press, 1990).

“In the Arms of the Negress: A Brief History of Modern Artistic Practice”, Huey Copeland, n.p., in association with the Hutchins Center (Harvard), undated.

94

Press preview of recent acquisitions by American artists including an important sculpture by William Zorach.” (announcing the museum’s purchase of Rabbit Man by Streat), Museum of Modern Art, New York press release, August 21, 1942.

Untitled invitation from City of Paris (San Francisco dept store), from Beatrice Judd Ryan.

Vera Jones Bright Gallery exhibition announcement, An Exhibition of Primitive Negroid Designs by Thelma Streat

Media Images of “Art in Action” were found in the San Francisco Bay Area Television Archive, a collection maintained by the Leonard Library. Stills from footage originally aired in 1939-40 by Orville C. Goldner.

The Johnson Family Collection, clippings and photographs pertaining to Thelma Johnson Streat.

95

Thelma Johnson Streat: Faith in an Ultimate Freedom Exhibition: Tyler Fine Art, St. Louis, Missouri

January 20, 2014-March 7, 2014 Managing Director: Thom Pegg Catalog Essay: Thom Pegg Catalog Design: Renée Yeager

Joe Jones 96

Charles Sebree

Tyler Fine Art 1123 Locust St St Louis, MO 63101 (314)727-6249 (gallery) (314)378-2165 (cellular) info@tylerfineart.com www.tylerfineart.com www.tfa-exhibits.com Gertrude Abercrombie

John Wilde

Tyler Fine Art specializes in work by African American artists, American Scene, Magic Realism, American Surrealism, Chicago Modernists, and Midwest Regionalism. We are always interested in buying and consignment. Thom Pegg also acts as the Consignment Director of African American Art for the Treadway-Toomey 20th Century Auction in Chicago.  

97 

Tyler Fine Art 1123 Locust St St Louis, MO 63101 (314) 727-6249 (gallery)

info@tylerfineart.com www.tylerfineart.com www.tfa-exhibits.com (314) 378-2165 (cellular)