We Speak: Black Artists in Philadelphia, 1920s-1970s

Page 111

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, 1976 by Mildred D. Taylor illustrations by Jerry Pinkney

John Brown Going to His Hanging, 1942 Oil on canvas, 24 1/8 x 30 1/4 in. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts: John Lambert Fund

Dial Press

Selected Plays, 1977 by Tennessee Williams illustrations by Jerry Pinkney

CHARLES PRIDGEN American 1922–1991

The Franklin Library and Easton Press Leather Books

Lithographer and printmaker Charles Pridgen was Childtimes: A Three-Generation Memoir, 1979 by Eloise Greenfield and Lessie Jones Little illustrations by Jerry Pinkney HarperCollins

an artist and teacher who influenced a generation of younger artists, including Moe Brooker, John E. Dowell, Jr. and Raymond Saunders. Born in Philadelphia, Pridgen studied at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and worked at Beck Offset Printing Company in Pennsauken, New Jersey, for

Illustration from Folktales and Fairy Tales of Africa, 1967, by Jerry Pinkney (Published by Silver Burdett Co.)

Pearl Bailey, Actress, 1940, 1940 (negative), 2015 (print), by John W. Mosley (John W. Mosley Photograph Collection, Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, PA)

HORACE PIPPIN

fifteen years. He drew inspiration from innovative

American, 1888–1946

visual artists, such as Paul Klee; literary figures, such as Langston Hughes; and musical genres, such as

A native of West Chester, Pennsylvania, Horace

jazz. Artists, writers, and musicians alike gathered at

Pippin lived primarily in New York and New Jersey

his studio across from City Hall in the 1950s and 1960s

until 1917, when he enlisted to serve in World War

to discuss art, philosophy, and education. His work is in

I. He was sent back to West Chester in 1919, after is the recipient of numerous awards, including a

private collections and the African American Museum

sustaining a gunshot wound in his right arm—the

Caldecott Medal, five Coretta Scott King Awards,

in Philadelphia.

arm he nonetheless began to paint with soon after

and four Coretta Scott King Honor Awards, and five

his return. His career gained momentum in the 1930s,

New York Times “Best Illustrated Books.” Pinkney

and in 1940 he received the support of influential

was also a nominee for the 1997 Hans Christian

Philadelphia collector Albert C. Barnes. Though he

Andersen Illustration Medal, recognizing those whose

studied briefly at the Barnes Foundation, Pippin was

complete works have made a lasting contribution to

a self-taught artist who garnered praise from notable

children’s literature. The artist has had over thirty solo

figures such as Alain Locke for the refinement of his

exhibitions of his work at institutions such as the Art

folk style. His canvases and burnt-wood paintings

Institute of Chicago; the Brandywine River Museum

have been collected by museums throughout the

of Art, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania; the New York

United States and Europe, including the Pennsylvania

JERRY PINKNEY

Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in

Academy of the Fine Arts, the Barnes Foundation,

American, born 1939

Black Culture; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; and the

the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Phillips

Philadelphia Museum of Art. His work is in numerous

Collection, Washington, DC.

Civil Rights Demonstration, August 2, 1965, 1965 (negative), 2015 (print) Digital print, 9 1/4 x 10 in. John W. Mosley Photograph Collection, Charles L. Blockson AfroAmerican Collection, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, PA

Children at Play on Chicken Bone Beach, 1960s, 1960s (negative), 2015 (print) Digital print, 8 x 10 in. John W. Mosley Photograph Collection, Charles L. Blockson AfroAmerican Collection, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, PA

Born in Philadelphia, Jerry Pinkney studied at the

public and private collections.

Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts). Since 1964 he has been illustrating children’s books. His books have been translated into sixteen languages and published in fourteen countries. He

218

WOODMERE ART MUSEUM

Folktales and Fairy Tales of Africa, 1967 selected and retold by Lila Green illustrations by Jerry Pinkney Published by Silver Burdett Co.

Marian Anderson II, 1940 Oil on canvas, 27 x 23 x 2 1/4 in. Art & Artifacts Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations

The Blues, c. 1950 Oil on canvas, 37 x 61 in. The African American Museum in Philadelphia: Gift of Kay and Doris Pridgen in honor of Doris Power

Study, c. 1950 Graphite on paper, 7 3/4 x 14 1/8 in. Collection of Lewis Tanner Moore

RAYMOND SAUNDERS American, born 1934 Raymond Saunders incorporates painting and collage into his abstract, mixed-media works depicting urban black life and culture. Born in Pittsburgh, he attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) from 1950 to 1953 before

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