Evolution of Swing, date unknown, by Raymond Steth (Fine Arts Collection, U.S. General Services Administration New Deal Art Project. On deposit with Print and Picture Collection, Free Library of Philadelphia) Photograph courtesy of the Free Library of Philadelphia
Untitled (Queenie), date unknown, by Ellen Powell Tiberino (Print and Picture Collection, Free Library of Philadelphia) Photograph courtesy of the Free Library of Philadelphia
BROOKER: Yes. He came in dressed in a suit
launched Tommy’s career, and the careers of many
smash you to pieces. I went to class ready with
CHERYL MCCLENNEY-BROOKER: She was
with a vest and a tie every day to teach. So did
other students. Frankly, I thought I was as good as
some increased knowledge of words, and I would
gorgeous. She was also very talented.
Hobson Pittman.
they were. But he never invited or introduced any
argue with him to death. He didn’t like that. I made
black students to the collectors. None of them.
him mad most of the time. After a certain point I
VALERIO: I’ve heard different stories about Pittman. BROOKER: Hobson was a racist. I’ll tell you that
straight up. Period. But he was a good teacher. He had techniques of teaching that I even use myself, as a teacher. He and Ray Saunders and Lou Sloan did not get along at all. Ray couldn’t stand him. Hobson also had the inside track on collectors in Philadelphia. He introduced people like Tommy Palmore and James Havard to collectors. He would have events at his house in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and invite select students. This 64
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
Franklin Watkins, though, did things quietly. He’d never let you know what he was doing, but he introduced and helped a number of African American students. He, Julius Bloch, Morris Blackburn, and
didn’t go to him anymore because he continued to be more and more inebriated. When he came in like that, he would really get going, beyond belief. He was useless to me in that condition.
BROOKER: She was. She was the first student of
color I remember when I was at PAFA because I was a couple of years behind her. And she won a Cresson Memorial Travel Scholarship when she was there. She traveled all through Europe, and when she came back, she had these paintings and
Francis Speight were all very protective and very
A lot of things happened at PAFA that shaped
drawings that were just wonderful. I asked what
strongly in support of African American students at
me. The teachers I mentioned were the people
she found out. She said she saw paintings in the
the school. Walter Stuempfig was a good painter,
who were the most important for me. There were
great European collections, and that it made all the
but he was from a very different class. You would
students who were important for me, too. I was
difference in the world. When I went, I wanted to
have to go to class really knowing what you were
dazzled by Ellen Powell Tiberino, who was a painter.
look at Frans Hals. Hals is still one of my favorite
going to say, because if you didn’t, he’d absolutely
When she walked down the hall, everyone stopped!
painters. I’m dazzled by him. I’ve never seen a
WE SPEAK: Black Artists in Philadelphia, 1920s–1970s
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