Framing an Arts Landmark

TO MARK THE NATION’S BICENTENNIAL, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art hired a rising artist and scholar to mount the landmark exhibition “Two Centuries of Black American Art,” the first comprehensive look at the subject. 

That artist and curator, the late David C. Driskell, joined the UMD faculty in 1977, on the heels of that smashing success. This year, a new milestone exhibition, “Jubilee: Celebrating 25 Years of the Driskell Center Opening,” looks back at the campus center that he launched and led. The 75 examples on display reflect prominent themes in Black artists’ work: spirituality, music and performance, landscape and abstraction, among others. 

“I hope that people will get a window into the real promise of the collection here at the center,” says Jordana Moore Saggese, director of the David C. Driskell Center. “It’s one of the only explicit collections of Black art at a public university.” 

Here, exhibition curator Adrienne L. Childs Ph.D. ’05 takes Terp through several significant works, spanning “Two Centuries,” the Driskell Center’s permanent collection and “Jubilee.”

David C. Driskell (Photo by John T. Consoli)

1940

William H. Johnson, "EARLY MORNING WORK," ca. 1940, oil on burlap

Johnson, one of the early 20th century’s most important Black modernist artists, “used an innovative style he developed through years of working in Harlem and in Europe to tell the stories of African Americans,” says Childs. Driskell chose nine works by Johnson for “Two Centuries,” which showcased 205 objects.

1959

David Driskell, “PINE TREES, NO. 5,” 1959, oil on canvas

Pine trees, which surrounded Driskell’s home in Falmouth, Maine, were a frequent subject for the artist. “He likened them to cathedrals, evoking their transcendence,” says Childs. The painting is part of the center’s substantial collection of its namesake’s drawings, prints and paintings.

1995

Sam Gilliam, “SCARCELY BLUE,” 1995, acrylic paint on wood 

The late Gilliam, who was based in Washington, represented “a generation of Black artists who broke with representational styles in the mid-20th century to choose the freedom of form and color,” says Childs. Works by other Black abstract artists including Alma Thomas, William T. Williams, Mary Lovelace O’Neal and E.J. Montgomery, make up a significant portion of the Driskell Center’s collection.

1999

Benny Andrews, “MORNING SONG STUDY #1: MUSICAL INTERLUDE SERIES,” 1999, collage and mixed media 

This image in the new exhibition by the late New York City-based artist shows a singing figure, incorporating the long tradition of Black musicianship, and is an homage to the natural world, says Childs. “It reflects the joy and promise of the title ‘Jubilee’ and looks forward with optimism.”

2024

Megan Lewis, “I FEEL LESS PRESSURE BUT I HAVE MY MOMENTS,” 2024, oil on photograph on canvas 

The contemporary Baltimore artist creates colorful, highly textured portraits of young people that “capture an expressive kind of beauty, composure and elegance,” says Childs. Lewis’ work in portraiture, like this new Driskell Center acquisition in the “Jubilee” exhibition, nods to the important role human subjects have played in Black art past and present.

The Driskell Center's permanent collection comprises:

2,000

artworks (approximately), including 200+ by Driskell

6,000

volumes on African and African diaspora art

17

archival collections, including the David C. Driskell Papers