Negro Masks
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.Stewarded by the Harmon Foundation, a philanthropic organization dedicated to "creating a wider interest in the work of the Negro artist as a contribution to American culture," the painter Malvin Gray Johnson was praised for his thoughtful and bold treatment of African-American life. His work embraced principles learned from observing modern European masters, reducing objects to simple geometric forms. He applied these precepts to African-American subjects, such as Harlem street scenes, and to images inspired by Negro spirituals.
In the early 1930s, Johnson used works from the Blondiau-Theatre Arts Collection as motifs in his painting Negro Masks. Pictured are the Yoruba Gelede helmet-mask from Nigeria and Bwa mask from the Democratic Republic of the Congo included in the exhibiton, arranged over a graphic Kuba textile. While these masks might have been intended for the art market from their inception, for the artist they embodied a meaningful and powerful image of Africa.
In the early 1930s, Johnson used works from the Blondiau-Theatre Arts Collection as motifs in his painting Negro Masks. Pictured are the Yoruba Gelede helmet-mask from Nigeria and Bwa mask from the Democratic Republic of the Congo included in the exhibiton, arranged over a graphic Kuba textile. While these masks might have been intended for the art market from their inception, for the artist they embodied a meaningful and powerful image of Africa.
Artwork Details
- Title: Negro Masks
- Artist: Malvin Gray Johnson (American, Greensboro, North Carolina 1896–1934 New York, New York)
- Date: 1932
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: H. x W.: 20 x 18 in. (50.8 x 45.72 cm)
With frame: 21 1/4 x 19 3/8 - Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Collection of the Hampton University Museum, Hampton, Virginia
- Curatorial Department: The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing