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Portraits of Distinguished Negro Citizens

DATES November 02, 1945 through November 15, 1945
There are currently no digitized images of this exhibition. If images are needed, contact archives.research@brooklynmuseum.org.
  • November 3, 1945 On the evening of November 2 the Brooklyn Museum will hold a preview for Museum members and guests of two exhibitions, “The Negro Artist Comes of Age” and “Portraits of Distinguished Negro Citizens”. These exhibitions, open to the public on the following day, will be on view through November 25 in the west gallery of the fifth floor.

    The exhibition “The Negro Artist Comes of Age” is being circulated by the American Federation of Arts arid has received excellent reviews for previous showings in major museums of the country. The show consists of fifty-three paintings and nine pieces of sculpture by the leading young Negro artists of the United States. A few of these, such as Jacob Lawrence and Horace Pippin, have been widely shown but the work of the large majority is only now beginning to be recognized as an integral segment of our native art. In the words of Alain Locke, the show is both “a representative and challenging cross-section of contemporary American art and, additionally, convincing evidence of the Negro’s maturing racial and cultural self-expression in painting and sculpture”.

    The second of these exhibitions is a group of about twenty-two portraits of Negro leaders in the fields of science, jurisprudence and the arts, by Betsy Graves Reyneau of Brooklyn and Laura Wheeler Waring of Philadelphia. These portraits were first exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington on the occasion of the presentation to that institution of Mrs. Reyneau’s portrait of Dr. George Washington Carver. This exhibition, also, has been shown throughout the country.


    Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1942 - 1946. 10-12/1945, 077.
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  • August 29, 1944 AMERICAN PEWTER
    Exhibition date extended through November 4, 1945
    Outstanding examples selected from the John W. Poole Collection recently purchased by the Museum, and additional pieces received as gifts from other sources. This exhibition, based on design and form, emphasizes the intrinsic beauty of early American pewter and illustrates its extensive use in the everyday life of America during the 18th and 19th centuries.

    LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI
    October 5 - December 10, 1945
    An exhibition of about 60 lithographs and engravings depicting the days of the flatboats, steamboats, riverpilots, and midnight races, plantations and luxury “showboats” of the Mississippi before and after the Civil War. The greater portion of the lithographs were issued by Currier and Ives and other American lithographic houses which flourished in the 19th century. The majority of the prints have been lent through the courtesy of Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois.

    THE NEGRO ARTIST COMES OF AGE
    PORTRAITS OF DISTINGUISHED NEGRO CITIZENS
    November 2 - November 25, 1945
    An exhibition of 61 paintings and sculptures, which originated at the Albany Institute of History and Art, and is now being circulated by The American Federation of Arts. A group of portraits of distinguished Negro citizens will be shown with this exhibition.

    LANDSCAPE
    November 8, 1945--January 1, 1946
    European and American landscape painting, with loans from many museums and private collections (about 70 canvases), showing the development of both the philosophical and visual points of view towards landscape from the early fourteenth century to the present. There will be a detailed and illustrated catalogue. In connection with this large exhibition, the Museum is planning two smaller shows which will be on view at the same time: landscape water colors from the Museum collection and a group of unusual landscape photographs.

    PORTRAITS OF CHILDREN
    From the Museum’s Print Collection
    December 14--January 6, 1946
    A special Christmas exhibition of Children’s Portraits by 19th and 20th century artists, from the Museum’s Print Collection.

    GOLD, SILVER and JADE
    December 20 - closing date indefinite
    An exhibition of rare examples from the Museum’s famous Pre-Columbian collection of gold, silver and jade, representing Central and South America, especially Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, and Peru. A few items will be borrowed from private collectors.

    PAINTING GALLERIES RE-OPENED
    January 4, 1946
    Plans are being made to re-hang all painting galleries. European and American paintings, including Homer and Sargent water colors, which have been in storage for the duration, will be placed on permanent exhibition.

    OUR FABRIC HERITAGE
    January 15 - March 30, 1946
    A three-dimensional history of textiles. The inventions and developments in all phases of textile arts and techniques, from the earliest fibers, dyes and looms to the present, will be illustrated by maps, models and materials. In connection with the exhibition there will be lectures by leading authorities on such phases of the fabric arts as the development of historical and synthetic fibers, printing and finishing of materials, and the technological skills in the field. These lectures will be for the professional public and admission will be by invitation only.

    30th ANNUAL, THE BROOKLYN SOCIETY OF ARTISTS
    April 17 - May 26, 1946
    In keeping with established precedent, artists residing or teaching in Brooklyn will be invited to submit works in oil, water color, black and white and sculpture for selection by a jury.


    Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1942 - 1946. 07-09/1945, 051-2.
    View Original