Above: David Driskell (1931-2020) Fisherman’s Pride, 1956, oil on canvas, 20 x 24 inches. Collection of the Estate of David C. Driskell, Maryland. Photograph by Luc Demers. © Estate of David C. Driskell, courtesy DC Moore Gallery, New York
Self-Portrait as Nkisi Nkondi Figure, circa 2010
In this drawing, Driskell transforms himself into a traditional art object from Central Africa known as a nkisi nkondi.
Homage to Romare, 1976
“I think there is something very special about the Southern Black experience…One of my heroes of the Southern experience is a Black artist, Romare Bearden.”
—David Driskell, 1980
David Driskell (1931-2020) Self-Portrait as a Nkisi Nkondi Figure, c. 2010, graphite, charcoal, mixed media drawing in sketchbook, approx. 11 x 8 1/2 inches. Collection of the Estate of David C. Driskell, Maryland. Photograph by Jim Schneck. © Estate of David C. Driskell
David Driskell (1931-2020) Homage to Romare, 1976, collage and gouache on Masonite, 23 1/2 x 29 1/2 inches. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond. Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Endowment, 2017.3. Photograph by Travis Fullerton. © Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. © Estate of David C. Driskell
Kinaya Hassane was the Curatorial Fellow in the Graphic Arts Department at the Library Company of Philadelphia. She received her B.A. in Art History from Bowdoin College in 2019, where she wrote her senior thesis about the history of collecting African American art. Kinaya will begin studies for a Ph.D in African and African Diaspora art history at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University in fall 2021.
Self-Portrait, 1953
Driskell made many self-portraits over the course of his career. He used a method that favored individual insight over drawing from life.
Behold Thy Son, 1956
Behold Thy Son pays homage to Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy whose brutal murder in Mississippi in 1955 brought national attention to racial violence and racial injustice in America, especially in the South.
David Driskell (1931-2020) Self-Portrait, 1953, oil on board, 15 1/4 x 11 inches.Collection of the Estate of David C. Driskell, Maryland. Photograph by Luc Demers. © Estate of David C. Driskell, courtesy DC Moore Gallery, New York
David Driskell (1931-2020) Behold Thy Son, 1956, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 inches. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, DC. © Estate of David C. Driskell
Shaun Leonardo is a Brooklyn-based artist from Queens, New York City. His multidisciplinary work negotiates societal expectations of manhood, namely definitions surrounding Black and brown masculinities, along with its notions of achievement, collective identity, and experience of failure. His performance practice, anchored by his work in Assembly—a diversion program for court-involved youth at the Brooklyn-based, arts nonprofit Recess where he is now Co-Director—is participatory and invested in a process of embodiment.
Pine and Moon, 1971
In this image of a pine tree under moonlight, Driskell drew both from art historical traditions and his immediate environment in Maine.
Ghetto Wall #2, 1970
Painted in the wake of the civil rights movement in America, Ghetto Wall #2 is a painting within a painting.
David Driskell (1931-2020) Pine and Moon, 1971, oil on Masonite, 47 3/8 x 35 1/8 inches. Portland Museum of Art, Maine. Museum purchase with support from the Friends of the Collection, 2011.4. Photograph by Luc Demers. © Estate of David C. Driskell
David Driskell (1931-2020) Ghetto Wall #2, 1970, oil, acrylic, and collage on linen, 60 x 50 inches. Portland Museum of Art, Maine. Museum purchase with support from the Friends of the Collection, including Anonymous (2), Charlton and Eleanor Ames, Eileen Gillespie and Timothy Fahey, Cyrus Hagge, Patricia Hille Dodd Hagge, Alison and Horace Hildreth, Douglas and Sharyn Howell, Harry W. Konkel, Judy and Leonard Lauder, Marian Hoyt Morgan and Christopher Hawley Corbett, Anne and Vince Oliviero, D. Suzi Osher, Christina F. Petra, Karen and Stuart Watson, Michael and Nina Zilkha, and with support of the Freddie and Regina Homburger Endowment for Acquisitions, and the Emily Eaton Moore and Family Fund for the Collection, 2019.16. Photograph by Luc Demers. © Estate of David C. Driskell
A Maine native, Rebecca Keegan VanDiver is Assistant Professor of African American Art at Vanderbilt University. Her research focuses on 20th- century Black women artists and more recently the use of ephemeral print in African American art. She is the author of Designing a New Tradition: Loïs Mailou Jones and the Aesthetics of Blackness (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2020).
Notes from Yaddo Diary, June 2, 1980
Begun during his 1980 residency at Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, New York, Driskell’s combination sketchbook and diary is quintessential Driskell.
Gate Leg Table, 1966
“Long before the concept of assemblage art was commonly seen among American artists such as Joseph Cornell and Robert Rauschenberg, Black folk artists defied the usual rules of conventional painting by adding objects and curio items they thought befit the subjects they created. I saw many ‘assemblages’ and ‘constructions’ being made by artists when I was a child growing up in Eatonton, Georgia and later in Appalachia in western North Carolina.”
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—David Driskell, 1999
Adrienne Patel is a water color, acrylic, and mixed-media artist who explores luminosity, space, and spirit through the ebb and flow of water, color, and textures on paper and canvas. Adrienne’s interest in art began when she was a child growing up in South Carolina. Adrienne studied Fine Arts at Fisk University and Peabody College, and attended Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture and Cranbrook Academy of Art.
Memories of a Distant Past, 1975
Memories of a Distant Past exemplifies the collage painting method Driskell favored in the late 1960s and 1970s, achieving a harmonious orchestration of content and form, paint and collage.
Self-Portrait, Dan, undated
In this drawing, Driskell blends a pensive self-portrait with some of the formal characteristics of a Dan mask, including the distinctive broad forehead.
David Driskell (1931-2020) Memories of a Distant Past, 1975, egg tempera, gouache, and collage on paper, 21 1/2 x 16 inches. Collection of Joseph and Lynne Horning, Washington, DC. © Estate of David C. Driskell, courtesy DC Moore Gallery, New York
Oscar Mokeme is a mystic, collector, educator, and author. He was born to Igbo parents and was educated in Nigeria, the UK, and the United States. He has spent most of his adult life collecting, preserving, and interpreting African humanistic art. Oscar is the cofounder and director of the Museum of African Culture in Portland, Maine. He conducts workshops on the holistic traditional healing practices of the Nigerian Igbo people.
Shango, 1972
Shango reimagines a Yoruba ritual object, specifically a carved dance wand (oshe shango), as a medieval or Byzantine icon.
Dance of the Masks, 2000
Marcia Minter is the cofounder and executive director of Indigo Arts Alliance in Portland, Maine. Her work on numerous boards represents the interest of underrepresented voices, talents, and citizen constituents. She has spent her professional career as an executive creative director for several iconic brands. Her curatorial work focuses on photography, symposiums on the intersection of art and social practice, and exhibition planning and implementation.
Boy with Birds, 1953
The figure holding the newspaper in Boy with Birds is none other than Driskell himself, a former newspaper delivery boy from the rural South, contemplating the urban landscape of the North.
The Farmer and His Wife, 2005
Young Pines Growing, 1959
Driskell entered Young Pines Growing into the 18th Atlanta University Annual, a juried competition that was established in 1942 by Hale Woodruff at Atlanta University, now Clark Atlanta University.
Shaker Chair and Quilt, 1988
Encaustic is a wax-based material that can be challenging to use. It provided Driskell an excellent binder for textured collage materials such as torn strips of painted paper while also creating the effect of transparency.
Night Vision (for Jacob Lawrence), 2005
Artist Jacob Lawrence was an important mentor and colleague of Driskell’s, and their paths intersected several times, including at Fisk University and Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture.
David Driskell (1931-2020) Young Pines Growing, 1959, oil on canvas, 40 3/4 x 30 3/4 inches. Clark Atlanta University Art Museum, John Hope Franklin Purchase Award. © Estate of David C. Driskell
David Driskell (1931-2020) Night Vision (for Jacob Lawrence), 2005, collage and gouache on paper, 16 1/2 x 22 inches. Collection of Richard and Barbara Schiffrin, Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. Photograph by Sandra Paci. © Estate of David C. Driskell, courtesy DC Moore Gallery, New York
David Driskell (1931-2020) Shaker Chair and Quilt, 1988, encaustic and collage on paper, 31 3/8 x 22 5/8 inches. Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine. Museum Purchase, George Otis Hamlin Fund, 1990.2. © Estate of David C. Driskell
Audio of David Driskell generously provided by Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture and Studio Noiz podcast.