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Marion Perkins (1901–1968, United States), Musician, ca. 1950. Limestone, height: 42 cm (16 1/2”). Private Collection © 2014 Estate of Marion Perkins. (8S-21915) |
I know that February
is over, but I wanted to present one more African
American artist who has such a compelling body of work. Marion Perkins’ sculpture presents the rich
tradition of African sculpture with a
modern infusion of Cubism and simple
abstraction. African sculpture—both masks
and figurative works—were a major influence on abstraction
in European sculpture and painting during the early 1900s. I’m loving the fact
that in the mid 1900s, the tradition of simplification of form (a key element
in abstraction) persisted in the works of African American artists such as
Marion Perkins.
Born in Arkansas, Perkins subsequently grew up with an aunt
on the South Side of Chicago. During the 1920s and 1930s, the South Side was a
lively artistic community for artists, musicians, and authors, much akin to the
Harlem Renaissance in New York. He was
trained at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago in academic sculpture
methods, but was drawn to modernist experiment in Europe at the time in the
work of Constantin Brancusi (1876–1957), Amedeo Modigliani (1884–1920), and Jacques Lipchitz (1891–1973).
While Perkins was drawn to their simplification of surfaces,
based in the Cubism movement, Perkins’ sculptures never strayed from the
object. These European modernists had been influenced by African sculpture, and
that was the driving forced behind Perkins' work. Although his work is
reminiscent of the Cubist sculpture of the late 1910s, it reflects
identification with African sculpture where the interest in subject is
emphasized over formal concerns.
Perkins was actively involved in promoting the art of
minorities in Chicago. In the 1950s, along with Margaret
Burroughs (founder of the first museum dedicated to African American art,
the DuSable Museum in Chicago) established
yearly street fairs on the South Side of Chicago to highlight to art of young
African Americans. They also founded the South
Side Art Center, which encourage African American youth to get involved in
the arts, including large-scale mural projects around the city of Chicago.
Correlations to Davis
programs: Explorations in Art Grade 3: 1.3-4 studio; Explorations in Art
Grade 4: 1.1-2 studio, 2.7-8 studio; Explorations in Art Grade 5: 1.3-4 studio;
A Global Pursuit: 2.3
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