In conjunction with the exhibition Jacob Lawrence: Builders, DC Moore Gallery is pleased to present Friends of Friends, an exhibition tracing personal connections between major 20th century artists. These artists worked, studied, taught, and exhibited alongside each other, forged friendships, supported and inspired each other. Featuring works by: Emma Amos (1937-2020), Romare Bearden (1911-1988), Roy DeCarava (1919-2009), David Driskell (1931-2020), Philip Evergood (1901-1973), Robert Gwathmey (1903-1988), Gwen Knight (1913-2005), Jack Levine (1915-2010), Richard Mayhew (b. 1924), Augusta Savage (1892-1962), Ben Shahn (1898-1969), George Tooker (1920-2011), James Van Der Zee (1886-1983), and Walter Williams (1920-1998).
While these artists each developed their own distinctive approach, many shared a deep commitment to social justice expressed through their art. They gravitated towards, and helped to create, spaces for artists to engage in issues of contemporary American politics. To draw a general map of these connections, there are several iconic artistic institutions: the Downtown Gallery, Terry Dintenfass Gallery, Spiral Group, Augusta Savage’s studios and the Charles Alston/Henry Bannarn studio, and Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture.
Augusta Savage was one of the first Harlem artists to open a studio where others could take classes, where her students included Gwen Knight. Jacob Lawrence lived across from Savage’s first studio, and first met Gwen Knight on one of his frequent visits. Knight and Lawrence, as well as Roy De Carava, also attended classes at Charles Alston and Henry Bannarn’s studio at 306 W. 141st St, another major meeting place for artists during the Harlem Renaissance. These art workshops and studios were sites where creative types from all fields gathered to discuss art and politics. These artists, as well as Romare Bearden and James Van Der Zee, through their respective mediums emerged as leading storytellers and documentarians of Harlem.
Between the years 1953 and 1954, David Driskell, Jacob Lawrence, Jack Levine, Ben Shahn, and Walter Williams all studied or taught at Skowhegan, and Driskell and Williams were even roommates. These artists would remain involved with Skowhegan throughout their lives, and Emma Amos and Philip Evergood also taught at Skowhegan at different points in their careers.
Beyond teaching, several of the artists belonged to the same rosters of New York City galleries. Lawrence, Levine, and Shahn were showing together in the 1940s and 1950s at the Downtown Gallery, and Lawrence would later show alongside Robert Gwathmey, Philip Evergood, Walter Williams, and the Ben Shahn estate at Terry Dintenfass Gallery. George Tooker, who was friendly with Jack Levine, was preoccupied with similar aesthetic and social questions to these other artists. Tooker was active in the civil rights movement, traveling to participate in the 1965 march in Selma led by Martin Luther King Jr. and creating work directly inspired by King’s words.
Emma Amos, Romare Bearden, and Richard Mayhew were all members of the influential Spiral Group (1963-65), a New York-based collective of Black artists who came together to discuss the role of the artist in the civil rights movement in response to the 1963 March on Washington. As artists working in a wide variety of mediums and representing a range of ages, they asked questions about the place of the artist in the political landscape that are still relevant today.
Over the course of their interlacing careers, each artist has remained dedicated to their own artistic vision, often going against the grain of dominant art world trends. Drawing on their own experiences, these artists looked out and around themselves to create highly individualized, socially engaged, and resonant work.