The Freeness! Exhibit at Wadsworth Atheneum

The Freeness! Exhibit consisted of documents, paintings, sculpture, and photography by 19th and 20th century artists. It started with Charles Ethan Porter's Still-Life-Apples (oil on canvas, 1870). The description on the wall pointed out that many of the works were at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, the largest and most influential of the 19th century fairs and showed the achievements in the African-American community almost 30 years after the Civil War. (Exhibit description) The second piece of art was the full-body bust bronze entitled Ethiopia Awakening (bronze, 1915-1921) by Meta Warrick.

After those pieces of art, there were mainly head busts and oil on canvas paintings. The first wall after the three above-mentioned pieces of art had paintings at eye level. The second wall had playbills on the walls and different kinds of photographs. Some of the paintings on the first and third walls were nature scenes. The fifth wall also had nature scenes along with an oil on canvas painting and a color photograph. The sixth had black and white photo transfers and five black and white silver prints with seven plastic plaques. The seventh wall had mostly black and white photos and a color serigraph and a white post had another head bust. The four-color serigraph along with a black and white etching all by Herbert Gentry were on the eighth wall. It was the only wall in the exhibit that was positioned in a hallway with no paintings on the wall across from it.

The walls of the first half of the exhibit alternate between red, blue, and white while the second half of the exhibit all of the walls were white. The first half is entitled "Amistad Foundation Gallery of African-American Art" and the second half is entitled "Fleet Gallery of African-American Art". There are more photographs in the first half of the exhibit and more acrylic arts in the second half of the exhibit. There are nineteen total walls of the exhibit, ten in the first half and nine in the second half.

One of the pieces of art I have selected to write about in detail is Military by William H. Johnson (about 1942-44, Pochoir on paper). Military looks much like Soldiers Training (about 1942-44, oil on paperboard) that Johnson also made. These pieces of art depict soldiers, commanding officers, and other military personnel in World War II. All of the officers are African-Americans not only in Military but also in all of the different paintings done by Johnson in relation to World War II. The U.S. armed forces were segregated at the time Johnson made these works. The segregation meant that black and white soldiers were housed and trained separately. (The War Effort)

The horizontal painting of Military was of eleven black soldiers standing together with guns in their hands and a black general facing them. All of them have goatees and had green uniforms on with dark brown shoes, dark blue and black guns, and dark green hats with a dark brown rim. There was a red table behind the general and a gun case on the ground. There were three American flags on brown posts around them and two trees stand behind the general. Three light blue buildings stand to the right side of the general while blue hills appear to be behind the soldiers. These features helped make the picture three-dimensional. The brown frame around the picture added to the three-dimensional realm of the painting. The frame had alternating squares that come out of the frame and alternating squares indented into the frame. The pictures were in a brown frame and a white border around it. The sky was light blue and the ground was white. The light from the ground and sky helped give the picture the kind of light needed to portray that the picture was a daytime scene. Only five of the soldiers had painted on eyes while the other six didn't have any eyes at all. The art showed realism and was painterly. The painting was an abstraction since no white people were in the picture and there appears to be no enemy. There was expressionism in the painting as the soldiers and general have all straight looks on their faces when really they are nervous of fighting in the war. The painting looks like it was a picture from a cartoon. The painting "commemorates the heroism of black soldiers from the American Revolution through the First World War and call attention to the expectations the veterans who wanted America to be a better nation for black citizens". (Military Caption)

Another interesting art piece I saw was Herbert Gentry's Carnival (1984, Serigraph). The art was an abstract expressionism and was a vertical painting. It was painterly and it had realism. The colors in the painting were yellow, purple, light blue, dark blue, light green, red, and white. At the top, there was a face with an expression of calmness and happiness; it appeared to be a man's face. Beside it, was a face that looked surprised and afraid and it appeared to be a woman's face. Of both faces, the viewer could see the eyes, nose, eyelashes and mouth in a yellow background. Below it appeared to be a little boy's face in the center right of the picture with a purple background and was only one side of his face with one eyebrow. There appeared to be another face on the left center section of the painting with a blue eyebrow. Yellow and white provided light as well as the dark and light shades of each color. Two eyes were in the center but had no face attached to it. The viewer can see the bottom of the painting and it has the date "3/18" and the title Carnival and the artist's signature. The painting has a light brown frame and a white background frame around the painting.

Carnival was done by an artist part of Cobra - "a group of artists who used intense colors and surrealist techniques and explored Freudian psychoanalysis. Mask-like and biomorphic shapes that allude to humans and animals and the gestural brushstroke." (Carnival caption) This means that the painting could be interpreted in different ways.

I feel the dark lines represented fingers in the center of the painting. The square and line stemming from the square represented a TV monitor; this was visible in the bottom left of the painting. The colors made up emotions and thoughts of the people at the carnival as a result of the rides and attractions. The emotional baggage these people brought to the carnival was also incorporated into the painting. The artist may have incorporated the concept of hurt and healing especially in regard to segregation and equality.

The Freeness! Exhibit accurately helped the viewer see both the Reconstruction Era that occurred in 1865-1877 and the New Negro era that occurred in 1919-1935. Congress passed several forms of legislation to help achieve equality; the 13th amendment ending slavery, the 14th amendment guaranteeing African American civil rights, and the 15th amendment giving black men the right to vote as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1875 ending discrimination in hotels, theaters, and railroads. (Freeness! brochure)