Art

Horace Pippin: Brushing Struggles on Canvas

Pippin’s work, according to some scholars, depicted the Black experience in America “without an assumption of inferiority or attitudes of protest or satire acquired in defense … but simply and literally from what was inside his head.”

Published

4 years ago

August 20, 2021

Isabelle Price

The Park Bench (detail), 1946, by Horace Pippin (American, 1888–1946), 2016-3-4 ; Photo Courtesy of Philadelphia Museum of Art

It was in 1898 that young Horace Pippin (1888–1946) saw a newspaper ad placed by an art supply company that read: “Draw Me!” Prizes were offered, so he decided to enter. A few weeks went by, and Horace received a box of crayons, a set of water colors, and two brushes as his prize.

Horace knew that he could never have afforded such supplies on his own. He used them to continue as a self-taught artist and later, a painter. Unbeknownst to everyone at the time, the West Chester, Pa.–born artist would later use his talent to heal many of his personal struggles: poverty, racism, and fighting in World War I. But first, he would meet life’s hurdles.

At around age 15, Pippin’s stepfather left the family. He then had to leave the segregated school he attended in Goshen, N.Y., and take on a series of odd jobs to help support his family.

While working at a nearby farm, he’d sketched a drawing of his employer taking a nap. The employer was so impressed that he offered to pay to send Pippin to art school. By then though, Pippin’s mother had taken ill. He was her sole support and had to turn the offer down.

Young Pippin also worked as a porter at the St. Elmo Hotel in Goshen, which served well-to-do guests. To Pippin, listening to their conversations and learning about their life experiences was intriguing. One guest was former president Ulysses S. Grant. The stories about Grant and Abraham Lincoln stuck with Pippin. He captured the tales in his mind—they would appear in his later paintings.

Pippin was a young man of 23 when his mother died. At that time, he relocated to Patterson, N.J., where he worked for a moving company, packing and crating high-end furniture and paintings owned by well-to-do families. This experience exposed him to genres of art he never would have seen otherwise.

Pippin’s exhibition career began in 1937. Galleries showcased themes including landscapes, portraits, biblical subjects, and scenes from his service in World War I. When Pippin’s regiment came under fire, he’d quickly sketch his front-line peers and their surroundings. These would later become his early war paintings. His best-known works address slavery and racial segregation. Collectively, they tell the story of a battle against racism.

His first oil painting, “The Ending of the War, Starting Home,” depicts a military engagement resembling the assault on Sechault, where Pippin was wounded and his regiment decimated. His works reflected scenes from the war several times thereafter in the 1930s and once more in 1945.

Pippin garnered fame both nationally and internationally. His life and his expressive power, composition and form in his art are an authentic expression of the American spirit.

Isabelle Price

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Activism

Griot Theater Company Presents August Wilson’s Work at Annual Oratorical Featuring Black Authors

The performance explores the legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson whose 10-play Century Cycle chronicles the African American experience across the 20th century, with each play set in a different decade. “Half a Century” journeys through the final five plays of this monumental cycle, bringing Wilson’s richly woven stories to life in a way that celebrates history, resilience, and the human spirit.

Published

3 months ago

February 17, 2025

Oakland Post

Late playwright August Wilson. Wikipedia photo.

By Godfrey Lee

Griot Theater Company will present their Fifth Annual Oratorical with August Wilson’s “Half a Century,” at the Belrose on 1415 Fifth Ave., in San Rafael near the San Rafael Public Library.

The performance explores the legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson whose 10-play Century Cycle chronicles the African American experience across the 20^th century, with each play set in a different decade. “Half a Century” journeys through the final five plays of this monumental cycle, bringing Wilson’s richly woven stories to life in a way that celebrates history, resilience, and the human spirit.

Previous performance highlighting essential Black American authors included Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, and Lorraine Hansberry with Langston Hughes.

The play will be performed at 3:00. p.m. on Feb. 20, 21, 22, 27, and 28 at 7:00 p.m., and on Feb. 23 at 3:00 p.m.

For more information, go to griottheatercompany.squarespace.com/productions-v2

Oakland Post

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Activism

MLK Day of Service Volunteers Make Blankets and Art for Locals in Need

“Everyone has an opportunity to participate,” said Glenda Roberts, kinship support care program manager at CCYSB. “Our nonprofit organization and participants recognize how important it is to give back to the community and this is serving. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated, ‘Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve.’”

Published

4 months ago

January 18, 2025

Oakland Post

Photo courtesy of the nonprofit.

By Kathy Chouteau
The Richmond Standard

The Contra Costa Youth Service Bureau (CCYSB) and Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church (BMBC) are collaborating with a team of volunteers for a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service, Monday, Jan. 20 that will wrap the community’s most vulnerable people in warm blankets and provide them with an uplifting gift of art.

Volunteers will kick off their activities at BMBC at 11 a.m., making blankets for the unhoused people served by the Greater Richmond Interfaith Program (GRIP) and art for those in convalescence in Richmond.

Others will get to work preparing a lunch of chili, salad, a veggie tray, and water for participants, offered courtesy of CCYSB, while supplies last.

“People of all ages are welcome to participate in the MLK Day of Service,” said Roberts. Volunteers can RSVP via phone to Glenda Roberts at 510-215-4670, ext. 125.

CCYSB Boardmember Jackie Marston and her friends donated the materials and supplies to make the blankets and art projects. The nonprofit is also providing the day’s complimentary lunch, as well as employees to volunteer, under the direction of CCYSB Executive Director Marena Brown.

BMBC, led by Rev. Dr. Carole McKindley-Alvarez, is providing the facility for the event and volunteers from the church, which is located at 684 Juliga Woods St. in Richmond.

Located in Richmond, CCYSB is a nonprofit youth advocacy organization that serves eligible children, youth, and low-income families with a variety of wraparound services so they can thrive. Programs include academic achievement, youth mentorship, truancy prevention and direct response.

Oakland Post

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Art

Vandalism at Richmond Ferry Terminal Saddens Residents

Residents have been lamenting the destruction online. Ellen Seskin posted photos of the vandalism to the Facebook group, Everybody’s Richmond, on Jan. 12, saying she encountered it while out on a walk. “It was on the sidewalk, the street, the doors to the ferry, even in the art installation and the ‘stone’ benches,” she said. “I reported it but knowing how slow they are about getting things done — I just know that the longer you leave graffiti, the more likely they are to spray it again.”

Published

4 months ago

January 18, 2025

Oakland Post

Graffiti mars the walkway at the Richmond Ferry Terminal. Photo by Kathy Chouteau, The Richmond Standard.

The Richmond Standard

“This is why we can’t have nice things,” stated the post on NextDoor.

The post referenced images of graffiti at the Richmond Ferry Terminal. Not just on the terminal, but also on public artwork, on trail signs, on public benches and the boardwalk.

On Wednesday, the Standard stopped by to see it for ourselves. The good news was that it appears the graffiti on the terminal and on the artwork, called Changing Tide, have been cleaned for the most part. But graffiti remained abundant in the area around the relatively new ferry terminal, which opened to the public just six years ago.

Graffiti artists tagged benches and the boardwalk. Cars that had done doughnuts in the street marked the cul-de-sac just outside the historic Craneway Pavilion.

A ferry worker told us the graffiti had been there since before he started working for the ferry service about a week ago.

A member of the Army Corps of Engineers who did not want to be named in this report called the scene “sad,” as “they’d done such a nice job fixing it up.”

“It’s sad that all this money has been spent and hoodlums just don’t care and are destroying stuff,” he said.

It wasn’t immediately clear how soon the graffiti would be removed. The Standard reported the graffiti to the city’s graffiti abatement hotline. We were prompted to leave a message reporting the address and location of the graffiti.

“It was on the sidewalk, the street, the doors to the ferry, even in the art installation and the ‘stone’ benches,” she said. “I reported it but knowing how slow they are about getting things done — I just know that the longer you leave graffiti, the more likely they are to spray it again.”

In the comment section responding to Seskin’s post, local attorney Daniel Butt questioned why there aren’t cameras in the area.

On Nextdoor, one resident suggested searching to see if the tags match any accounts on Instagram, hoping to identify the perpetrator.

On its website, the City of Richmond says residents should graffiti immediately call Public Works graffiti removal and/or Code Enforcement at 510-965-4905.

Kathy Chouteau contributed to this report.