{"id":13137,"date":"2019-08-14T22:28:28","date_gmt":"2019-08-15T02:28:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=13137"},"modified":"2019-08-14T22:28:28","modified_gmt":"2019-08-15T02:28:28","slug":"wadsworth-jarrell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2019\/08\/14\/wadsworth-jarrell\/","title":{"rendered":"Wadsworth Jarrell, AfriCOBRA And Creating \u2018Art That African People Can Relate To\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cAfrican people are the forerunners, innovators, creators, the hip. African people are my motivation,\u201d Wadsworth Jarrell, one of the founders of AfriCOBRA (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists), said in an artist statement for an exhibition of the African American art collective at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in September 1973. \u201c\u2026My role is to make social imagery to intrude upon the thoughts to jar the senses of African people. To produce an Art which is as warm and awesome as the songs and prayers of Sunday Morning Baptist meeting. Art that\u2019s getting into the color and sound of those songs and prayers. An art that African people can relate to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Wadsworth<\/a>
Wadsworth Jarrell with his 1974 painting “Prophecy” in the exhibition “AFricCOBRA: Messages to the People” at the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, 2018 to 2019. (WorldRedEye.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jarrell is best known for his work with AfriCOBRA, considered one of the most influential Black art movements of the past century. The collective is celebrated in \u201cAfriCOBRA: Nation Time\u201d<\/a> at the Venice Biennale through Nov. 24, 2019, a version of the survey featured at the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami<\/a> this spring. And it\u2019s one of the groups highlighted in \u201cSoul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power,\u201d<\/a> which was organized by London\u2019sTate Modern, and has toured from the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas to the Brooklyn Museum and now Los Angeles\u2019 Broad museum, through Sept. 1, 2019.<\/p>\n

\"Wadsworth<\/a>
Wadsworth Jarrell’s exhibition “Come Saturday Punch” at Kavi Gupta gallery, Chicago, July 13, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Wadsworth<\/a>
Wadsworth Jarrell’s exhibition “Come Saturday Punch” at Kavi Gupta gallery, Chicago, July 13, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cCome Sunday Punch,\u201d<\/a> a mini-retrospective at Chicago\u2019s Kavi Gupta gallery from July 13 to Aug. 3, 2019, detailed his artistic road to AfriCOBRA and what he\u2019s made since.<\/p>\n

Jarrell grew up on a farm in Albany, Georgia, where he was born in 1929, the youngest of six children of Tabitha and Soloman Marcus Jarrell, a furniture maker. After service in the U.S. Army, he moved to Chicago in the 1940s. While working at the International Paint factory, he took night classes at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He enrolled full-time in 1954 and graduated in \u201958.<\/p>\n

\"Wadsworth<\/a>
Wadsworth Jarrell, “Untitled (Nightclub Painting),” 1960. (Courtesy Kavi Gupta gallery, Chicago)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jarrell worked as a photographer and continued his painting. His canvases were often gritty, expressionist renderings of life in Chicago. His 1958 painting \u201cNeon Row,\u201d exhibited in the 2018 exhibition \u201cThe Time Is Now! Art Worlds of Chicago\u2019s South Side, 1960-1980\u201d<\/a> at the University of Chicago\u2019s Smart Museum of Art, showed a dapper Black crowd filling the nighttime sidewalks under glowing South Side jazz club marquees. His 1960 \u201cUntitled (Nightclub Painting)\u201d at Kavi Gupta showed a White couple flirting at the bar of a smoky club.<\/p>\n

But from the early to mid 1960s, Jarrell moved away from these gritty nocturnal scenes of streetlife to adopt a bright, rainbow palette in paintings like \u201cMackin\u2019 the Game,\u201d 1959, and his 1966 \u201cPortrait of Jae\u201d at Kavi Gupta, as well as his 1966 painting \u201cSign of the Times,\u201d included in \u201cThe Time Is Now,\u201d showing rainbow stripes fanning across a composition depicting White and Black hipsters.<\/p>\n

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Wadsworth Jarrell, “Portrait of Jae,” 1966, oil on canvas. (Courtesy Kavi Gupta gallery, Chicago)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jae (born Elaine Annette Johnson) was an artist and fashion designer that Jarrell met in the mid 1960s at Chicago\u2019s Hyde Park Art Fair. Black artists were often segregated out of the city\u2019s White-run art world. So outdoor art fairs became key places for African American artists to exhibit. They married in 1967.<\/p>\n

That August, they were among the 14 African American artists\u2014most affiliated with the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC)\u2014who painted a landmark 60-foot-wide mural on the side of a run-down tavern at the corner of 43rd Street and Langley Avenue on Chicago\u2019s South Side. They called it the \u201cWall of Respect\u201d<\/a> and their artwork would inspire hundreds of Black Power murals all across the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe \u2018Wall of Respect\u2019 was a revolutionary act, made without city permits or permission from the building owner,\u201d the organizers of \u201cThe Time Is Now\u201d wrote. \u201cCreating art for the people, affirming a new Black consciousness, and beautifying a working-class South Side neighborhood, the OBAC artists sparked a public mural movement that quickly spread to other American cities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mural celebrated Black heroes. Wadsworth Jarrell and Billy Abernathy painted the \u201cRhythm and Blues\u201d section: Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, Diana Washington, Muddy Waters, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles.<\/p>\n

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Wadsworth Jarrell, “Come Sunday,” 2014, acrylic on canvas, wood, glass. (Courtesy Kavi Gupta gallery, Chicago)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After the success of the mural, the Jarrells opened W.J. Studios and Gallery in Chicago\u2019s Hyde Park. They presented art exhibitions, jazz concerts, readings, performances. And they hosted meetings with Jeff Donaldson, Gerald Williams and Barbara Jones-Hogu, which would lead to the formation of AfriCOBRA in 1968. In their manifesto, they outlined their guiding principles: \u201cExpressive awesomeness,\u201d positive images of Black culture, African-inspired symmetry and rhythm, commitment to the struggles of African peoples, affordable art, \u201cshine\u201d (\u201cthe rich luster of a just-washed \u2018fro, or spit-shined shoes, of de-ashened elbows and knees and noses), and bold \u201ccool-ade colors.\u201d<\/p>\n

”We reflected, and still do, on our heritage, our roots and our strength,” Ms. Jarrell told The New York Times last year<\/a>. ”All too often we were thought of as being a people without a beginning or not knowing where our roots were.”<\/p>\n

\"Wadsworth<\/a>
Wadsworth Jarrell paintings and Jae Jarrell outfits at “Soul of a Nation,” Brooklyn Museum, Sept. 12, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The results might be called psychedelic Black Power art. AfriCOBRA critiqued racist America\u2019s attacks on Blacks, while also presenting positive images in support of Black families and the African American community\u2014with titles like \u201cUphold Your Men\u201d and \u201cBlack Children Keep Your Spirits Free\u201d and \u201cBlack Men We Need You\u201d (including the text: \u201cBlack Men Preserve Our Race Leave White Bitches Alone\u201d).<\/p>\n

The group soon expanded to include Napoleon Jones-Henderson and Nelson Stevens, then Sherman Beck, Carolyn Lawrence, Omar Lama, Howard Mallory Jr. and Frank Smith.<\/p>\n

\"Wadsworth<\/a>
Wadsworth Jarrell, “Revolutionary,” 1972, screenprint. (Courtesy Kavi Gupta gallery, Chicago)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the early 1970s, Jarrell\u2019s rainbow-hued compositions of city life and his family developed into iconic, dazzling, kalediscopic, text-filled paintings of Malcolm X (it reads: \u201cI believe in anything necessary to correct unjust conditions\u201d), Angela Davis, (\u201cI have given my life to the struggle. If I have to lose my life in the struggle that\u2019s the way it will have to be\u201d), and Black Panthers. \u201cWe presented their positive strength as leaders,\u201d Jarrell said in the catalogue for \u201cSoul of a Nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Wadsworth<\/a>
Wadsworth Jarrell, “Homage to a Giant,” 1970, acrylic on board. (Courtesy Kavi Gupta gallery, Chicago)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt is Nation Time and we are searching,\u201d Donaldson said on a poster for AfriCOBRA\u2019s June 1970 exhibition \u201cTen in Search of a Nation\u201d at New York\u2019s Studio Museum in Harlem. (The exhibition toured to Boston\u2019s Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists then Chicago\u2019s Black Expo.) \u201cIn the spirit of Nation-ness we are examining the roots and branches of our African Family Tree for the seeable which is most expressive of our people\/art. We are trying to make images inspired by sublimely SuPerreal African people\/experience in the U.S.A. Images that all African people can dig on directly. Images that jar the senses and cause movement. Poster art. Images designed for mass production. Inexpensive. We want everybody to have some.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Wadsworth Jarrell, “Black Family,” 1968, acrylic on canvas. (Courtesy Kavi Gupta gallery, Chicago)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Jarrell family moved briefly to Boston, then in 1973 to Washington, D.C., where they both studied at Howard University, and Wadsworth also taught art and photography. After Jarrell earned his master\u2019s degree, they moved to Athens, Georgia, in 1977, where Jarrell became a tenured professor at the University of Georgia.<\/p>\n

\"Wadsworth<\/a>
Wadsworth Jarrell, “Extolling a Djwoke Headdress,” 1993, acrylic, wood, canvas, at Kavi Gupta gallery, Chicago, July 13, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Wadsworth<\/a>
Wadsworth Jarrell, “Yeah But, Can You Fight?” 1995, acrylic on canvas, wood, in the exhibition “AFricCOBRA: Messages to the People” at the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, 2018 to 2019. (Courtesy Kavi Gupta gallery, Chicago)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Beginning in the 1970s, Jarrell increasingly incorporated African motifs\u2014as in his 1993 sculpture \u201cExtolling a Djwoke Headress,\u201d which suggests a monument to the hair pick, and his 1995 sculptures \u201cYeah But, Can You Fight?,\u201d which resemble shields. His art continued to honor family and Black heroes, from jazz musicians (John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Mahalia Jackson, Billie Holiday) to 19th century Black thoroughbred horse racing riders and trainers. He continued to paint murals. And he kept in touch with AfriCOBRA colleagues, attending meetings in D.C. in the 1970s. The collective remains active\u2014and has been attracting increasing attention as it\u2019s passed the 50th anniversary of its founding.<\/p>\n

\u201cA black artist can\u2019t afford the luxury of taking a pile of dirt and calling it art. I need to relate to my people and teach them what\u2019s going on,\u201d Jarrell told the Athens Daily News after finishing a mural at a community center in Athens, Georgia, in 1978. \u201cWe fell it is important for black artists to have contributed a school of art, a school of thought which could be used for years as references for Black kids. We would never be called mainstream artists.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"Wadsworth<\/a>
Wadsworth Jarrell’s exhibition “Come Saturday Punch” at Kavi Gupta gallery, Chicago, July 13, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Wadsworth<\/a>
Wadsworth Jarrell, “Sun Down Ladies,” 1959, watercolor and ink on paper. (Courtesy Kavi Gupta gallery, Chicago)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Wadsworth<\/a>
Wadsworth Jarrell, “Come Saturday,” 1959, watercolor and ink on paper. (Courtesy Kavi Gupta gallery, Chicago)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Wadsworth<\/a>
Wadsworth Jarrell, “Mackin’ the Game,” 1959, oil on canvas. (Courtesy Kavi Gupta gallery, Chicago)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Wadsworth<\/a>
Wadsworth Jarrell, “Cockfight,” 1965, oil on canvas. (Courtesy Kavi Gupta gallery, Chicago)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Wadsworth<\/a>
Wadsworth Jarrell, “Prophecy,” 1974, acrylic on canvas. (Courtesy Kavi Gupta gallery, Chicago)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Wadsworth<\/a>
Wadsworth Jarrell, “I Remember Bill,” 1995, acrylic, canvas, wood. (Courtesy Kavi Gupta gallery, Chicago)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Wadsworth Jarrell, Detail of “I Remember Bill,” 1995, acrylic, canvas, wood. (Courtesy Kavi Gupta gallery, Chicago)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Wadsworth<\/a>
Wadsworth Jarrell, “Mile and a Quarter,” oil on canvas. (Courtesy Kavi Gupta gallery, Chicago)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Wadsworth<\/a>
Wadsworth Jarrell, “Day of Kings,” 1995, acrylic, wood, canvas, at Kavi Gupta gallery, Chicago, July 13, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Wadsworth<\/a>
Wadsworth Jarrell, “Eye of Eternity,” 2000, acrylic, canvas, wood. (Courtesy Kavi Gupta gallery, Chicago)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Wadsworth<\/a>
Wadsworth Jarrell, Detail of “Eye of Eternity,” 2000, acrylic, canvas, wood. (Courtesy Kavi Gupta gallery, Chicago)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Wadsworth<\/a>
Wadsworth Jarrell paintings in the exhibition “AFricCOBRA: Messages to the People” at the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, 2018 to 2019. (Courtesy Kavi Gupta gallery, Chicago)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cAfrican people are the forerunners, innovators, creators, the hip. African people are my motivation,\u201d Wadsworth Jarrell, one of the founders of AfriCOBRA (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists), said in an artist statement for an exhibition of the African American art collective at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in September 1973. \u201c\u2026My role is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12929,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[495,74,496,198,598,599],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13137"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13137"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13143,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13137\/revisions\/13143"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}