- The first examination of the evocative paintings of the self-taught African American artist Horace Pippin in over twenty years
- Accompanies a major exhibition at the Brandywine River Museum of Art April 25 - July 19, 2015
"A real and rare genius, combining folk quality with artistic maturity so uniquely as almost to defy classification." - Alain Locke
Horace Pippin's response to the question of what made him a great painter: "I paint it the way I see it." This exciting new publication will look closely at Pippin (1888-1946) as an artist who was embraced by the art world, yet remained independent, creating and upholding a unique aesthetic sensibility while also candidly, if subtly, expressing his opinions on a wide range of social issues. A self-taught master of form, color and composition, Pippin vividly depicted a range of subject matter, from scenes of war, history and religion, to sporting scenes, floral still lifes and intimate family moments. Accompanying a major exhibition at the Brandywine River Museum of Art, the book will be the first examination of the artist's work in twenty years and is an opportunity to re-examine Pippin with fresh eyes. His development as a self-aware, self-taught artist will be explored in-depth, looking at the rich pictorial language and multi-layered narratives of his paintings. Fully illustrated with over 60 works from around the United States, the book will introduce a new generation of scholarly voices, speaking to such issues as influence, racial and religious politics, and narrative truths in history.
Institutions lending to the Horace Pippin exhibition include:
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Ohio; Art Institute of Chicago; The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio; The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Chester County Historical Society, West Chester, Pennsylvania; Cincinnati Art Museum; Davis Museum at Wellesley College, Massachusetts; The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Indiana; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; The Howard University Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; The Menil Collection, Houston, TX; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Neuberger Museum, Purchase, New York; New Jersey State Museum, Trenton; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; Philadelphia Museum of Art; The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.; Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Robert Brady Museum, Cuernavaca, Mexico; The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Art & Artifacts Division, New York Public Library; Wichita Art Museum, Kansas.
