Curators Note

In 2015, I was informed that a collector from Philadelphia wanted to make a generous donation from her personal collection of artworks to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The collector, Dr. Constance E. Clayton, invited me to her home to view the vast array of African American artists that she had amassed over five decades of collecting. The gift that resulted presented us with an opportunity to enhance our collection and further our mission of presenting a more comprehensive representation of Black creative expression within the Schomburg Center’s Art & Artifacts Division.

On view here are the donated artworks by that which includes celebrated African American artists, from as early as 1870, including with two paintings rendered by the nineteenth century impressionist, Edward Mitchell Bannister. There is also an array of photographs by famed Harlem Renaissance photographer, James Van Der Zee;  a series of lithographs by world renowned artist Romare Bearden; and a suite of WPA prints by the innovative printmaker Dox Thrash. In addition, there are a number of works by several celebrated twentieth century American artists of African descent, including Laura Wheeler Waring, Jacob Lawrence, Lois Mailou Jones, Charles Alston, John Wesley Hardrick, Norman Lewis, Sam Gilliam, George Wilson, and Ellen Powell-Tiberino. Dr. Clayton’s gift enables us to amplify stylistic movements, expand geographical scope, and fill art historical gaps.

- Tammi Lawson