Benny Andrews: The John Lewis Series
September 4 - November 1, 2008Benny Andrews (1930-2006) was an artist and activist whose work reflects his experiences growing up in the segregated South and addresses themes of justice and African American history. He created series of works inspired by his childhood, civil rights, and other social issues. His final series, "The John Lewis Series," consists of 20 collages portraying the life and civil rights activism of Congressman John Lewis, highlighting his contributions from student protests to his congressional career.
The exhibition includeed 27 of Bearden’s original prints and 18 collages and drawings of John Lewis by Andrews, providing powerful visual narratives of the civil rights movement and African American life. The gallery emphasizes the educational value of these works, especially for youth, and encourages visits to learn about these significant artists and their impactful subjects.
Benny Andrews (1930-2006), nationally recognized as an artist, activist, teacher and advocate of the arts, grew up in rural Morgan County, GA, one of ten children of sharecroppers. He moved to NY in 1958, but his formative years in Georgia continued to inform his art. Andrews explored African American life in his collages, fusing memory and imagination. The stories Andrews tells through his paintings, prints, drawings and collages derive from his childhood memories and the life of suffering that Black people experienced in the segregated South. Those experiences helped shape his concern for human justice, and his art addresses issues such as the U.S. civil rights movement, the Holocaust and the forced relocation of Native Americans.
Andrews received his BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1958. He was the director of visual arts for the National Endowment for the Arts, 1982 to 1984. Andrews was the recipient of numerous awards, including election into the National Academy in 1997. His work is in more than thirty major art museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, the Museum of Modern Art, NY, the Detroit Institute of Arts, MI, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.
In 1965, Andrews used a Whitney Fellowship to return to Georgia. His Autobiographical Series of paintings was inspired by this trip, and from this point on Andrews worked in series; several works unified by a theme, typically some aspect of African-American life. Subsequent series include Bicentennial, Revival, Music, Langston Hughes, and The Migrants.
The John Lewis Series was the last series Benny Andrews produced before his death in 2006. This series of twenty collages chronicles the life and career of Congressman John Lewis (D-GA), and his pivotal role in the Civil Rights Movement.
As a young boy, John Lewis was inspired by the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. As a student at Fisk University, John Lewis organized sit-in demonstrations at segregated lunch counters in Nashville, TN. In 1961, he participated in the Freedom Rides, which challenged segregation at interstate bus terminals across the South. From 1963 to 1966, Lewis served as Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which he helped form. In 1964, John Lewis organized voter registration drives during the Mississippi Freedom Summer. In March 1965, Lewis helped spearhead one of the most seminal moments of the Civil Rights Movement; leading over 600 peaceful protestors across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, AL. The marchers were attacked by Alabama state troopers in a brutal confrontation that became known as "Bloody Sunday." This incident helped hasten the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Despite more than 40 arrests, physical attacks and serious injuries, John Lewis remained a devoted advocate of the philosophy of nonviolence. Lewis went on to become the Director of the Voter Education Project (VEP), working extensively throughout the South in the 60s, registering large numbers of African American voters. John Lewis was elected to Congress in 1986 and has served as U.S. Representative of Georgia's Fifth Congressional District since then.
The Sumter County Gallery of Art is honored to present The John Lewis Series, which chronicles the life and career of Congressman John Lewis (D-GA) and his role as a civil rights activist. These powerful and emotional art works depict scenes from John Lewis’ life; the courage, the violence, the bodily harm, and the triumph that he experienced. This exhibition of 18 original collages, and 4 pen and ink drawings belongs to The Center for Civil and Human Rights Partnership, which is slated to open in Atlanta in 2010.
These exhibitions offer our community, especially youth, a rare opportunity to view works of art by nationally known African American artists that portray the struggle for civil rights (much of this action taking place in our own state of South Carolina). I urge each of you as art educators to bring your students to the gallery for a tour and to learn about these important American artists and the subject matter that is so powerfully depicted.
