Exhibition At Tougaloo College Launches Art & Civil Rights Initiative With Mississippi Museum Of Art

The Mississippi Museum of Art (the Museum) and Tougaloo College (the College) are presenting Now: The Call and Look of Freedom, the inaugural exhibition of the Art and Civil Rights Initiative (the Initiative) through May 15, 2018. The Initiative, funded by the Henry Luce Foundation and launched in December 2017, is a multi-layered, multi-year partnership that leverages the art collections of both institutions to foster community dialogue and interpretation about civil rights issues, past and present. Romare Bearden. The Conversation, 1979 Elizabeth Catlett. My Right is a Future of Equality with Other Americans, from The Negro Woman series, 1947 Now: The Call and Look of Freedom is on view at the Tougaloo College Art Gallery in The Bennie G. Thompson Academic & Civil Rights Research Center. It is the first in a series of four exhibitions over two years drawing from the collections of the College and the Museum to be mounted alternatively at both institutions. The exhibition is curated by LaTanya Autry, Curator of Art & Civil Rights, a joint position she holds with the College and the Museum.

"When many people think of black freedom, they recall documentary-style photography of black people at marches or black people being victimized by police or dogs," said Autry. "Now challenges these typical conceptions by highlighting a range of visual representations. Protest imagery is important, of course, but freedom also involves people enjoying their lives. We must always also consider images of black people living and thriving when we discuss freedom." In commemoration of the 1960s rally cry "Freedom Now" and the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Now: The Call and Look of Freedom spotlights the urgency, self-determination, and hope of the African American liberation movement through the visual arts. The exhibition underscores the interrelationship of past and current civil and human rights struggles. Now features works of art by leading figures whose careers have centered on the African American experience, such as Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Betye Saar, and Ernest Withers, as well as expressions by younger artists.

"The Now exhibition provides a more holistic perspective of freedom, using a wide range of visual images," said Dr. Beverly Wade Hogan, President of Tougaloo College. "It causes one to think deeply about the simple quest - not only of African Americans but of all people - to live freely in their reach for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Artworks from the Tougaloo Art Collection include Like I Am, a pen drawing by Benny Andrews from the 1967 publication I Am the Darker Brother; a Tracy Sugarman linocut depicting newly registered voters and protest signage in Cleveland, Mississippi in 1964; and an abstract expressionist painting by Alma Thomas titled Red Atmosphere. In conversation with these works are pieces from the collection of the Museum, including quilts by Gwendolyn Magee from 2001 and Hystercine Rankin from 1992; an Ernest Withers gelatin silver print of Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr. at the Lorraine Motel, 1966; and a contemporary portrait of Myrlie Evers, the widow of slain Civil Rights leader Medgar Evers, painted by Jason Bouldin in 2013 to coincide with the 50-year commemoration of Evers' assassination. Depictions of activist Fannie Lou Hamer, author Margaret Walker Alexander, and unnamed African Americans engaged in everyday activities offer further depth to the exhibition's thesis.

As the exhibition explores the abrupt yet protracted nature of this "now," it highlights issues of identity, power, and the profound desire to live freely. The exhibition wall text reads, in part, "These artists reveal how many of us have and continue to negotiate moments of crisis in order to, as author James Baldwin charged, 'make freedom real.'"

"This exhibition echoes the 1960s calls for 'Freedom Now' with an immediacy that reverberates into our contemporary moment," said Betsy Bradley, Director of the Mississippi Museum of Art. "And these artworks remind us that the pursuit of freedom is not only about collective protest, but about enduring self-discovery and self-expression. It is a fitting inauguration of the Art & Civil Rights Initiative, a partnership that embraces courageousness of the past to inspire collaboration for the future."

Now: The Call and Look of Freedom is free and open to the public. Gallery hours at Tougaloo College Art Gallery are Wednesday, 10 AM - noon; Thursday, 3 - 5 PM; and by appointment for groups. For group visits, contact: LaTanya Autry, Curator of Art & Civil Rights, at lautry@msmuseumart.org.

Tougaloo College, a historically black college, was founded in 1869 as a land-grant college. It was at the epicenter of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi, cultivating racial reconciliation and serving as a safe haven for activists and speakers. During the Movement, the College hosted Ronald Schnell, a German art historian, who responded to his new home state's turmoil by putting out a call to artists across the country for donations of artwork. Under the leadership of the art critic Dore Ashton, the New York Art Committee for Tougaloo College (formed in 1963) amassed a significant collection of art by a wide variety of both African American and white artists. The collection continues to bring pride to the College.

The Mississippi Museum of Art, in Jackson, is the largest art museum in the state, with a mission to "engage Mississippians with visual art." The Museum's permanent collection includes paintings, photography, multi-media works, and sculpture by Mississippi, American, and International Artists. It has, in the past 15 years, produced public programming and exhibitions that examine seminal events of the Civil Rights Movement through art, such as exhibitions commemorating the 50th anniversaries of the 1961 Freedom Riders (many of whom were arrested in Jackson); the assassination of Medgar Evers; and the Freedom Summer of 1964.

The Henry Luce Foundation was established in 1936 by Henry R. Luce, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Time Inc., to honor his parents who were missionary educators in China. The Foundation builds upon the vision and values of four generations of the Luce family: broadening knowledge and encouraging the highest standards of service and leadership. The Foundation seeks to bring important ideas to the center of American life, strengthen international understanding, and foster innovation and leadership in academic, policy, religious, and art communities.

For more information about the Mississippi Museum of Art's exhibitions, programs, and special events, call 601-960-1515 or visit www.msmuseumart.org.?The Mississippi Museum of Art and its programs are sponsored in part by the city of Jackson and Visit Jackson. Support is also provided in part by funding from the Mississippi Arts Commission, a state agency, and in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

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