Paintings, masks and more adorn local homes

by Angela Lindsay

Photos by Greg Briley

The paintings and sculptures in the homes of some Charlotte residents look more like museum exhibits than private art collections.

It is a sentiment that personal injury attorney T. Michael Todd says he has heard several times before. His 1940s Providence Road home houses a priceless collection of artwork, including several original pieces by black master artists like Charlotte native Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, Charles White and John Biggers.

A student of art

A lover of art from a young age — he was a painter in high school and considered majoring in art in college before pursuing law — Todd says he “never lost his passion for art.” Over the past 20 years, he has amassed more than 100 pieces from exhibits, museums, art dealers and the artists themselves. The first piece he ever purchased was an original by Ce Scott, creative director for the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts + Culture and the McColl Center for Visual Art.

One thing he says people should keep in mind is that “artists have to eat,” and he says he has “cut many a deal with an artist.” One such negotiation was for a richly colored oil painting of jazz musicians entitled “Jammin’,” an original piece which Todd personally bargained for with the artist, William Tolliver, when Tolliver visited Charlotte for an art show in the 1990s.

Above the fireplace in his den is a painting by South African-born Charles Nkosi, entitled “Soweto Boy.” Interestingly, it is one of the few pieces that actually hang in Todd’s home. Virtually all his artwork rests on the floor, leaning carefully against the walls.

One of his favorite collections is “The Creation,” by Jacob Lawrence, which consists of eight studies, or eight different and separate portraits. It is one of only 50 of its kind that exists and, as far as Todd knows, he is the only private collector of all eight pieces.

Of note as well is a piece entitled “Piano Man,” by Verna Hart, which was featured in the movie “Mo’ Betta Blues,” and which Todd acquired by writing to the artist directly. Two of his original Bearden pieces, “Mother and Child” and “Mr. Grimes and His Sundown Guitar,” are on display at the Mint Museum while, in his home, another Jacob Lawrence creation, “Forward Together,” poignantly portrays Harriet Tubman with many slaves fleeing the South in fear to find safety up North.

“It’s the beauty of the art, the beauty of seeing particular pieces of work that seem to touch me. I buy things because I like them, because they seem to touch me in a special kind of way,” Todd says, adding he enjoys collecting because of the idea of owning the only one of something in the whole world and also because it is an investment.

Without revealing the worth of his collection, Todd says, even in this economy, he is “pleasantly surprised” at the level of appreciation in value it has incurred. He is unsure what he will eventually do with his collection but, likening his pieces to children, wants to keep them all together as The Todd Collection.

“My art is my life …” he says. “This is what is really dear to me.”

Global perspectives

Africa. France. Mexico. South America. These are just some of the places retired optometrist Dr. Raleigh Bynum and his wife, Thelmetia, have traveled, returning with another piece of artwork in tow.

Though the Bynum’s had dabbled a bit in collecting art on their own, their oldest son initially got them started in earnest during in the 1980s. Since then, they have accumulated more than 75 pieces by primarily notable African and African American artists. The collection’s estimated worth is more than $100,000 and is preserved by museum-quality mountings with ultraviolet glass, a constant temperature setting and special lighting.

The couple has visited galleries all over the country, forming relationships with the owners. At the Steve Turner Gallery in California, they acquired “Going Home,” by Romare Bearden, which is on display at the Mint Museum. More important, they make a point to sit down and speak with the artists themselves. They once spent time with Elizabeth Catlett at her home in Mexico and acquired several personally signed pieces of her artwork, such as “Sharecropper,” a portrait Thelmetia Bynum says “represents a strong black woman that can hold her own.”

The Bynums bought their first piece of art in France in the 1960s after they were married. The haunting sandpaper/burlap creation contains a drawing of several sets of eyes to which Dr. Bynum, naturally, was immediately drawn and is a favorite of guests when they entertain. Another favorite is a colorful oil on canvas painting of a lady harvesting crops in a field. Its creator, Jonathan Green, actually was in the process of painting this piece when the Bynums visited his studio in Florida and decided to buy it.

“We have to like it before we buy it. … It has to be something we want to look at when we get up in the morning,” Dr. Bynum says.

In the foyer hangs a hard-to-miss, large mixed-media collage from a South African art gallery depicting a real-life township, like those the Bynums saw while there. The three-dimensional creation by Sydney Khumalo contains actual chicken wire and thatched roof material.

The couple suggests people research artists and start collecting by purchasing affordable prints. In most cases, says Thelmetia Bynum, more expensive art can be purchased by financing through art galleries, as she did when she bought her husband’s favorite piece as a gift to him — an original by self-taught artist Palmer Hayden of a serene seascape inspired by the artist’s time spent watching boats in the waters near Boston.

“Galleries would love for you to have a piece of art, and they’re willing to work with you,” she offers. “Don’t think because it’s very pricey that you can’t afford it.

Home-grown talent

African masks immediately greet you upon entering orthopedic surgeon Dr. Brian Blue’s airy South Park loft condo. Further inside are works by Charles White and North Carolina-native David Wilson, whose 10-foot-by-50-foot glass mural, entitled “Divergent Threads, Lucent Memories,” is displayed on the exterior east wing wall of the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts + Culture.

A collector for the last four years, Blue discloses that he acquires his art from both personal travels and the assistance of Jerald Melberg, owner of a local art gallery. He estimates his current collection of 28 diverse pieces is worth roughly $200,000, and he hopes to have a collection worth more than a million dollars before he retires.

While Blue acknowledges people can’t always afford what they want, he encourages, “Buy what you like.” It’s what he did when he purchased the first piece he ever put in his loft. Created by Providence Day School art teacher April Birdsong, the textured painting entitled “Laini” contains sand from Africa and is Birdsong’s depiction of a young African girl drawn from her time spent growing up in Kenya.

An eye-catching original media-on-canvas piece, entitled “Synthesis 87-4,” by abstract expressionist painter and sculptor Ida Kohlmeyer, hangs above his bed, while another bedroom features two smaller watercolor portraits of an African-American boy and girl, respectively, in “Grounded” and “Defiant,” created by Georgia native and Charlotte resident Lita Gatlin.

Blue advises collectors to support local artists — to buy pieces that are signed by the artist and are one-of-kind. When purchasing a print, he suggests buying one with a low number. For example, the four Bearden pieces in his living room are signed by the artist, and he owns the very first print (out of 125) of one of Bearden’s most famous pieces, “The Train.”

He says, “Ideally, you want to have art, and then you pass it on to somebody else. To me, there’s something special about buying something you own for just a period of time. It’s not yours forever.”

Museums pay tribute to N.C. native Romare Bearden

by Angela Lindsay

On Sept. 2, Romare Bearden would have turned 100 years old. The celebrated visual artist, collagist, musician, writer and social spokesman was born in Charlotte and is widely regarded as one of the world’s most respected artistic figures. To commemorate his life and legacy, the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts + Culture and the Mint Museum Uptown are celebrating the centennial anniversary of his birth with events, exhibitions and activities.

Charlotte: A ‘font of inspiration’

The Mint Museum already houses one of the nation’s largest public collections of works by Bearden, with a gallery exclusively devoted to showcasing the artist’s works. From Sept. 2 through Jan. 8, 2012, the museum also is presenting an exhibition entitled “Romare Bearden: Southern Recollections,” featuring some 100 works of art from both the Mint’s holdings, as well as national public and private collections. The works span every stage of his career over 50 years, and the display was created by Carla Hanzal, the Mint Museum’s curator of contemporary art and Bearden exhibition curator.

“It has been a great honor to research and assemble this exhibition in honor of Romare Bearden’s centennial,” says Hanzal. “Nearly 80 individuals and museums contributed works of art to this expansive exhibition, which spans from the 1930s through the late 1980s.  I would hope that Charlotte, as a community, will take great pride in the fact that a such a revered artist came from our community and considered Mecklenburg County and the South a font of inspiration.”

Though Bearden lived in New York the majority of his life, he often visited Charlotte. These experiences in the rural South and, particularly, the daily lives of African Americans who lived there, often served as inspiration for his craft. “Romare Bearden: Southern Recollections” examines this Southern influence and includes selections from the “Prevalence of Ritual” series, which includes many works referring to Bearden’s childhood home in North Carolina.

“As a powerful visual artist, he chose to make visible what could have been easily overlooked, and through his stunning collages, he chose to counteract pervasive negative stereotypes,” says Hanzal. “The works of art included in the exhibition are not literal depictions of scenes from his memory, but rather came from ‘the fulcrum of (his) imagination. Therefore, his depictions were a way of reinventing and reinterpreting both his history and the history of his African American forbears.”

Hanzal explains that, within the collages, viewers can detect Bearden’s reverence for individuals who had to toil with the red clay to make a living and whose lives were about to be abruptly changed by the trains that cut across the rural landscape. “Many chose to escape what was untenable, and the train was the literal vehicle to escape the oppressive Jim Crow laws,” she adds.

He is our Rembrandt

“His use of African American cultural references, his Mecklenburg County series, his Conjur Women (collages) and things like that were beautiful … you’re looking at subject matter that is familiar and maybe has deep resonances with African Americans from their own lives …” adds Michael Harris, consulting curator at the Gantt Center.

Three exhibitions of Bearden’s work are on display at the Gantt Center,, including Bearden’s works on paper in watercolors and prints. These selections address “African American cultural patterns, practices and histories,” according to Harris. Additionally, there is an exhibition of Bearden’s life through the lens of photographer Frank Stewart, which chronicles much of the artist’s appearances and family gatherings, as well as his associations with prominent figures. It is designed to give some insight into “the man behind the art.” A third exhibit showcases works by painters, sculptors, printmakers and mixed-media artists who were inspired by Bearden.

The Gantt Center also is offering a series of programs and lectures during the four-month event,  which provide a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Charlotte residents to embrace the city’s native son, who not only left an indelible mark on the art world, but also on society as a whole.

“He’s a son of Charlotte … and then to look at him as one of the most important artists of the second half of the 20th century and one of the greatest African-American artists we have known through the last 200 years — these are all just great reasons to look at his work and to come and participate,” says Harris. “He is our Rembrandt. In Charlotte, he is the da Vinci who came from this place.”

Romare Bearden. © Marvin E. Newman. Courtesy of Romare Bearden Foundation.

Romare Howard Bearden was born on September 2, 1911, to (Richard) Howard and Bessye Bearden in Charlotte, North Carolina, and died in New York City on March 12, 1988, at the age of 76. His life and art are marked by exceptional talent, encompassing a broad range of intellectual and scholarly interests, including music, performing arts, history, literature and world art. Bearden was also a celebrated humanist, as demonstrated by his lifelong support of young, emerging artists.

Romare Bearden began college at Lincoln University, transferred to Boston University and completed his studies at New York University (NYU), graduating with a degree in education. While at NYU, Bearden took extensive courses in art and was a lead cartoonist and then art editor for the monthly journal The Medley. He had also been art director of Beanpot, the student humor magazine of Boston University. Bearden published many journal covers during his university years and the first of numerous texts he would write on social and artistic issues. He also attended the Art Students League in New York and later, the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1935, Bearden became a weekly editorial cartoonist for the Baltimore Afro-American, which he continued doing until 1937.

After joining the Harlem Artists Guild, Bearden embarked on his lifelong study of art, gathering inspiration from Western masters ranging from Duccio, Giotto and de Hooch to Cezanne, Picasso and Matisse, as well as from African art (particularly sculpture, masks and textiles), Byzantine mosaics, Japanese prints and Chinese                                          landscape paintings.

From the mid-1930s through 1960s, Bearden was a social worker with the New York City Department of Social Services, working on his art at night and on weekends. His success as an artist was recognized with his first solo exhibition in Harlem in 1940 and his first solo show in Washington, DC, in 1944. Bearden was a prolific artist whose works were exhibited during his lifetime throughout the United States and Europe. His collages, watercolors, oils, photomontages and prints are imbued with visual metaphors from his past in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Pittsburgh and Harlem and from a variety of historical, literary and musical sources.

In 1954, Bearden married Nanette Rohan, with whom he spent the rest of his life. In the early 1970s, he and Nanette established a second residence on the Caribbean island of St. Martin, his wife’s ancestral home, and some of his later work reflected the island’s lush landscapes. Among his many friends, Bearden had close associations with such distinguished artists, intellectuals and musicians as James Baldwin, Stuart Davis, Duke Ellington, Langston Hughes, Ralph Ellison, Joan Miró, George Grosz, Alvin Ailey and Jacob Lawrence.

Bearden was also a respected writer and an eloquent spokesman on artistic and social issues of the day. Active in many arts organizations, in 1964 Bearden was appointed the first art director of the newly established Harlem Cultural Council, a prominent African-American advocacy group. He was involved in founding several important art venues, such as The Studio Museum in Harlem and the Cinque Gallery. Initially funded by the Ford Foundation, Bearden and the artists Norman Lewis and Ernest Crichlow established Cinque to support younger minority artists. Bearden was also one of the founding members of the Black Academy of Arts and Letters in 1970 and was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1972.

Recognized as one of the most creative and original visual artists of the twentieth century, Romare Bearden had a prolific and distinguished career. He experimented with many different mediums and artistic styles, but is best known for his richly textured collages, two of which appeared on the covers of Fortune and Time magazines, in 1968. An innovative artist with diverse interests, Bearden also designed costumes and sets for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and programs, sets and designs for Nanette Bearden’s Contemporary Dance Theatre.

Among Bearden’s numerous publications are: A History of African American Artists: From 1792 to the Present, which was coauthored with Harry Henderson and published posthumously in 1993; The Caribbean Poetry of Derek Walcott and the Art of Romare Bearden (1983); Six Black Masters of American Art, coauthored with Harry Henderson (1972); The Painter’s Mind: A Study of the Relations of Structure and Space in Painting, coauthored with Carl Holty (1969); and Li’l Dan, the Drummer Boy: A Civil War Story, a children’s book published posthumously in September 2003.

Bearden’s work is included in many important public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and The Studio Museum in Harlem, among others. He has had retrospectives at the Mint Museum of Art (1980), the Detroit Institute of the Arts (1986), as well as numerous posthumous retrospectives, including The Studio Museum in Harlem (1991) and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (2003).

Bearden was the recipient of many awards and honors throughout his lifetime. Honorary doctorates were given by Pratt Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Davidson College and Atlanta University, to name but a few. He received the Mayor’s Award of Honor for Art and Culture in New York City in 1984 and the National Medal of Arts, presented by President Ronal Reagan, in 1987.  ( Artist Bio provided by: Romare Bearden Foundation)