This collection showcases the rich legacies of HBCUs through artistic expression. Featured works include paintings, sculptures, murals, mixed media, prints, drawings, and fine art photography.
The artist boldly tackles the often stereotypical image of the watermelon while depicting the hypocrisy of organized religion in the Black community and the constant threat of the Klan. The large, reaching hands pull at a recent graduate, whose face is obscured by the watermelon they are holding.
Jenelsie Walden Holloway was an artist and art educator from Atlanta, GA. In a World Alone is a sketch of a nude woman. The sketch depicts the nude woman in a reflective pose, sitting on a porch with a cityscape in the distance.
Hayward Oubre was a multimedia artist and educator from New Orleans, LA. In a Pensive Mood is a sculpture of a woman sitting in a worried position. Her hands cover her mouth and right eye as she sits with her left leg tucked under her right.
Lois Mailou Jones was an artist and art educator known for her costumes, textile designs, watercolors, paintings, and collages from Washington, D.C. Impasse De L'Oratoire Grasse depicts a dead-end market street in Grasse, France. There are several people in the piece: two smoking cigarettes, two in their windows, two shopping, and one person exiting their home.
Hall's print depicts a seated woman with a dark aura around her. A candle sits near her feet, perhaps just having been blown out. Light from the moon reflects on her face, knee, and shoe. The sketched lines extending out from the figure may suggest her imagination expanding past her physical form. Hall later became a longtime art teacher in Houston Independent School District.
Carter’s drawing is of Lee Otis Johnson, a former TSU student, organizer, and leader of the Houston Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. Houston police repeatedly targeted Johnson, and in 1968 they arrested him for passing marijuana to an undercover officer, and a judge sentenced him to 30 years in prison. This injustice gained widespread notoriety, and “Free Lee Otis” became a rallying cry.
Noah is a Cameroonian artist who had a residency at TSU in Spring 2023. The work was inspired by Bamiléké masquerades and the Demeure 5 costume by Étienne-Martin, and is made of materials from second-hand shops in Houston. Noah wore the costume during an interactive procession down the Tiger Walk, TSU’s central campus walkway. The costume became part of the exhibition, Memory Palaces: Creations of Franck Kemkeng Noah.
This print by Roy Williams depicts a modest Christian worship house. The door is open, and the seats are arranged as if a service is about to begin or has just ended. A fireplace warms the church, and a path out the door snakes through a field. Dr. John T. Biggers taught students the craft of printmaking while he was a professor at Texas Southern University.
Calvin Burnett was a graphic artist, illustrator, painter, designer, and art teacher from Cambridge, MA. Horseplay is a watercolor depiction of an interracial group of young adults socializing. Two pairs are in a romantic embrace, one pair is dancing, and a trio shares a cigarette.
Ellison’s pair of murals speaks to political and social issues of the 1960s and 1970s. The murals express hope through resistance, in spite of the challenges facing Black America. In the middle, a bald eagle holds a broken lynch rope in its beak and “the law” in its talons.
The only Hannah Hall mural in a pointillist style, it was partly destroyed during renovations. Edwards returned to repaint it. Perhaps because of the time demands of the pointillist technique, the repainted left side is less detailed than the right. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph are painted in abstract forms.
Gregory L. Ridley, Jr. was an artist from Smyrna, TN. Hold On is a limestone sculpture of a figure securing itself to a pole-like form. The piece is heavily textured, distinguishing between skin, hair, clothing, and natural materials.
Lewis’s print shows a group of people holding a Kente-style textile, inscribed with the words, “However I am perceived and deceived, however my ignorance and conceits, lay aside your fears that I will be undone, for I shall not be moved," a selection from Maya Angelou’s poem Our Grandmothers; John Biggers also created illustrations to accompany Angelou's poem. Lewis was a leading African-American artist and art historian. She and Biggers studied together at Hampton University.
William Artis was a sculptor from Washington, NC. Head of a Young Lady is a limestone bust of a woman. The subject has pursed lips and a broad neck, maintaining a critical expression toward the viewer.
Samella Sanders Lewis, born in New Orleans in 1923, was a printmaker, painter, sculptor, and art historian. Head is a print portrait of a male face just below the chin to slightly above the front hairline. The contrast in deep shadows and light creates a composition of distinctive cheekbones, a broad nose, and baggy eyes.
Houston E. Chandler was a sculptor, printmaker, painter, and teacher from Saint Louis, MO. Head is a wooden bust of an African person with distinct features. Chandler crafts a voluminous mouth, nose, and forehead and elongated ears that enhances its indegneity.
Calvin Burnett was a graphic artist, illustrator, painter, designer, and art teacher from Cambridge, MA. Head depicts a racially ambiguous woman from her neck up. Burnette draws the subject passively, looking past the viewer. The subject has fine hair, a thin nose, Asian eyes, and full lips, which complicate determining her racial identity.
Harvey L. Johnson’s “Shrine” includes embellishments painted with white and brown slips, with small holes punched in various placements along the body of the sculpture. A variety of shrines are featured in the collection of student artists at Texas Southern University. These shrines were inspired by Professor Carroll Harris Simms’ travels to Nigeria.
Vital’s bust was created during his time as an art student at TSU. Under the instruction of Professor Carroll Harris Simms, artists would create self-portraits embellished with decorations like spirals and accentuated crown pieces, like in Vital’s sculpture. These busts are inspired by Nok terracotta sculptures and Ife busts, which Simms saw during his travels to Western Africa. Vital later became a member of TSU’s art faculty.
Renfro’s painting displays an image of a working man dressed in overalls from behind. The man is wheeling bricks towards a construction site. His bones and muscles are made visible in the composition, perhaps to highlight the physical demands of his labor. Dr. Biggers taught his students to portray the human form with care and detail, particularly oft-neglected features like hands and feet.
Wilay Mendez Paez is an Afro-Cuban sculptor and collage artist. Guia Eliptica, 2018, is a mixed-media collage piece compiled with found objects. Wilay completed it during an Artist Residency at Clark Atlanta University Art Museum, where the museum's permanent collection inspired him.
William V. Harper was an artist and art educator from Cayuga, Ontario, Canada. Group Study #1 is a gestural drawing focusing on several human figures' physical composition. Lines of body parts overlap, and each figure moves in different positions and directions.
Rose Piper, an African-American artist, used her knowledge of art and geometry to explore the American South. Grievin’ Hearted, a cubist painting, illustrates the sentiments of African Americans in the South. A man sadly hangs his head on his arm as he sits in the shadows. The girl in the yellow dress symbolizes hope for the future.
Sauls’ drawing is a portrait, completed in pastel, of a person with curly hair wrapped in a green robe. As a part of the curriculum at TSU, art students are required to create portraits. Some opt for self-portraits, while others begin to create images of those including family, friends, and peers. A variety of portraits created with different mediums can be found in the permanent collection.
This small ceramic vessel created by Professor Carroll Harris Simms has a green hue, with a brown base and white-glazed lip and interior. Simms believed pottery to be an equally important artistic pursuit to sculpture and was encouraged to hear pottery was held in the same regard in West Africa.
Jesse Sifuentes’ “Greater Hornbill” was created using the slab method, which was taught to students of Carroll Harris Simms. This method entails layering evenly rolled clay mixed with sand as artists build up their figures, working from the bottom layer to the top. Sifuentes frequently features hornbills, unique birds found in parts of Africa and Southeast Asia, in his art.
Taylor's maquette shows a mother tightly embracing one or two children. The theme of the mother and child was a recurring motif amongst the students of Professor Carroll Harris Simms, the ceramics instructor at TSU. Simms worked alongside Dr. Biggers to build TSU's art program.
This terracotta sculpture features a mother gorilla with a child clinging to her back. The mother’s head, face, and body are adorned with spiral embellishments. A common theme featured in Texas Southern University’s permanent collection of terracotta sculptures is the relationship between mothers and their children.
