The Atlanta University Annuals, originally known as the Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings by Negro Artists in America, was an annual juried art competition designed for Black diasporic artists, held at Atlanta University from 1942 to 1970. The winning pieces from the Annuals competition were accessioned into the art collection of Atlanta University and comprise the foundation of the CAU Art Museum's permanent collection. Historically Black Colleges and Universities are a nexus of Black art history, as many Black art icons attended these institutions and founded or developed their art department. As the founder of the Annuals, Hale Woodruff encouraged his students at Morehouse College, Spelman College, and Atlanta University to submit their work to be considered for the exhibition. Likewise, other Black art educators at HBCUs submitted to the exhibition and introduced their students to the professional art world through the Annuals exhibition. HBCU Students in the Atlanta University Annuals showcases paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures by students or alumni of HBCUs that won a prize award during the Annuals.
Curated By
Shyheim Williams
Contributing Institution
Clark Atlanta University
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John Arterberry was an artist who worked in the art department at Langston University from Tallahassee, FL. Martyr shows a woman wearing a top with a cross and standing barefoot in a natural setting. The woman looks straight ahead, slightly smiling as a small fire sits behind her.
James H. Malone was a graphic artist, cartoonist, writer, and painter from Winterville, GA. My Classmate is a portrait drawing of a young Black boy in a school uniform. He sits in a chair with his hands on his lap, looking at the bottom left corner.
John Arterberry was an artist who worked in the art department at Langston University from Tallahassee, Florida. Of the Soil is a print depicting two farmers working the land. The two workers, dressed in overalls and straw hats, are bent over, picking crops to place in their wagons.
James Adair was an artist from Atlanta, GA. A prayer Meeting is an abstract depiction of a group of people practicing a religious ritual. Adair uses broad brush strokes of green, red, and yellow to create this scene of piety.
Alexander S. McMath was a painter and educator from Clinton, SC. Prelude to a Kiss is a non-figurative abstraction consisting of gestural brush strokes.
Romeyn van Vleck Lippman was a 19th-century painter and educator. Revival depicts three figures standing in a position of grief and consolation. The central Black boy is looking down grievingly, a Black woman is behind him with an averted gaze, and to his left is a veiled elderly White woman gazing at him while holding his chest.
William Hayden was a painter and educator from Lexington, NC. Saturday Night Function is a juke joint scene depicting Black people dancing, playing instruments, and socializing. Hayden illuminates the interiorities of African-American nightlife in the mid-1900s.
Born in Ohio, Vernon Winslow studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. Sharecropper’s Migration is a watercolor painting of a family with gestural features. With a muted red skin tone, the father rests his hand on his son’s shoulder to reassure him. The family wears a sad but hopeful expression as they ride on a horse carriage.
Lucille Malkia Roberts was a painter and educator from Washington, D.C. Street in Senegal is an abstract depiction of people shopping on a market street in Senegal, West Africa. Roberts uses muted colors to create the robust marketplace environment and emphasizes the shoppers and their goods with Black silhouettes.
Jewell Woodard Simon was an internationally acclaimed artist, teacher, and poet from Houston, TX. Teen Enigma is a plaster bust of a young girl looking into the distance with her head raised. She is wearing a collared shirt with the top button clasped.
James Newton was a painter, printmaker, scholar, and professor from Delaware. The American Sixties is an assemblage that symbolizes the political turmoil and militarization that arose in the 1960s after the Civil Rights Movement.
Harper T. Phillips was an artist from Courtland, AL. The Ant is a painting with numerous geometric forms and lines in a vertical composition. Each white, yellow, green, and black shape lay in pocketed areas overlapping black borders and lines.
Maurice Strider was an artist and art educator from Lexington, KY. The Carnival shows a carnival landscape with crowds of abstracted human figures walking around and riding a Ferris wheel. The hue composition of blue, pink, and gray is similar to Cubism.
Alexander S. McMath was a painter and educator from Clinton, SC. Untitled depicts a surrealist anatomical rendering of a human figure's side profile. Signed text by the artist sits on the right of the figure.
Freddie Styles was an abstract painter and collage artist from Madison, Georgia. Untitled is an ink painting of three women with elongated necks, curled hair, and black-painted skin. Their faces are partially concealed as they stare straight ahead. Their torsos are white, with exposed breasts outlined in black ink.
