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Simplistic Mother and Child Maquette Created by a TSU Student for Ceramics Class with Professor Carroll Harris Simms This terracotta maquette is of a woman cradling a child in her arms. The woman is featured unclothed with simplified features. The circular base supports the structure with spiral motifs throughout. The crown of the head is topped with layered rings to indicate hair texture. The mother and child theme is prevalent in TSU’s terracotta collection
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Self-portrait Leon Renfro’s bust is unique within the Texas Southern sculpture collection. It is one of only two busts made from a white plaster (as opposed to the standard terracotta material). The sculpture is also rather bare, lacking the intricate embellishments and ornamentation that are typical of the work of Carroll Harris Simms’ students.
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Sea Lion Maquette Created by a TSU Student for Ceramics Class with Professor Carroll Harris Simms This maquette is a largely realistic depiction of a sea lion. The sea lion is adorned with swirls, the most common visual motif used by Simms' students in their sculptures. The final, full-size version of the sculpture contains even more embellishments that the maquette lacks.
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Self-portrait Davis's sculpture depicts a stylized version of the artist's head and neck, with a removable crown-piece. The crown looks like a turtle with an insect atop it. The neck, crown, and forehead are all adorned with swirls, the most common motif in the terracottas of Simms' students.
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Self-portrait Morris's sculpture depicts a stylized version of the artist's own head and neck. As was required by Professor Simms, the artist adorned her self-portrait with swirls on the neck and rear of the scalp. The bust's blue hue is unique within the Texas Southern terracotta collection.
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Abstract Couple Maquette Created by a TSU Student for Ceramics Class with Professor Carroll Harris Simms This maquette shows a human-like couple with enlarged heads and hands. The artist suggests their intimacy by joining their lower bodies together. The full-scale sculpture features finer details, such as modified head shapes, embellishments, and greater use of negative space.
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Abstract Maquette Created by a TSU Student for Ceramics Class with Professor Carroll Harris Simms This is an abstract work featuring adornments like swirls, eyes, and pyramids. Professor Carroll Harris Simms' terracotta tradition was inspired by the shrine sculptures of the Nok and Ife peoples of West Africa. In diasporic contexts, the sculptures' significance evolves.
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Yoruba Woman This kneeling, beaded woman is a product of the Yoruba people in West Africa. The woman has scars on her face, braids, and is covering her breasts. The woman's colorful beaded jewelry suggests she has a higher status in society, yet her posture shows humility and servitude.
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Senufo Man Along with the Senufo woman, the male counterpart is heavily covered with facial and body markings as he is regally seated on a decorated stool. The man is holding a spear and his postiche, or false metal beard, is prominent while his upright posture asserts his status.
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Senufo Woman with Child The intricate work of a seated mother and child, possibly royalty, originates from the Senufo people in West Africa. Detailed body modifications and scars cover the mother's body as she calmly looks out to the audience, as the child on her left leg is cradled close to her body.
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Unknown African Figure This is a simple work of a richly colored woman featuring a geometric face with oval eyes, a triangle nose, and a prominent square mouth. The sculpture has African origins yet the specific ethnic group is unknown because of the lack of body markings and hair adornments.
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Luba Woman The sculpture created by an unknown artist is a Luba sculpture from the Democratic Republic of Congo of a pregnant woman holding her stomach. The Luba are a matriarchal society and often create art centered around women placing emphasis on their importance in their society.
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Cat Maquette Created by a TSU Student for Ceramics Class with Professor Carroll Harris Simms This maquette, created by an unknown Texas Southern University art student, shows a feline creature at attention. There are various swirl patterns and depth points on the figure.
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Lone Figure Maquette Created by a TSU Student for Ceramics Class with Professor Carroll Harris Simms This maquette was created by a Texas Southern University art student. It is a lone figure with defined arms.
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Multi-sided Female Shrine Maquette Created by a TSU Student for Ceramics Class with Professor Carroll Harris Simms This is a maquette, created by am unknown Texas Southern University art student. This maquette displays a stout figure with various swirls on the body. The swirls are a required component for the maquette project.
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Mother and Children Maquette Created by a TSU Student for Ceramics Class with Professor Carroll Harris Simms This maquette, created by an unknown Texas Southern University art student, shows a mother tightly embracing one or two children. The theme of the mother and child was a recurring one amongst the students of Professor Carroll Harris Simms, the ceramics instructor at TSU.
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Creeping Plant Growth This painting, created by an unknown TSU art student, depicts the base of a tree or wooden telephone pole, with various smaller plants and vines creeping up its structure. Dr. John T. Biggers encouraged students to study the natural world and seek inspiration from it. He instructed students to sit outside for an extended period of time and observe.
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Angelic Stokely Carmichael Portrait Cornett's work shows Stokely Carmichael with angelic features amidst raised hands. He was a key civil rights activist, a leader of the SNCC, and popularized the term "Black Power." He spoke at Texas Southern one month prior to the so-called “TSU Riots,” when police invaded the campus, fired 5,000 rounds into dormitories, and arrested 497 students.
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Trees Emerging from the Desert This work by Earl Jones is an abstract, desert landscape of barren trees emerging from red and orange rings in the ground. Jones was a student at Texas Southern in the mid-1970s and was taught by artists and instructors like Dr. John T. Biggers and Professor Carroll Harris Simms.
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Of African Descent Onyeiwu's painting depicts a smiling woman wearing a green dress with geometric designs, against a blue background. The artist is a Texas Southern alumnus and current art professor, teaching painting, drawing, and murals courses. Much of his work highlights the beauty of Black women.
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Man in a cowboy hat The piece by Bennie Settles shows a man wearing a cowboy hat, looking out onto a mostly empty field with two horses grazing. Settles was a student at Texas Southern and has many works in the collection showing his style of using rounded shapes and gradients to create muscle on his subjects.
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Kiah and Miss Long Street Bolivar Point Mills' work is a compelling narrative, showing a white woman firing a cannon aimed at a damaged canoe as a lifeless indigenous person is floating near the wreck. Another woman, a child, a baby, and another indigenous person watch helplessly in the background. This work seems to be a commentary of the violence against Indigenous people in America.
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Birds and Cattle This abstract work features three distorted cows’ faces that seem to be staring upwards and at the viewer, against a colorful triangular background. Vital was an art student at Texas Southern and later went on to become a faculty member in the art department. Many works in the school’s collection, particularly from the 1970s, use cubist styles.
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Train Tracks Alongside Farmland Leonard Henderson's cool-colored composition depicts a calm landscape of farmers working a field next to train tracks. The tracks running next to the field may hint at the contrast between urban and rural life and show the development of rural areas during the turn of the 20th century.
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Geometric Tree Stump This painting by Roy Vinson Thomas is a landscape piece depicting a tree stump and mushrooms in cubist style. Cubism depicts forms using multiple geometric shapes to create depth. Many works in Texas Southern's permanent collection, particularly from the late 1970s, use this art style.