Texas Southern University

Items

• Police Officers Grab a Black Man
  Settles' painting tackles the ongoing issue of police brutality against and harassment of Black Americans. The fluid swirls on the men's clothing, the anxious onlookers, and the white officer's drawn baton illustrate the high intensity and precarious emotion of the piece.
• The Great Race
  The work by Oliver Parson is a calm and dreamlike scene of a child sitting in a prairie as an angel and a person race towards him. Both figures represent salvation, one rescuing him from death and the other saving him from Earth.
• Mother Wearing Rebozo
  Mendoza's painting depicts an expecting mother gazing into the distance and wearing a traditional Mexican rebozo. Mother and child is a prevalent theme in art by Texas Southern Art Department students, and the theme is found in drawings, sculptures, murals, and paintings.
• The Crucifix (Judas)
  Parson’s painting shows a young girl shielding her face. To the left, a crow holds a coin, to the right Jesus is crucified, below a perched crow. The crows may allude to Jim Crow, which made racism law from after the Civil War until the 1960s; crows are also a symbol of death.
• Treaty
  Oliver's painting depicts an accord between settlers and a group of indigenous Americans. Colonizers consistently broke their agreements with tribes, and took more and more land from them. Indigenous peoples of the American Southwest are frequent subjects of Oliver's work.
• Black Legislators of the Reconstruction Period
  Oliver's painting depicts vanguard Black politicians from the Reconstruction period following emancipation. Radical Reconstruction saw the election of dozens of Black lawmakers in former slave states like Texas. After 1897, Texas didn't elect another Black legislator until 1966.
• Nature Scene with Untamed Growth
  Ellison's painting is a nature scene featuring a bisected tree stump, with untamed growth all around it. At the bottom of the painting, there are several seashells, which the artist enhanced with raised, textural elements. Ellison was a TSU student during the Civil Rights era.
• Unselfishness
  Vital's painting depicts a bird feeding a worm to its three offspring, reflecting the theme of mother & child that often appears in TSU student work. The artist often featured animals and nature in his work. After his graduation, Vital taught art for many years at Texas Southern.
• Marching
  Oliver's painting depicts a group of men marching and playing drums and flutes, seemingly as part of a military expedition. The red sky in the background seems to forebode violence and bloodshed. Oliver's works often reference Biblical and ancient mythological stories and themes.
• Elderly Man Reading the Newspaper
  This painting by Edward Mills depicts an older Black man sitting and reading a newspaper. The dimly lit scene is minimal and the man, his chair, and the paper are the only objects in the painting, highlighting the focus of the painting. The artist cleverly uses real newspapers.
• Stadium
  This watercolor painting by Frank Perkins features a scene at a baseball stadium. This work may be an homage to the Negro Leagues, which offered Black baseball players the chance to play professionally prior to Jackie Robinson's integration of Major League Baseball.
• Women Fishing
  This painting by Charlene Claye shows a group of three people, including at least two women, fishing by a pond. This painting highlights one of the many types of labor Black women perform to support their families and communities.
• Farm Scene with Cow, Outhouse, and House
  This watercolor painting by Joseph A. Moran features a grazing cow in the foreground and an outhouse and farmhouse in the background. Dr. Biggers encouraged students to create based on what they saw, which may have been this rural scene for this artist.
• Outstretched Hands Rising From the Water
  This detailed painting by Barry Morris includes a pair of hands rising up and clasping a bird. There are also bundles of wheat and a set of vessels. Pairs of detached hands are a repeated motif in the artist's work, including in his mural in Hannah Hall.
• Geometric Cactus Landscape
  This painting by Jesse Sifuentes shows a landscape scene featuring cactuses. Several TSU art alumni talk about how Dr. John Biggers taught them based on themes more than techniques. Many works from the 1970s use geometric styles, perhaps a reflection of lessons from the time.
• Black Jesus with Onlookers
  Ricky Donato's painting shows onlookers of various ages gazing with concern at a man who is bleeding and wearing a cross. This is likely an allegory for Jesus, often portrayed bloodied from the crucifixion. Imagery of "Black Jesus" counters iconography of a fair-skinned Jesus.
• Self Portrait
  Erma Gordon's self portrait shows the artist from three different angles. The three profiles are tied together by a light, almost translucent fabric that is worn by the frontmost figure and held by the others. This motif is used repeatedly by the artist, including in her mural.
• Self Portrait
  This painting is an Afrocentric self portrait of Earl Jones, who attended Texas Southern University in the mid-1970s. Jones painted himself wearing a detailed shirt with various patterns reminiscent of African textiles. The background includes round homes with conical roofs.
• Malindy
  Armstead Mills' painting shows a woman holding a bucket and striding through a field of flowers, with a small dog at her ankles. Malindy, wearing a dress and carrying a bucket, is portrayed tenderly and beautifully in this colorful nature scene.
• Green Ceramic Vessel with White Glazed Lip
  This small ceramic vessel created by 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.
• Brown Ceramic Plate with White Bubbling Glaze
  This large, brown ceramic plate created by Simms features multiple textures, including a bubbling glaze covering the most of the top of the piece. Simms' decorative artworks remain in high demand by collectors.
• Small Red Ceramic Plate with White Bubbling Glaze
  This small ceramic plate created by Simms is made from a red clay with a white, bubbling glaze. It has slightly raised, curved edges. Simms' decorative artworks remain in high demand by collectors.
• Oblong Red Ceramic Plate
  This large, oblong ceramic plate created by Simms has a red glaze. This piece is among those that Professor Simms chose to feature in the 1976 book he co-authored with Dr. Biggers and John Edward Weems, Black Art in Houston: The Texas Southern Experience.
• Brown Ceramic Plate
  This large ceramic plate created by Simms features multiple textures, including a bubbling glaze covering the most of the top of the piece. Simms' decorative artworks remain in high demand by collectors.
• Dan Mask
  The face mask is from the Dan ethnic group which shares the Cote d'Ivoirian and Liberian border and is spiritually charged. The mask has simple facial features with slits for eyes and protruding lips and has many purposes like being worn by dancers, athletes, and warriors.