Retrieving the Life and Art of James Wilson Edwards and a Circle of Black Artists: Rex Gorleigh, Hughie Lee Smith, Selma Hortense Burke and Wendell T. Brooks
This exhibition, presented by the Arts Council of Princeton and curated by Judith Brodsky and Rhinold Lamar Ponder '81, focuses on five late 20th-century master artists who lived and worked within 25 miles of each other in the geographic region from Princeton, New Jersey to New Hope, Pennsylvania: James Wilson Edwards, Rex Goreleigh, Hughie Lee-Smith, Selma Hortense Burke, and Wendell T. Brooks. These Black artists represent a diverse and vibrant regional arts community largely ignored in contemporary American art history.
Retrieving the Life and Art of James Wilson Edwards and a Circle of Black Artists will be on view in the Arts Council of Princeton’s Taplin Gallery from October 14 through December 3, 2022. A panel discussion titled Art Collecting as an Act of Love, Resistance and Preservation of History will take place on Friday, October 14 at 4pm, featuring lenders to the exhibition as guest speakers. An Opening Reception will immediately follow from 5-7pm.
Additional programming includes the following:
Symposium: How Museums Are Diversifying Their Collections to Include Black and Brown Artists Thursday, November 3, 2022 | 5-7pm Free and open to the public
Presentation: Roots & Branches of the 20th Century Black Arts Movement: Paul, Ossie, and Alvin with Dr. Joy Barnes, Educator in Science and Racial Literacy Saturday, November 19, 2022 | 1-2pm Free and open to the public
Panel: Restoring the Overlooked History of Black Artists in Princeton and Trenton in the Later 20th Century Through Local Research, Preservation, and Oral History Wednesday, November 30, 2022 | 4-6pm Free and open to the public
