Portland Museum of Art Presents DAVID DRISKELL: ICONS OF NATURE AND HISTORY Exhibit — Preview

WHEN:

Thru September 12, 2021

WHERE:

Portland Museum of Art
7 Congress St
Portland, ME 04101

TICKETS:

$15+

Free – Visitors 21 & under
– PMA members
– Every Friday 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.

For tickets, visit the Portland Museum of Art website.

Portland Museum of Art presents David Driskell: Icons of Nature and History, the first major exhibition of Driskell’s work. Through artistic practice, curatorial work, writing, and teaching, Driskell (1931–2020) aims to push audiences to consider the American story inclusive of the art of Black people. Driskell's painting and printmaking practice combines his observation of American landscapes and his interest in the imagery and aesthetic innovations of the African diaspora.

Icons of Nature and History, according to Portland Museum of Art, reveals the artist’s aesthetic inheritances from home, family, the South, and his formative education, as well as the influence of his sojourns to Europe, Africa, and South America. Driskell’s icons reflect “a commitment to a symbolic form that elevates the mind and the spirit above that which exists in the physical world,” a Portland Museum of Art spokesperson says.

Icons surveys seven decades of the artist’s painterly practice from the 1950s forward. The Portland Museum of Art is organizing this exhibition in partnership with the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, which brings approximately 60 works together to present highlights of Driskell’s career.

Curator: Julie L. McGee

For more information, visit the Portland Museum of Art website.

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Images courtesy of Portland Museum of Art

Slider Images:

1. Memories of a Distant Past, 1975. Collection of Joseph and Lynne Horning, Washington, DC.
2. Shaker Chair and Quilt, 1988. Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine.
3. Still Life With Sunset, 1966. Collection of Joseph and Lynne Horning, Washington, DC.
4. Self Portrait as Beni ("I Dream Again of Benin"), 1974. High Museum of Art, Atlanta.
5. Pine and Moon, 1971. Portland Museum of Art, Maine.
6. Two Pines #2, 1964. High Museum of Art, Atlanta.
7. Behold Thy Son, 1956. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, DC.
8. Night Vision for Jacob Lawrence, 2005. Collection of Richard and Barbara Schiffrin, Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. Photograph by Sandra Paci.
9. Yaddo Circle, 1980. Collection of the Estate of David C. Driskell, Maryland. Photograph by Stephen Bates.
10. Young Pines Growing, 1959. Clark Atlanta University Art Museum, John Hope Franklin Purchase Award.