Arts Council of Moore County presents…

FINE ARTS LECTURE SERIES
Winter, 2021

---

DATE:  Tue., January 26, 2021 at 5:00 PM
LECTURER: Molly Gwinn, Ph.D.

HENRY OSSAWA TANNER:

Visions of the
Christian Community

Late 19th century artist, Henry O. Tanner, was the first black American to create great art, to achieve a level of expression and accomplishment equal to that of his white colleagues. He learned his craft from the meticulous realist master, Thomas Eakins, at the Pennsylvania Academy of Art in the 1890s, and later polished his technique in the Paris studios of French academicians, who encouraged him to exhibit at the annual salons.

His paintings of Biblical subjects were acclaimed for their historical accuracy in depicting the Holy Land and for their depth of feeling. European critics praised the breadth of Tanner’s vision, in portraying the universality of the Christ figure and the diversity of his followers, but commentators in the United States were disappointed that Tanner’s paintings didn’t tell the story of his own people. They had hoped that he would be the fountainhead of an African American tradition in the visual arts. However, the artist’s early genre paintings of black life, for example, the well-known and beloved Banjo Lesson, and his later representations of New Testament miracles and visions can be connected: both subjects flow from Tanner’s belief in the community of faith.

---

ABOUT THE LECTURER:  Molly Gwinn is an art historian who has presented the spring lecture series in the past and has offered a number of classes with the Center for Creative Living at Sandhills Community College. She earned her doctorate from Rutgers University and has taught at Rutgers, the School of Continuing and Professional Studies at New York University, and at the Dallas Museum of Art.

---

COST: $35 per person

This lecture to be presented at Campbell House Galleries
(482 East Connecticut Avenue, Southern Pines)

Due to COVID-19, space is limited to 10 people.
Please reserve your space now with full payment at the Arts Council’s offices
(Campbell House, 482 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines) or by calling 910-692-ARTS (2787).