Hammonds House Museum

Exhibiting Culture: Highlights from the Hammonds House Museum Collection

Exhibiting Culture:

Highlights from the Hammonds House Museum Collection

On View August 6, 2021 - January 30, 2022

 

About the exhibition

Exhibiting Culture: Highlights from the Hammonds House Museum Collection is curated by Hammonds House Museum’s Executive Director and Chief Curator Karen Comer Lowe, and will be on view from August 6, 2021, through January 30, 2022.

Boasting more than 450 world-class works of art, the Hammonds House Museum permanent art collection dates from the mid-19th century by artists from America, Africa, and the Caribbean. At the center of the collection are 250 works collected by the former owner of Hammonds House, Dr. Otis Thrash Hammonds, including work by master artist Romare Bearden and the oldest known painting by acclaimed landscape artist Robert S. Duncanson. Featured in the Exhibiting Culture show will be works by Romare Bearden, Benny Andrews, Elizabeth Catlett, Sam Gilliam, Richard Hunt, Hale Woodruff, Jacob Lawrence, and many more. Explore incredible artwork by some of the world’s premiere African American artists, listen to engaging artist interviews on rotation in the museum, and enjoy a stroll through the new Artist Garden.

About The Hammonds HousE MUSEUM

Nestled on a quiet residential street in Atlanta’s historic West End, Hammonds House Museum is a unique setting to explore the cultural diversity and legacy of artists of African descent.  The Museum is the former residence of the late Dr. Otis Thrash Hammonds, a prominent Atlanta physician and a passionate arts patron.  Shortly after his death in June 1985, the Fulton County Board of Commissioners under the leadership of Chairman Michael Lomax purchased the house and the collection of 250 artworks which Dr. Hammonds had amassed over the years. The property was purchased with the intention of it becoming the African American research library but the library board passed on the building.  Edward S. Spriggs, who had been the director of Studio Museum of Harlem for seven years was now in Fulton County's Public Arts department and was watching the debates about how to use the newly acquired building with great interest.  Spriggs submitted a proposal for an African American Museum to the board of commissioners which was adopted.  The Hammonds House Galleries, a 501(c)3 organization, opened in 1988. The name was later changed to Hammonds House Museum.

The Museum’s yearly calendar of events includes visual art exhibitions by significant mid-career and established artists, artist talks, panel discussions, workshops, art education for young people, as well as book readings, music concerts and more.

For 33 years, Hammonds House Museum has been a mecca for people seeking inspiration, interaction, and intellectual stimulation centered on art of the African Diaspora. 

ABOUT DR. OTIS THRASH HAMMONDS

Hammonds House is the former residence of the late Dr. Otis Thrash Hammonds, an Atlanta physician and art patron. Shortly after his death in June 1985, the Fulton County Board of Commissioners purchased the house and a collection of over 250 artworks which he had amassed over the years. Dr. Hammonds took an interest in struggling young artists and art groups and supported a number of them over the years. He was a major supporter of Black artists in Atlanta, serving as Chairman of the Board of the Neighborhood Arts Center, a community arts center which since the 1970s has nurtured many Black artists and arts groups, including the African Dance Ensemble and the Southern Collective of African Writers. Dr. Hammonds was also a member of the Board of Trustees of the High Museum of Art and several committees of the museum, including the Young Collectors of the High Museum of Art.  Dr. Hammonds donated a major work of art by Romare Bearden to the museum. He also served as a member of the Board of the Sculptural Arts Museum, the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library Art Committee, the Atlanta Public Art Committee, the Atlanta Preservation Society, and the Nanette Bearden Contemporary Dance Company in New York City.

In addition to his distinguished career as a patron of the Arts, Dr. Hammonds also had a distinguished medical career, serving as Chief of Staff, and Chief of Anesthesiology of the Southwest Community Hospital, Chairman of the Board of the West End Medical Association, founder of the Westside Anesthesia Association, a member of the Board of the Metropolitan Atlanta Health Plan, a member of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, and the National, Georgia, and Atlanta Medical Association’s “Man of the Year.”

artists ON VIEW

  1. Romare Bearden’s artwork includes memories from his childhood, thought-provoking statements about African American culture, and reinterpretations of biblical stories from an African American perspective. He is most well-known for his semi-abstract collages which he constructed from magazine clippings, paper scraps, and swatches of fabric daubed with paint.

  2. Benny Andrews was an artist, educator, and activist. He developed a practice of incorporating collaged fabric and other materials into his figurative oil paintings. He also created mixed-media collage, sculptures, prints and drawings. He illustrated several books written by his brother, Raymond Andrews, as well as children’s books, including a biography of civil rights icon Congressman John Lewis.

  3. Elizabeth Catlett produced an unparalleled body of politically charged and aesthetically compelling graphic art and sculptures. Also, her impact as an educator was considered transformative, not only because of her teaching methods, but for her determination to have students visit museums during a time when African Americans were not allowed. 

  4. Sam Gilliam began his career in the 1960’s, a time of political and social change. His artwork was inspired by the African American experience, though some thought his abstract art was irrelevant to Black life. Around 1965, Gilliam introduced unsupported canvas artworks with drape paintings suspended from ceilings or arranged on walls or floors.

  5. Richard Hunt is one of the foremost 20th Century African American abstract sculptors and artists of public sculpture. He is also an accomplished lithographer whose graphic prints echo the imagery of his sculptural works. His art has been described as “optimistic, energetic, and ever ascending upward.”

  6. Hale Woodruff created paintings, woodcut prints, and murals that depict the historic struggle and perseverance of African Americans. After moving to New York in the late 1940's, Woodruff's style shifted from realism, to what he described as "semiabstract, symbolic painting."

  7. Jacob Lawrence was an American painter known for his portrayal of African American historical subjects and contemporary life. His works include several series featuring Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, John Brown, the Great Migration of African Americans from rural areas of southern states to urban areas of the north, and the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

AND MANY MORE…..