The life and art of Horace Pippin

GUESTS: JUDY STEIN, GWENDOLYN DUBOIS SHAW, JEN BRYANT

This year marks the 125th anniversary of the birth of African American artist Horace Pippin who was born and lived most of his adult life in West Chester, Pennsylvania.   Entirely self-taught, Pippin was severely wounded in his right arm during World War I and turned to art as therapy in the late 1920s.  His paintings of West Chester neighborhoods, local nature, African American family life, soldiers in World War I, and religious stories eventually caught the attention of artists like N.C. Wyeth and  collectors including Albert Barnes, who both became avid supporters of his work.  Pippin first exhibited at the Chester County Art Association in 1937 and just one year later his paintings were part of a major traveling group show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.  In this hour of Radio Times we’ll explore the life and career of African American artist Horace Pippin with art historian and curator JUDITH STEIN and University of Pennsylvania professor GWENDOLYN DUBOIS SHAW. We’ll also hear from JEN BRYANT, author of a new book for children, A Splash of Red:  The Life and Art of Horace Pippin.

Art of Horace Pippin – Click thumbnails for full, enlarged view

1. “Floral Still Life” – Not dated, Oil on board, Brandywine River Museum
2. “The End of the War: Starting Home” – 1930-33, Oil on canvas, Philadelphia Museum of Art
3. “Supper Time” – c. 1940, Oil on burnt-wood panel, The Barnes Foundation
4. “Christ and the Woman of Samaria” – 1940, Oil on canvas, The Barnes Foundation
5. “John Brown Going to His Hanging” – 1942, Oil on canvas, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
6. “Saying Prayers” – 1943, Oil on canvas, Brandywine River Museum
7. “Abe Lincoln, the Good Samaritan” – 1943, Oil on canvas board, Philadelphia Museum of Art
8. “Mr. Prejudice” – 1943, Oil on canvas, Philadelphia Museum of Art