Object Record
Images
Metadata
Title |
Tobacco Blues |
Artist |
Bailey, Radcliffe |
Date |
2000 |
Medium |
color aquatint etching with photogravure and chine-collé |
Support |
paper |
Dimensions |
42 x 33 inches |
Signature |
Radcliffe Bailey 2000 |
Signature Location |
bottom right |
Inscription |
15/30 |
Inscription Location |
recto |
Credit line |
Museum Purchase |
Accession Number |
2001.017 |
Collection |
Work on Paper |
Exhibition Status |
Currently on view |
Description |
Bailey was born in Bridgeton, New Jersey in 1968. A resident of Atlanta, Georgia since 1969, he received his B. F. A. from the Atlanta College of Art. His work has been exhibited at the Birmingham Museum of Art, the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art and The Smithsonian Institution. Bailey's works are held in numerous public and private collections including the High Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harvard University, Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Mint Museum of Art. Bailey's art is a mystical blend of ancestral imagery and personal spirit. His work embodies both improvisational and ritualized elements of composition, which he compares to a jazz musician's search for a certain sound or rhythm. His work conveys a strong sense of space and time, evoking an idea of future that is deeply rooted in the past. Bailey's work examines the themes of his African-American identity. Based on altars, family history, African symbols and the spiritual rhythms of jazz musicians his paints are composed of densely covered surfaces in mixed media using a wide range of images that relate to his personal and aesthetic growth. Tobacco Blues in one of Bailey's newest efforts in the print medium. It reference vintage landscape photography rather than familiar family portraits that have appeared in previous paintings and works on paper. The photograph depicts tobacco plants from a farm that his grandfather owned in Virginia. Bailey also includes hard ground renderings and drawings of houses and cabins that reference his interest in the history of African-American architecture before and after the Civil War. Much of the text that appears in this print comes directly from contemporary African-American poetry. The print contains up to 13 plates, which are printed in a diptych format on a single piece of rag printing paper. The Vibrancy of colors and layers of imagery are built up from a variety of etching techniques, including chine colle, photgravure and drypoint. |
Subjects |
Abstract works Tobacco plantations Agriculture Farming Slavery |
Image |
012\2001.17.JPG |