Color in Freedom – Journey Along the Underground Railroad

The Driskell Center (University of Maryland, College Park) and The University of Maryland, Maryland College jointly produced this event Saturday, November 7, 2008.

Scholarly papers and Joseph Holston’s art provided the program highlights.

Barbara J. Stephanic Ph.D. read a paper that I found very interesting. She kindly emailed me a copy. Barbara is Professor of Art History, College of Southern Maryland). The paper titled

THE HARMONY OF COLOR: THE ART OF JOSEPH HOLSTON

From the Exhibition COLOR IN FREEDOM: JOURNEY ALONG THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

Barbara’s paper informed my understanding of Holston’s use of color in expressing narratives and emotion.

Holston led a stimulating tour of the images he created for this exhibit. He disclosed the concept he developed to guide creation of his images and the hard work execution required.

He created the art in this exhibit as four separate movements in a musical symphony as follows:

· Unknown World;

· Living in Bondage;

· Journey of Escape and

· Color in Freedom.

Holston’s color harmony is always impressive. His palette is the legacy of a long tradition of artists who exploit color as a primary means of expression, especially emotional expression. It is his color choices that move me intellectually and emotionally. Holston delivery of harmony in this exhibit is not surprising considering other Holston art that I have seen.

Dr. Stephanic, in her paper, asserts “The power of color on Holston’s palette is enhanced by both warm and cool colors and clearly demonstrates his grasp of the strength of color intensity and the power of juxtaposing contrasting colors.” I would just add complementary colors as well.

Readers should go to www.umuc.edu/colorinfreedom and take a virtual tour of Holston’s Color in Freedom exhibit. The tour features Holston’s 50 paintings, drawings, and etchings and an audio narrative that seek to tie the images to adventures along the Underground Railroad.

I am most impressed by the universality of the images in the exhibit. Absent the connecting Underground Railroad narratives the images are highly abstract. They represent human conditions in diverse cultures, past and present.

Consider Dr. Stephanic’s description of Holston’s Subjugation pictured in the Living in Bondage Movement..

“In Subjugation below,

the three figures are literally linked in the rhythmic repetitive loop of the chains that bind them together, forever linking their destiny. They are composed as a single, massive form filling the picture plane, suggesting a strength and solidarity that belies their captivity. The forms overlap, leaving no space between them, and yet the psychological distance keeps them segregated from each other and from their surroundings. The spatial organization rejects the idea of a separate identity; rather it suggests a collective portrait of the forced debasement, exploitation, and degrading humiliation of bondage imposed on an entire race. The composition maintains the close juxtaposition of the figures, but despite the physical closeness, they do not relate or communicate; it is almost as if they know that attempted discourse would acknowledge a loss of self, a relinquishing of their individual freedom once and for all. Holston’s figures remain stationary and rigid, demoralized by the loss of humanity, dignity, heritage, and family. A line parallel to the waistlines of the men stretches horizontally across the middle of the canvas, marking the division of space behind the figures. Dark colors frame their upper torsos and lighter colors encase their lower bodies. The powerful background colors are a brilliant choice of contrast. The combination of blue and orange brings a tempo to the pattern change and a compatibility that strengthens each color.”

Stephanic’s narrative is not specific to the Underground Railroad. The description is generic to any situation in which people are imprisoned. Indeed, many viewers could substitute their own narrative based on their own knowledge of imprisonment. The imagery of Subjugation is universal. It speaks generally about inhuman conditions of imprisonment anywhere.

Similarly Living in Bondage is universal.

Its meaning is clear to any agricultural worker, worldwide, who has toiled in fields under a burning sun. Agricultural workers, of all colors and races, have suffered “red necks” from burning suns.

Other images in the exhibit are similarly universal. This universality is what impressed me most. The exhibit will be well received everywhere because of this universality.