From the Collection:
Giving Voice to Visuals #8
The Najee & Seteria Dorsey Collection at Black Art In America consists of over 400 works in various mediums and genres by both legacy and leading contemporary artists.
photo: Tom Meyers
Violence can impact people in the most profound ways, whether a terrifying event affects them directly or indirectly. Some respond with utter fear, with the resulting trauma challenging their psyches and perspectives on the world for the remainder of their lives. Others also experience fear but, unlike the former, they choose to take away whatever lessons or insights they glean from the trying experience, using them to reconcile their feelings and move forward.
On the hot summer evening of August 19, 1991, the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn erupted in racial violence after a vehicle in the motorcade of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson struck and killed Gavin Cato, a seven-year-old Black child. According to several witnesses, medical staff treated the injured Jewish driver prior to attending to the child. Not long after, Yankel Rosenbaum, a Hasidic Jew visiting from Australia was stabbed, succumbing to his injuries at the hospital. In the ensuing riots, more than 200 people were injured.
Artist Louis Delsarte chose to respond to the violence in his own unique way. During the height of the riots, the Brooklyn-born muralist, printmaker, painter, illustrator, and educator produced The Letter, a stunning and colorful painting paying homage to his mother, Llewellyn. A figurative expressionist, Delsarte was lauded for an illusionistic style substantially influenced by African history, opera, and jazz. Though the prolific Delsarte left us in 2020, he also left behind his remarkable work such as the lobby mural and facade at the Southwest Arts Center in Atlanta; the 129-foot-long Martin Luther King Memorial Mural at the King Center in Atlanta; the Spirit of Harlem mural on 125th Street in New York; and permanent collections pieces with the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Schomburg Center, Spelman College, and Howard University.
“The Letter” by Louis Delsarte
Through his remarkable riot-inspired tribute to his mother, Delsarte—who art scholar Kevin Sipp has labeled “one of the preeminent colorists of his generation”–ever reminds us that the artist carries a uniquely wide lens on life, that beauty can outlast violence, and that love, despite our surrounding circumstances, remains.
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