{"id":6556,"date":"2020-02-07T12:08:51","date_gmt":"2020-02-07T12:08:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/media-archive.blackartinamerica.com\/?p=6556"},"modified":"2020-02-11T13:05:32","modified_gmt":"2020-02-11T13:05:32","slug":"george-hunt-the-man-the-myth-a-legend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earthexhibitions.org\/media-archive\/?p=6556","title":{"rendered":"George Hunt: The Man, The Myth, A Legend"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Hunt: The Man, The Myth, A Legend<\/span><\/i><\/h1>\n
by Dr. S. Alexis Anderson<\/pre>\n
\"\"A jigsaw puzzle is a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of often oddly shaped interlocking and mosaic-ed pieces. Each piece usually has a small part of a picture on it; when complete, a jigsaw puzzle produces a complete picture.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
The life of renowned artist George Hunt is a beautifully complex, three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle, and the mosaic-ed pieces that make up his life effortlessly fit together to make an endless puzzle. That means there\u2019s no count on the number of pieces. It\u2019s not 500 pieces or even 1,000 pieces, but a puzzle of unlimited pieces \u2013 a puzzle that will continue to grow as Hunt inspires a new generation of artists and works through his own ever-growing list of requests for commissioned projects. <\/span><\/p>\n
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High Cotton, George Hunt<\/p><\/div>\n
Though he doesn\u2019t fully commit to many projects these days, it doesn\u2019t mean the requests don\u2019t keep on coming.\u00a0 Right now, Hunt is working on what is almost his 30th collectible poster for the 2020 Beale Street Music Festival held in Memphis, TN during Memphis In May. Hunt was first commissioned for this project in 1992 and is now approaching his 28th<\/span> year of working on the project. Being re-hired for the same position 28 times consecutively speaks volumes in and of itself! In fact, Hunt\u2019s entire portfolio is impressive, and it includes more than 15 commissions from the likes of Justin Timberlake, Steven Seagal, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and the Chicago Blues Festival. \u00a0It also includes more than 50+ shows and events.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
“Congress, in an effort to raise awareness, dubbed 2003 as the \u201cyear of the blues<\/em>\u201d and Hunt was named as the official artist for that project”<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n
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African woman, George Hunt<\/p><\/div>\n
There is no doubt about it that Hunt\u2019s work draws heavily on Picasso\u2019s use of shapes and color. Given that Hunt\u2019s entire life is comprised of a collection of beautiful puzzle pieces that fit together to make something exquisite, it makes sense that his art would imitate life in its strategy of combining a vivid color palette with a creative use of shapes. \u00a0A strategy that highlights Hunt\u2019s ability to create art that is alive \u2013 art that feels as if it\u2019s about to jump off the canvas. \u00a0Each painting tells a story and the story looks a little different to each person who sees it – much like 3D jigsaw puzzles \u2013 it\u2019s all about perspective. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
In fact, when asked about the heavy Picasso influence seen in his art, Hunt unapologetically responded \u201cNot only did I borrow it, but I fully subscribe to his philosophy. In fact, good artists borrow and great artists steal.\u201d While the Picasso influence, particularly the Synthetic Cubism phase, can be seen throughout Hunt\u2019s entire body of work, there is no question that the Picasso inspired works such as <\/span>Miss Spirit Cotton<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Blues Lover<\/span><\/i>, and <\/span>Wrote Me a Letter<\/span><\/i> are \u00a0jigsaw puzzles inspired by a colorful life. They are works inspired by a life filled with blues music, unique experiences, and a lively cast of characters also known as the friends, family, and acquaintances who make up the fabric of Hunt\u2019s story. Inspired by African Art, Picasso along with Georges Braque developed two forms of cubism \u2013 Analytical and Synthetic. \u00a0Synthetic cubism consists of simpler shapes and brighter colors much like many of the works in Hunt\u2019s portfolio. However, a heavy Romare Bearden influence can be seen in Hunt\u2019s work as well. \u00a0Bearden also drew on cubist inspiration to tell the stories of black culture.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
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Like Picasso, Hunt\u2019s love for art began at an early age. After a stint as a water boy in the sugar cane fields as a young child, Hunt vowed that he would never subject himself to the heat and miserable labor found in the cane fields of Louisiana. His mother who worked in the fields and his grandmother a domestic accepted this decision and made sure he had art supplies to occupy his time. They often brought magazines from the \u201cmain house\u201d as well, and it was a<\/span> LIFE<\/span><\/i> magazine with Picasso on the cover that would change the trajectory of his life.\u00a0 Unlike Picasso, though, who lived as a full-time artist, Hunt was a high school art teacher and football coach at Memphis\u2019 George Washington Carver High School for more than 30 years before retiring to be a full-time artist. However, art was always an integral part of his journey through the years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\"\"Hunt came of age during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. Having spent most of his childhood in Hot Springs, AR, he didn\u2019t quite feel the challenges of the times in the same way black folks in the south felt them. His K-12 years were spent in segregated schools; however, in an effort to mend the subtle fractures that existed in race relations even in Hot Springs, he often went over to the white high school for early morning workouts before school. He would often compete against those students in an informal setting in the weight room, etc. \u00a0but their respective teams never played each other in any official school games. Looking back, Hunt suspects that it was likely his superior athletic record more than anything else that made his morning visits relatively uneventful.\u00a0 Hunt would go on to set a record for the 400-meter run that stood for seventeen years before it was broken. Hot Springs, AR was the Las Vegas of the times. Athletes from all over came there to enjoy the medicinal properties of the spring. It was the mecca of gambling, mobsters were still a thing, and the city was fairly open-minded in terms of racial mixing. It would be the years in Hot Springs, AR that would shape much of Hunt\u2019s life and art.<\/span><\/p>\n
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I Am A Man #1, George Hunt<\/p><\/div>\n
One of his most powerful pieces highlight the Civil Rights Movement. One of those is the <\/span>I Am A Man<\/span><\/i> series. Renown Memphis civil rights photographer, Ernest Withers, is often credited with spurring the Civil Rights Movement with his photos of the Emmett Till trial.\u00a0\u00a0 Almost 15 years later, when Memphis sanitation workers went on strike in 1968 because of horrendous working conditions and poor pay, it was Withers who captured the essence of that moment \u2013 a large group of well -dressed workers carrying \u201cI\u2019m a Man\u2019 signs. The images resonated with Hunt and perhaps even reminded him of the men who molded him during his childhood years. The Memphis workers, for Hunt, were yet another symbol of the \u201cmythic heroism of Black manhood.\u201d \u00a0Hunt himself even fits the bill of the mythic hero. \u00a0The images in that series still sell today \u2013 a couple of them for more than five thousand dollars. There are so many memorable experiences that create the puzzle pieces of Hunt\u2019s life.<\/span><\/p>\n
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Down, George Hunt<\/p><\/div>\n
An experience Hunt credits as being one of the most memorable of his entire career was when First Lady Hillary Clinton asked if his commissioned work <\/span>America Cares\/Little Rock Nine<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/span> could hang in the White House before moving on to its forever home. When asked about the experience, Hunt reflected, \u201cBeing invited to the White House and going there to see my work was the pinnacle of my career. Mrs. Clinton wrote a thank you note that has stayed with me. She told me that the work was extremely inspiring to her and her staff and had a very powerful impact on them.\u201d Just under 10 years later, the work would become an image on a U.S postage stamp. The other experience that had a tremendous impact on Hunt was his time working part time as a driver. Hotels hired drivers to bring truckers back and forth to shower and eat between jobs. While waiting, Hunt would sketch images. One night, a trucker saw him sketching a portrait of Elvis and asked if it was for sale. Hunt told him it was and that it would be five dollars. The trucker purchased it without hesitation, and at that moment, Hunt connected income with art.\u00a0 He realized truckers loved Elvis and would casually leave his pictures on the seat or the dashboard and they sold like hotcakes. He did paintings as gifts for friends and family members, but still would not work full-time as an artist for many, many years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Community activism and politics are pieces of the puzzle also necessary for the jigsaw puzzle of Hunt\u2019s life.\u00a0 \u00a0In the late 60s, Hunt ran a community center in a black neighborhood not far from George Washington Carver High School.\u00a0 While there, he had a couple of lively run ins with the Invaders, a local version of the Black Panthers.\u00a0 Hunt put the Invaders out of the community center for rude\/disrespectful behavior, and it is said that the FBI visited Hunt and told him an Invaders informant had told them plans were being made to kill Hunt. The story goes that he was offered a gun for protection, refused it, and paid the Invaders a visit to address the matter. Nothing more was heard about it after that visit.\u00a0 Here we have yet another fascinating section of this complex jigsaw puzzle also known as Hunt\u2019s life.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
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The passage, George Hunt<\/p><\/div>\n
Not long after the incident with the Invaders, Hunt was recruited to be a part of Martin Luther King\u2019s Poor People\u2019s Campaign \u2013 Headquartered in Memphis, TN. \u00a0The goal of this initiative was to get people to Washington for a national protest of conditions in small, southern towns that kept blacks caught up in the vicious cycle of poverty. Hunt and a friend of his were recruited to be a part of that effort. Another fragment of Hunt\u2019s jigsaw puzzle-esque life is the day he and his co-worker learned that Dr. King had been shot and taken to a downtown Memphis hospital. Because they were well-dressed Black men, it was assumed that they were a part of King\u2019s entourage and thus they were permitted to go back with the rest of King\u2019s team. As a result, they were present when the surgeon delivered the unfortunate news of King\u2019s passing. A few days later, Hunt was asked to help move King\u2019s casket onto the plane Bobby Kennedy sent to Memphis to retrieve his body for transport to Atlanta, GA. It would be moments like these that would continue to shape Hunt\u2019s love for the Civil Rights Movement. While his years in Hot Springs, AR shielded him from many of the first-hand horrors of what was happening in the South, it would be his years as a young educator that would give him a front row\/inside seat to the inner workings (and pain) of the Movement. \u00a0More pieces for the puzzle.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Hunt has also served as a mentor for many artists. Artist and founder of Black Art in America (BAIA), Najee Dorsey credits Hunt for giving him direction early in his career. When deciding where he and his wife, Seteria, also an artist, would settle and base their operations, they were torn between New Orleans and Atlanta.\u00a0 Hunt suggested that Atlanta would be a great base for an artist\/art dealer. Many years later, Dorsey still believes Hunt\u2019s advice was spot on. He says, \u201cAtlanta has definitely proven to be a great base for business, but we have more collectors in New Orleans because the appreciation for art is just different there\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
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Congo Square, George Hunt<\/p><\/div>\n
Blues, often considered \u201cthe bastard child of the music world\u201d, is referred to in more politically correct circles as \u201cAmerica\u2019s indigenous music.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0Congress, in an effort to raise awareness, dubbed 2003 as the \u201cyear of the blues\u201d and Hunt was named as the official artist for that project. The title work would later be on display at Radio City Music Hall. \u00a0Hunt\u2019s love for the Civil Rights Movement, the southern African American experience, and the beauty of black women can be seen throughout his work, but it\u2019s his passion for blues music that really tells his story.\u00a0 The passion resonates in his art; his art is a visual representation of the blues music and culture he first fell in love with as a child.\u00a0 Hunt credits his love of music to his grandfather and uncle with whom he frequented juke joints as a child. This love, not only for the experiences inside the juke joints and caf\u00e9s, but the fondness with which he speaks of his grandfather and uncles speak to the notion of the \u201cmythic heroism of Black manhood\u201d seen in his work. The mythic hero is typically described as courageous, skilled, wounded, destined and often one of divine ancestry with superhuman courage. Ain\u2019t no myth here. The black man fits this bill in every way. Even now, over 65 years later when he speaks about the men in his life and the blues artists he grew to love like Skip James, Muddy Waters, and John Lee Hooker, the names are spoken with a youthful respect and reverence along with a slight twinkle in his eye.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
We eagerly await the reveal of the 2020 collectible poster for this year\u2019s Beale Street Music Festival. And even on year 28, we know for sure that it will be yet another intricate piece added to the puzzle. We\u2019ll keep watching the puzzle expand as the next generation of artists and creatives inspired by the likes of Dorsey, Bearden, Hunt and Picasso make their mark on the world.<\/span><\/p>\n
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Dr. S. Alexis Anderson graduated from Bennett College with her B.A in English, has her M.A in Technical & Professional Writing from Georgia State University, and a PhD in Rhetoric and Composition-also from GSU. She is the Head Sista In Charge (HSIC) at her company – Get It Write Consulting and also serves as the Executive Director at one of only two historically black theatres in the state of Georgia – The Liberty Theatre & Cultural Center, Inc in Columbus, GA. When she ain\u2019t busy writing or being a servant leader, \u00a0you can find her kickin\u2019 \u00a0it with loved ones, \u00a0listening to good music, sipping Remy VSOP and sprinkling her Black Girl Magic. If you need help getting your words \u00a0together, hit her here:\u00a0info@getitwriteconsulting.com<\/a><\/div>\n
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