EAST WALL MANUSCRIPTS AND LITERATURE

INTRODUCTION TO THE WRITTEN WORD

The liberating sense of humanity and inclusion permeates the Gallery walls. The portraits and scenes of Eastern Shore life go beyond realism or mere representation to achieve a creative, truthful documentation evoking the dignity of unique individuals who possess an inherent dignity and a rich interior life eschewed racist stereotypes and exaggerated gestures. The art visualizes people and cultures that calmly existed beyond America’s white mainstream with a subtlety, positivity, and documentary quality unmatched by other contemporaries.

In the artist’s personal papers: preparatory sketches, print takes, correspondence, and written notes; much more is revealed than was heretofore known about the creative process and struggle with societal  restrictions of the time. The creation and survival of a collection such as this, backed up with preparatory sketches, notes, and letters to colleagues, represents a remarkable telling of the story of early black life on the Eastern Shore.

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