Assignment: Response to the DuSable Museum of African American History

June 13, 2009

Response to DuSable Museum of African American History

I used to live for the Art Institute right in the center of downtown. For me, it was one of the best things about Chicago. This time, this time, however, I didn’t feel it. Something about the museum didn’t click with me.  I felt the opposite in the small art gallery at the the DuSable Museum of African-American History.

Each picture was strikingly different and each one captured my attention. They were filled with color and emotion, raw and real and fantastic. One showed the bustle of a snowy winter evening, another a street corner, lit by milky, golden street lights. Another was a strong black man staring the viewer down—in the caption, I read that his strength and capability was meant to challenge stereotypes of the typical black man in a servile position. I couldn’t tell you which was painted by who, but I was introduced to the work of William Carter, Charles Dawson, Walter Ellison, Archibald Motley, Jr., Marion Perkins, Augusta Savage, Bernard Goss, Charles Sebree, and Elizabeth Catlett. I learned that Bronzeville, the area just north of me (it encompasses North Kenwood, and I am situated just below Kenwood proper) was the Harlem of Chicago—a place of black artistic and cultural renaissance during the same era in Harlem.

Not only is emotion captured in these pieces, but a shared historical narrative is as well. The cornerstone of the museum is a giant, wood carving illustrating African American History in one interwoven, winding narrative. As our guide pointed out, it is a fantastic teaching tool for history. I saw both familiar stories and new stories in the wooden figures. The room housing the wooden panel was also filled with portraits of American Blacks—historical figures that I had, sadly, never heard about.

One more surprise—on my way out, I stopped by the bathroom. Coming out of the stall and preparing to wash my hands, two paintings on the wall caught my eye. They were amazing and I know that I was floored, though right now, I am not sure exactly what was so magical about them. I liked them just as much as the art I had seen in the displays. Even the bathrooms here, I thought in wonder, have great art.