Left: “Peace,” 1969 by Lou Stovall. Photograph courtesy of Phillips Collection. Right: Lou Stovall. Photograph courtesy of Stovall Family.

When Sam Gilliam died last year, it was a huge loss for the art world. That was followed, in March, by the death of Lou Stovall, and a few years back we also lost David C. Driskell, a world­renowned artist and scholar. In addition to their enormous impact, these three men shared another notable trait: They were all not just artists, but Black artists, and they all lived and worked in our area.

Black art has long been a major force in Washington. Long before downtown galleries and national museums welcomed artists of color, African American painters, sculptors, and crafters were making distinctive and significant work around the city. What follows is a look back at the last century of Black art in DC, or at least a small fraction. To truly display its breadth and influence, you would need to build a whole museum—which sounds like a good idea to us!

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Eight Great Artworks by Black DC Artists

Two experts share their favorite art pieces

How do you capture the huge variety of notable work by DC’s Black artists? We asked a couple of experts for some picks: Adrienne L. Childs, an art historian and adjunct curator at the Phillips Collection, and Jeffrey C. Stewart, a Pulitzer Prize–winning author and Black-studies professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Adrienne L. Childs’s Picks

1. “She captures the essence of Washington’s explosion of springtime flowers in her signature abstract aesthetic.”

2. “Stout’s magical installations reveal how spirit and memory is contained in everyday objects.”

3. “I love the way ‘Wives of Sango’ speaks to the spirit of the Black Arts Movement in real time.”

4. “It beautifully speaks to the unspeakable horror of the Emmett Till story through a reference to Christian themes.”

Jeffrey C. Stewart’s Picks

1. “It is much more than a tool—it is some graceful, mysterious being easing across the floor.”

2. “Our finest portrait of W.E.B. Du Bois—one that exemplified Scurlock’s mastery of light and mood.”

3. “It was Jones who read the African tradition as an aesthetic and had the artistic ability to translate it into works of art that became icons of Black consciousness in the 1960s and 1970s.”

4. “Spectacular color and design characterized Stovall’s printmaking, no better embodied than in the uplifting beauty of ‘Breathing Hope.’ ”

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An Eventful Century

A look back at over a 100 years of Black art in DC

• 1921

  James Herring, an artist and professor, launches Howard University’s art department. In 1943, he’ll open DC’s Barnett-Aden Gallery, the country’s first Black-owned art gallery.

• 1922

  Thomas W. Hunster retires as director of drawing for African American public schools. For almost 50 years, he taught art skills to kids in DC’s segregated schools.

• 1924

  

  Alma Thomas is the first graduate of Howard’s art department. She’ll go on to a long painting and teaching career, making her one of DC’s most notable art figures.

• 1943

  

  
  James A. Porter, who attended and then taught at Howard, publishes the book Modern Negro Art. He’s considered the first Black art historian.

• 1948

  Loïs Mailou Jones and Celine Tabary launch the Little Paris Studio, an important gathering for DC’s Black artists.

• 1961

  DC public-­school art teachers found the DC Art Association. It soon becomes a significant force in community arts education.

• 1965

  A group of like-minded artists adopt the name Washington Color School. Sam Gilliam and Kenneth Young are among the Black artists later associated with it.

• 1967

  

  John Kinard serves as the first director of the new Anacostia Neighborhood Museum. A crucial cultural institution east of the Anacostia River, it eventually becomes known as the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum.

• 1967

  

  Sam Gilliam’s first-ever museum exhibit opens at the Phillips. The museum is also the first to acquire one of his works: “Red Petals.”

• 1969

  

  Artist Ed Love—soon to be known for his large metal sculptures—begins his influential teaching stint at Howard University.

• 1970

  Jeff Donaldson becomes chair of Howard’s art department. He’d recently cofounded AfriCOBRA (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists) in Chicago—a key group in the Black Arts Movement, which advocated Black consciousness and autonomy.

• 1974

  The Duke Ellington School of the Arts opens. As the city’s arts-focused public high school, it has since educated generations of talented Washingtonians.

• 1976

  

  Larry Neal, a significant figure in the Black Arts Movement, is named executive director of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

• 1989

  Richard Powell curates the group show “From the Potomac to the Anacostia” at Washington Project for the Arts.

• 1996

  

  The White House acquires a painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner, the first work by a Black artist in its permanent collection.

• 2001

  

  David C. Driskell founds a center at the University of Maryland to study and promote African American art. Driskell, who died in 2020, was one of the country’s most important scholars of Black art.

• 2003

  

  The National Gallery of Art puts on a major retrospective of work by Romare Bearden, one of America’s most significant artists of color.

• 2014

  The Corcoran Gallery of Art shuts down. Its collection—which includes significant work by many Black artists—is later acquired by various other DC museums.

• 2016

  

  The National Museum of African American History & Culture opens, immediately becoming one of Washington’s most essential institutions.

• 2023

  

  On March 3, Lou Stovall dies at age 86. The artist and printmaker (below left) was one of DC’s key art figures, and his studio, Workshop Inc., a longtime hub for creators.

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Further Reading

Washington Art Matters: Art Life in the Capital 1940–1990 By Jean Lawlor Cohen, Elizabeth Tebow, and Sidney Lawrence

The Washington Arts Museum—a now-defunct group devoted to local artists—put together this history and rallying cry.

Art in Washington and its Afro-American presence: 1940–1970 By Keith Morrison

This book grew out of a groundbreaking exhibit that the author curated. It’s no longer in print, but you can get it from the DC library.

Beauty Born of Struggle: The Art of Black Washington Edited by Jeffrey C. Stewart

An essay collection that started with a 2017 panel discussion at the National Gallery of Art featuring the likes of Sam Gilliam and David C. Driskell.

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Sam Gilliam’s Evolution

Ask a random stranger to name a famous DC artist, and Sam Gilliam will very often be the response. Though he grew up mostly in Louisville, Kentucky, Gilliam was closely associated with Washington, living here from the early ’60s until his death in 2022. His work is hard to categorize. “He was an experimenter—changing, always evolving,” says Phillips Collection director Jonathan Binstock, who has previously overseen Gilliam exhibits. “He was an incredibly innovative artist, so it’s difficult to say what kind of art he made.” Here’s a quick look at just three of Gilliam’s styles of work.

Color Field Paintings

Inspired by Washington Color Field painter Thomas Downing, Gilliam’s bold early work has clean lines and vivid hues. A great example is his 1965 painting “Shoot Six,” which you can see at the National Gallery of Art.

Drape Paintings

His most famous innovation is these three-dimensional hanging works, which broke painting out of its frame and proved hugely influential. “Light Depth,” from 1969, is at the Hirshhorn.

Black Paintings

In 1975, Gilliam moved away from the drape paintings (though he’d later return to them). For a time, he focused on complex, dark-hued work like 1978’s “Rail,” now at the Hirshhorn. But he didn’t stay still for long: Gilliam continued experimenting with new techniques for the rest of his life.

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Six Emerging Black Artists in DC

Black art isn’t just about history: It continues to thrive in this area. We asked three local curators to each choose an up-and-coming artist whose work you should look out for.

Curator: Adrian Ferguson, owner of Art of Noize

Ferguson has been creating and selling art since he was a kid. He runs a gallery and studio space in Petworth.

Emerging artist: Maurice James Jr.

“I describe his work as Black pop art,” says Ferguson. “He reimagines popular TV, music, and images we’ve grown up with and puts an African American spin on them.”

Curator: Asantewa Boakyewa, deputy director of the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum

Boakyewa has spent 15 years focusing on contemporary art and Black history and culture at museums and universities.

Emerging artist: Adrienne Gaither

“Gaither has a mural that’s permanent in our museum,” says Boakyewa. “She works in geometric shapes and is very interested in color.”

Curator: Maleke Glee, director of Stable Arts

A writer, curator, and adjunct professor at Bowie State University, Glee studies Black contemporary art and vernacular cultures, among other things.

Emerging artist: Larry W. Cook

“He started as a [music] club photographer,” says Glee, “but now he’s been acquired by museums and other institutions. He continues to highlight the go-go community in his practice.”

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Four DC Galleries to Visit

Four local spots fostering today’s Black art scene

11:Eleven Gallery

10 Florida Ave., NW

Owner Nicola Charles grew up in London, and her DC gallery has an international perspective.

Art of Noize

821 Upshur St., NW (second floor rear)

Since 2017, it’s been a gathering spot for DC’s creative community, offering not just a gallery but also studio and event space.

Homme Gallery

2000 L St., NW; 52 O St., NW

Run by DC native Amir Browder, it supports emerging and underground photographers, clothing designers, and visual artists.

Mehari Sequar Gallery

1402 H St., NE

Owner Sequar emphasizes representation, with most exhibitions featuring female artists of the African diaspora.

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Photograph courtesy of Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Photograph courtesy of Estate of David C. Driskell.
Photograph courtesy of Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Photograph courtesy of Jameela K. Donaldson.
Photograph courtesy of National Gallery of Art.
Photograph courtesy of National Gallery of Art.
Photograph of Adrian Ferguson courtesy of artist.
Photograph of Maurice James Jr. courtesy of artist.
Photograph of Asantewa Boakyewa courtesy of artist.
Photograph of Adrienne Gaither by Mariah Miranda.
Photograph of Maleke Glee by Beverly Price.
Photograph of Larry W. Cook courtesy of artist.
This article appears in the June 2023 issue of Washingtonian.

Briana A. Thomas is a local journalist, historian, and tour guide who specializes in the research of D.C. history and culture. She is the author of the Black history book, Black Broadway in Washington, D.C., a story that was first published in Washingtonian in 2016.

For the past eight years, Erin Turner has been working to help restore Ed Galloway’s Totem Pole Park near Foyil. 

In August, Turner will host a workshop and lecture series at the historic park that Ed Galloway created in the late 1940s as a roadside attraction along Route 66. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.

Each day will focus on a different theme: Totem Pole Parks and Monumentality; Historical Backdrop and Cultural Appropriation; Photography and the Archive; and Art, Public Space and Roadside Attractions. These themes will be developed through short readings, group discussions, hands-on restoration of physical artworks, and guest lectures. 

Workshop Dates

• Session 1: Aug. 1-4, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
• Session 2: Aug. 16-19, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Participants can attend the entire 4-day program or a single day. The cost is $60 and there will be daily shuttle service from Tulsa. 

There also will be two lectures that are free and open to the public. The first will be on Aug. 6 at Will Rogers Memorial in Claremore. There will be a second lecture in Tulsa on Aug. 20 at Center for Public Secrets. Both events will be moderated by Pablo Barrera, associate curator at Oklahoma Contemporary.

More details on the workshops and lecture series can be found here. 

Turner is a University of Tulsa graduate and works as a site-specific installation artist who is interested in land-based practices, preservation, and collaboration.

She took part in a Q&A by email to further discuss her work on the Ed Galloway Totem Pole Park and share additional info on the workshops and lecture series. 

You mentioned you’ve spent the last eight years working on restoring Ed Galloway Totem Pole Park. What is it about this project that drew you in and why is it important to restore it? 

I am an artist, and began my career as an oil painter. I later focused much of my artistic production on sculptural installations. When I first visited Ed Galloway Totem Pole Park, I was drawn in to the marriage of my first two loves: painting and sculpture. I was enamored by the scale and the knowledge that Ed Galloway had single-handedly built this park during his retirement from primarily found materials: house paint that neighbors no longer needed, sand that was collected from a creek in the backside of the property where the park sits, old bailing wire and telephone wire that acts as structural support for the concrete, and field stones.

There is something so uniquely Oklahoma about this park, and something that is truly exemplary as an artistic feat.

I was first drawn in by the artist, by imagining Ed Galloway creating what he considered a monument to the American Indian. I found it to be really extraordinary that during this era a white man had decided to dedicate the last 25 years of his life to create a massive work in reverence to the American Indian. This was the jumping-off point for me.

Since then I have continued to develop more reverence to the artistic devotion of such a monumental work, but also to continue to question what made Ed Galloway create this park, why a totem pole park in the middle of Oklahoma, and what all this means to the larger narrative of Oklahoma, of art environments, of national perceptions of the American Indian, and of the history of Native representation found all over Oklahoma (and obviously beyond). 

During my first visit to the park, very nonchalantly, I was told that the park’s director, David Anderson, was looking for someone to restore the paint on the large totem. As a young artist this was my dream job; researching the best procedures of how to restore a historical concrete art environment, learning concrete repair techniques, and working with archives to rebuild the facades.

The first year I worked with a dear friend, Margo Hoover, to research the best measures, develop a budget, and execute. We worked together the first year, and I have continued the project since. In more recent years I have been grateful to have continued help from my partner Giovanni Montoya, and some help from Heather Valenzuela, Lily Möhn, and Taylor Weigant. 

Since initiating this project I have become a part of the Network of Artist Built Environments, which is a group of site stewards from all over the country. This site, the Ed Galloway Totem Pole Park, is an incredible example of grassroots art environments, but I also think it is an important site in the growing concern with how to better interpret monuments, and especially when trying to interpret conflating histories.

I think we have a really important job to do, as well as opportunity, in critically thinking about this site and in how Oklahoma history, art history, and Native history are communicated to the public. I think it is really important to look at the history of these themes and consider how Native appropriation should be discussed and placed into a historical and contemporary context. In my opinion this is a vital component that has been missing in the narrative that surrounds the history of Ed Galloway as a human and as an artist, and in the larger national dialogue about monumentality and acknowledgment. 

How did you learn about the park?

For the last 20 years I have often visited and worked at the Hundred Monkey Ranch, an artist studio and residency in Osage County owned by Kreg and Chris Kallenberger. One of the structures at the ranch is a large barn which housed Kreg Kallenberger’s glass studio.

On his studio walls hang a few large black and white posters of aged photographs of a large conical structure covered with hundreds of animal figures and Native American busts that stands more than triple the size of the trees around it. Another poster depicts a man standing next to a large and intricately carved wooden sculpture wrapped with lizards, snakes, and other reptiles.

I had admired these images for years, imagining their location far away from Oklahoma, and building stories in my mind of what these sculptures were and who had built them. It wasn’t until 2015 that I learned they were located in Foyil, Oklahoma, merely 1.5 hours from the Hundred Monkey Ranch.

It turns out that Chris Kallenberger had curated an exhibition of the first restoration project at the Ed Galloway Totem Pole Park at Philbrook Museum in Tulsa, and these posters had been exhibition copies of old archival images of Ed Galloway and his monumental work. The next day a small group of art enthusiasts set off for Foyil; the tour led by Kreg Kallenberger.

I was born and raised in Tulsa and was educated about Vernacular Art Environments when I was in high school by Richard Bay, one of my art teachers. We had even taken a trip to Lucas, Kansas, to view the concrete art environment called the Garden of Eden and visit the Grassroots Art Center. I was shocked that I had never heard about the Ed Galloway Totem Pole Park, and that I had been raised only an hour away from this site. Most of my friends had never heard of this site, nor had visited it. I found that to be incredibly odd.

When do you hope to complete restoration? 

The Ed Galloway Totem Pole Park is owned and operated by the Rogers County Historical Society, a small nonprofit in Claremore. The operating costs for the park come solely from the sales at the Fiddle House, the museum and gift shop at the Totem Pole Park. It would be great to finish this project, the sooner the better, however funding is always a complication and we have been working slowly because of that. We hope to have the restoration of the Fiddle House (Galloway’s old studio that now is the museum and gift shop) by the end of the summer, and hopefully a small totem, bbq, and picnic table near the gift shop.  

You’re hosting two 4-day workshop sessions at the park in August. What all does that entail and who is the target audience: students, scholars, artists, hobbyists or anyone? Do they need to have experience doing this kind of work? What can people expect if they take part?

This program is designed to engage and educate arts students and arts enthusiasts 16 years or older on Ed Galloway’s Totem Pole Park with the expectation of initiating long-term interest in the site. No experience is necessary, and people from diverse backgrounds are encouraged to join the project.

The series of workshops will give historical and contemporary context to the grassroots art environment that was created by Ed Galloway from the 1930s to the 1950s. We will examine the function and role of monumentality in sculptural form through reading and discussion.

We will also consider how the archive functions in the restoration process of historic structures, as well as the initial use of archives in the original construction of the park. We will look at how tourism on Route 66 has shaped this site, and look at similar artist-built environments in the area.

The majority of the day, participants will have the opportunity to learn restoration techniques through hands-on work learning techniques such as historic stucco repair, injection mortar repair, and painting the facades using silicate paint.

During the workshops, participants will be asked to propose complementary projects that will contribute to the park’s long-term goals. It will be a great opportunity for people who are interested in learning how to work directly with a public facing site such as this sculpture park, those who love hands on work like painting, and also those interested in brainstorming the development of public facing interpretation such as signage, walking tours, and curriculum. 

Each day will focus on a different theme: Totem Pole Parks and Monumentality; Historical Backdrop and Cultural Appropriation; Photography and the Archive; and Art, Public Space, and Roadside Attractions. At the base of all these inquiries we will look at the intricacies of Native representation and cultural appropriation both at the time that the Totem Pole Park was constructed, as well as presently, with the intention of continuing to interpret the park as an art site with criticality and from multiple perspectives.  

You’re also hosting two free lectures in August with various folks involved. What is the goal of these events? 

The goal of the lecture series is two-fold: diversity of perspective and education. By bringing together this group of art and history professionals we will develop a narrative around Native representation that grounds this site in the intricacies of history and the themes of the archive and monument. This aspect of the project intends to acknowledge some of the mechanisms that have shaped the way that people have looked at Native American-themed art in the country. 

The first lecture, taking place in Claremore on August 6 at the Will Rogers Memorial Museum Auditorium, will create the foundation of this dialogue. We will discuss the Indian New Deal Totem Pole Restoration that was happening in Alaska between 1938 and 1942, which may have been a contributing factor to the construction of this monumental work. We will discuss Creek history and the history of allotment in Oklahoma and the role that Charles Page played in both land grabs and the Sand Springs Home, giving foundational knowledge about some of the Native policy during the 1930s and 1950s. We will also discuss the history of vernacular art environments and look at examples in the United States and learn how Ed Galloway’s park fits into this genre. 

The second lecture, taking place in Tulsa at the Center for Public Secrets on August 20, will develop a narrative that surrounds some of the more specific visual themes found at the Totem Pole Park: Native representation, monumentality, tourism, and the archive. We will hear from artists, curators, and journalists, working in Oklahoma about how they are presently addressing these themes in their work. We will see the history of Native representation, beginning with the photography of Andrew Curtis and the legacy of the myths surrounding the “vanishing Native” that have plagued the country for over a century. We will also look at the role that tourism has played in Native representation, and hear about the impacts on Native communities that straddle Route 66. We will look at monumentality as a theme specifically as it relates to memorializing marginalized populations, and how we can better think about how to uplift the communities that these monuments seek to commemorate.  

We will later use the dialogue of these conversations to create a publication that will be available to the public. This document will also contribute to further developing ideas for walking tours and other curriculum and public facing interpretation at the park as a means of education. The intent is to ground the site in history by acknowledging the mechanisms that have shaped the way that people have viewed Native America in Oklahoma and in the country, and how this site can serve as a case study for vernacular art environments and other monuments grappling with complicated and overlapping histories. 

Anything else you’d like to add? 

Please visit the website to apply for the workshops. We really hope to see as many people come out as possible. It is important to register, as there are only a certain number of seats available during the workshops. If anyone has knowledge about the specific themes or is an artist working with these themes, I would especially love to have a conversation with them and consider them for other aspects of this project. Please get in touch with me via email: eturnerinstal@gmail.com

This project is funded large in part by the Oklahoma Historical Society through their Oklahoma Heritage Preservation Grant, and with a couple generous donations from Steve Sanders and Mary Macmahon. If someone would like to donate, we are looking for lunches to be donated for the workshop dates, and refreshments for the lecture series.  

Artist Statement:

My practice is diverse in form and content, however there is a prevailing conversation about the perception of the pan-American landscape in all of my work; a dialogue between the imagery and symbolism representing the land and the societal standards that are involved in placemaking. Public perceptions converge with personal inquiries. I dialogue and collaborate with counter histories, challenge preconceptions, and indulge plurality. Themes such as time, location, perspective, memory, landscape, and material are found throughout my work. Deep reverence to indigenous peoples is a through-line, always coupled with unearthing harrowing histories as a form of acknowledgment and respect. Participation with the natural environment, awareness of a changing climate (and therefore human relationships to landscape) and the politics that control nature are opposing forces I continue to probe in my work. 

I have continued to imagine and consider how the totem as a form became the subject of a grassroots art environment in Oklahoma in the 1930s. I consider the Totem Pole Park as a monument and as an archive. Looking at the manner in which the Native American figure has been utilized to create the facade of the totems (over 200 bas-relief busts and figures), I theorize about what photographic ephemera and government programs Ed Galloway would have had contact with during his life as he contemplated and designed this park. I am interested in the history and mythology of Native representation, the politics that shape the archives that Ed Galloway would have used (think Andrew Edward Curtis and beyond), and the mechanisms in which cultural appropriation has fueled the many facets of past and contemporary society. With this project I consider how necessary it is to generate dialogue and conversation with a variety of Native voices that can speak from their specific place within this history, and how collectively this site can be better interpreted for the ten thousand plus visitors who come to the site annually. It is my goal to center the Native perspective in Northeastern Oklahoma while contextualizing this park within its historic and artistic placement.