• Source: Barnett-Aden Gallery

The Barnett-Aden Gallery was an art gallery in Washington D.C., founded by James V. Herring and Alonzo J. Aden, who were associated with Howard University's art department and gallery. The Barnett-Aden Gallery is recognized as the first successful Black-owned private art gallery in the United States,: 2 
showcasing numerous collectible artists and becoming an important, racially integrated part of the artistic and social worlds of 1940s and 1950s Washington, D.C.




History


The Barnett-Aden Gallery opened on October 16, 1943, on the first floor of 127 Randolph Place, NW, a Victorian townhouse shared by Aden and Herring, who were business and life partners. Herring joined the Howard faculty in 1921, started the university's art department in 1922, chaired the department until his retirement in 1953, and founded the university's gallery of art in 1928 (it opened in 1930). Aden, an art history student of Herring's at Howard, was the first curator of the Howard University Art Gallery and the first director of the Barnett-Aden Gallery. The gallery is named after his mother, Naomi Barnett Aden,: 2  who was a "benefactor." From the outset, Alma Thomas, a former student of Herring's at Howard, served as the gallery's vice president and provided funding, as well as Laura Carson and Dr. and Mrs. Cecil Marquez.
Instead of collecting commissions from artists, Aden and Barnett invited gifts of art from the exhibiting artists; these gifts would become part of the Barnett-Aden Collection.




= Artists represented

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The Barnett-Aden Gallery presented and promoted artists of all backgrounds, particularly African American artists who had limited exhibition opportunities in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. Collectible artists featured at the gallery included Alma Thomas, Elizabeth Catlett, Lois Mailou Jones, Charles White, Edward Mitchell Bannister, Jacob Lawrence, Laura Wheeler Waring, Romare Bearden, Henry O. Tanner, Bernice Cross, Merton Simpson,
Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Jacob Lawrence, and several others.




= Gallery visitors

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Exhibitions, shows, receptions and other events at the Barnett-Aden Gallery provided a racially integrated gathering place for the art community in a segregated city from the 1940s-1960s.
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was photographed visiting the Barnett-Aden Gallery in 1944, as she attended the opening of the Candido Portinari show, along with foreign ambassadors, presidential cabinet members, and local dignitaries. Romare Bearden said that the first time he saw a Matisse in Washington was at the Barnett-Aden. Therese Schwartz wrote that the Barnett-Aden was the most important art gallery in America south of New York.




Closure and legacy


After the sudden death of gallery co-founder Aden in 1961, the gallery began to decline. Herring, Aden's partner, died in 1969, and the gallery closed.
The Barnett-Aden Collection was divided and distributed into three lots: Adolphus Ealey, a former student of Herring's, and a former director of the Barnett-Aden Gallery, received more than 200 paintings; Felton J. Earls, MD, received Herring's books, drawings, and prints; and art collector Cecil Marquez and his wife, who were initial supporters of the gallery, received sculptures from the collection.
In the 1970s, the Barnett-Aden collection was displayed at the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the Museum of Afro-American Culture and History in Philadelphia.
In 1989, Ealey sold his portion of the collection to the Florida Endowment Fund for Higher Education. In 1998, Robert L. Johnson, founder of BET, purchased the collection.
In 2012, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts presented, "Rediscovered Artworks from the Barnett Aden Collection," an exhibition that featured 50 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper from the Collection that were acquired by Margaret and John Gottwald. The VMFA exhibit features the work of 23 artists, including Richmond Barthé, Elizabeth Catlett, David Driskell, Norman Lewis, Charles White, and Hale Woodruff.
In 2015, Johnson donated portions of the collection to the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
In 2017, portions of the Barnett-Aden Collection that were acquired by Margaret and John Gottwald composed the “A Special Kind of Soul” exhibit at the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia.




Exhibitions


During its existence, the Barnett-Aden Galley hosted nearly 200 exhibitions and presented the work of more than 400 artists.




Notes






References






External links


The Historical Records of the Barnett-Aden Gallery, from the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Barnett-Aden Gallery
• Alonzo J. Aden
• Lois Mailou Jones
• Alma Thomas
• Adolphus Ealey
• James V. Herring
• Edward Mitchell Bannister
• Bloomingdale (Washington, D.C.)
• Bernice Cross
• Benjamin Abramowitz