MS01.03.03 - Box 07 - Folder 02 - Introspectives - Correspondence with Artists, 1987-1988, Part 1

[HANDWRITTEN]

1/25/87

Dear David,

I hope this letter finds you in good health. I've enclosed a set of slides of current works. Mainly drawings are included. They were done during time I spent at the Maryland Institute College of Art on a Ford Foundation fellowship. I was in the Program at the Graduate School where Leslie King Hammond is the Dean. It was a very good year for me. I got so much done including some new lithographs. Hope to see you soon.

[HANDWRITTEN]

Dear David

1987 was an intense and productive year in the studio. My experimentations with acrylic paint continue to offer surprises and the joy of discovery. Acrylic is the most versatile medium for experimentation. My studio space is relatively small compared to New York studio spaces. I am working in an area of less than a thousand square feet. Acrylic keeps me mobile. Its speed of drying and toughness of surface film allows me to work large scale with the possibility of rolling for storage. Of course, it's more desireable to place each painting in collections rather than roll for storage. At forty-eight years old, I increasingly find that my survival as a painter depends upon my being flexible, mobile, risk and just plain old Southern perseverance.

The death of loved ones, people whom I've respected and admired has resulted in my executing several memorial paintings, paintings meant as dedications to their memory: the painter Norman Lewis, the poet, Bob Kaufman, the painter, Joseph Bevys, the fashion designer Willi Smith, the painter Andy Warhol, the recent suicide of my friend the sculptor Christopher Wilmarth and a 80" x 96" dedication to James Baldwin entitled the [underlined] Black Monolith [/underline]. Death intriques me and I have no answer for it except to continue living. I am aware of the answers offered in religion but my absence of belief only confirms my lust for life.

Michael Brenson, art critic for the [underlined] N.Y. Times [/underline], wrote an article on Martin Puryear for the [underlined] N.Y. Times Magazine [/underline]. He spoke specifically of black artists' involvement with memory.

I have always accepted memory as being one of the most powerful elements of human consciousness. Through memory we reconstruct our past, we honor the dead through memory. I have read that the ancient Africans placed large significance upon ancestor worship. Is it possible that Brenson has touched upon an important link within modern black sensibility?

David, I would like very much for you to visit my studio upon your next trip to New York. I am interested in your professional critique of my work. Your essay for the announcement of my exhibition at Onyx will always remain dear to me.

Peg Alston called and told me of the Japanese buyers' interest in my work. I hope that she is successful in selling a piece for me. The expense of living and working in New York is becoming increasingly difficult for the artist. Sometimes I take refuge in reading Van Gogh's book of letters to his Brother Theo. Art must be the universal whore for she takes all that I have! I hope that all is well with you and Happy New Year.

Sincerely,

[HANDWRITTEN]

22 June 88

Dear David,

Thanks for including me in "Introspective: Contemporary Art by Americans & Brazilians of African Descent." It is a very good theme and I am sure that you will select a powerful exhibition.

I am sending three recent slides, a resume and catalogue of my Studio Museum show. I do not have a recent photo but I am pleased with Fern Logan's photo which is reproduced in the Museum's catalogue. The Studio Museum should have the negative of this photo or print.

A phone number for my summer residence is a problem but my address is:

AGHIA GALINI IRAKLION, CRETE GREECE, 74056

David, these new paintings are very dense, physical, made of acrylic skins which are applied as collage. I would like for you to see them; the slides are o.k. but do not give the intensity of structure.

I am leaving for the summer next week and shall return 5th Sept. Good luck on the show.

Love,

[EMBOSSED STATIONERY PAPER WITH WHITE CLOUDS/BLUE SKY BACKGROUND; FAR RIGHT-HAND CORNER IS AN CARTOON ILLUSTRATION OF DUCK & A BEAR RIDING A SAILBOAT]

[HANDWRITTEN]

July 4, 1988

Dear David:

I may not have included here exactly what you wanted, but I am sending something and I will follow up later.

Perhaps I could do better on a bio, and there are still other non-objective paintings not included. Even though some of these are blurred & off-center-- I thought that you might like to see these. I'll have [double underscore] slides [/double underscore] of them later.

You may have [double underscore] suggestions [/double underscore] about the pictures of me. If none are usable we can take some more.

I know that you are progressing with the catalog. Thanks for everything.

Best wishes,

Sincerely,

Claude