SherryArt: Paintings by Sherry Miller Sausalito Artist

Henry Ossawa Tanner - African American Artist

Henry Ossawa Tanner is a world-famous "Negro" artist almost unknown in his native America. I'm publishing this story in acknowledgment of Martin Luther King Day, 2010.

 

Why isn't Henry Ossawa Tanner a household name?  He is a major American artist with an international reputation. Is he relatively unknown here because he is an African American?  He has been acclaimed among black leaders including Booker T. Washington, Edward Bannister, and W.E.B. DuBois.  Tanner's solid accomplishments in painting and his illustrious family history, together with their relative exclusion from American arts and letters, make a strong argument for multiculturalism - in this case the inclusion of non-white-male artists in the canons of our books and universities.

"The Banjo Lesson"  Henry Ossawa Tanner 1893

New Year's Letter for 2009

The greatest thing about this year has been turning 70 (as in 70 years old) and discovering that I can only live in the present. Remembering all the past decades, in broad strokes or small details, is exhausting.  I cannot look at all the things I've done or things that have happened without feeling the fatigue and effort I must have expended although I probably wasn't even conscious of doing a lot. Everything must have come naturally at the time, but looking back from this vantage point exhausts me, so I don't do it.

Looking to the future has been rendered impossible because so many friends, family and acquaintances have already passed on that I feel I have to live today because who knows what will happen tomorrow. On New Year's Eve I wore three beautiful handmade silver and gemstone necklaces. Most of the friends at my dinner asked why I was wearing all three necklaces and were shocked when I said "Well I'll wear them all now because who knows if  I'll have a chance to wear each one in years to come."