What I Know: Gifts from Gordon W. Bailey
What I Know is an exhibition about knowledge featuring artworks created with a variety of media by Leroy Almon, Thornton Dial, Sam Doyle, Minnie Evans, Josephus Farmer, Roy Ferdinand, Bessie Harvey, Clementine Hunter, Joe Light, Ronald Lockett, Sister Gertrude Morgan, J.B. Murray, Sulton Rogers, Nellie Mae Rowe, Welmon Sharlhorne, Herbert Singleton, and Purvis Young.
The artists’ practices and intentions differ, still, whether moved by divine inspiration, sociopolitical observation, or an indelible memory, all of them imbued their impassioned works with wisdom gleaned from lives well lived, proclaiming: this is What I Know.
The artworks are recent gifts from the collection of advocate, scholar, and collector, Gordon W. Bailey. What I Know is the result of his ongoing collaboration with Crystal Bridges and reflects his decades-long advocacy on behalf of African American artists from the South.
Credit
Sam Doyle, Dr. Crow, ca. 1982-1984, house paint on metal, 45 x 26 1/2 in., Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, Gift of Gordon W. Bailey. Image courtesy of Gordon W. Bailey.