Horace Pippin

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Horace Pippin (February 22, 1888 – July 6, 1946) was a self-taught African-American painter.

In several of his works, the injustice of slavery and American segregation figure prominently. At 327 Gay Street, West Chester, Pennsylvania, a Pennsylvania State historical Marker was placed to celebrate his accomplishments and state his home where he lived at the time of his death.

Early life

He was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, on February 22, 1888, to Harriet Pippin; his father's name is unknown. He grew up in and around Goshen, New York, but in adulthood, he would return to West Chester. He attended segregated schools in Goshen until he was 15, when he returned to work to help his ailing mother. Horace responded to an art supply company's advertisement competition as a youth and obtained his first set of crayons and a box of watercolors. Pippin, a youngster, drew sketches of racehorses and jockeys from Goshen's legendary racetrack. Pippin served as a hotel porter, a furniture packer, and an iron moulder before his war service. He was a member of St. John's African Union Methodist Protestant Church. In 1920, Pippin married Jennie Fetherstone Giles, who had been widowed twice and had had a six-year-son.

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Career

Pippin took up art in the 1920s, partially to repair his fractured arm, and he began painting on stretched fabric in 1930. The Ending of the War: Starting Home. "The photographs that I have already painted came to me in my mind, and if it is a worthwhile picture, I paint it," he continued. He addressed a variety of topics, from landscapes and still lifes to biblical topics and political statements. Some are based on his personal account of the war or turn-of-the-century domestic life.

He was "discovered" when he submitted two paintings to a local art show, the Chester County Art Association's (CCAA) Annual Exhibition, apparently with the help and support of several locals, including CCAA co-founders art critic Christian Brinton and artist N.C. Wyeth. Brinton immediately organized a solo exhibition, cosponsored by the CCAA and the interracial West Chester Community Center, bringing together MoMA curators Dorothy Miller and Holger Cahill and Philadelphia collector Albert C. Barnes. In the spring 1940 semester, Pippin took art appreciation classes at the Barnes Foundation. Carlen, Barnes, and, beginning in 1941, dealer Edith Gregor Halpert played a key role in Pippin's career.

Pippin's fame soared exponentially across the country and internationally during the eight years since his national debut in the Museum of Modern Art's traveling exhibition "Masters of Popular Painting" (1938) and his death at the age of fifty-eight. He had solo exhibitions in commercial galleries in Philadelphia (1940, 1941) and New York (1940, 1944), as well as the Arts Club of Chicago (1941) and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1942). His works were purchased by private collections and museums such as the Barnes Foundation, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. His paintings were included in annual or biennial exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Carnegie Institute of the Fine Arts, Pittsburgh, PA; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, D.C.; and the National Gallery of Art, Newark, NJ; and the Tate Gallery, London, UK.

Alain Locke's catalogue referred to Pippin as "a true and rare genius, combining folk quality with artistic maturity in a way that threatens categation."

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