Artist Felrath Hines (American, 1913–1993)
Title Study for Peacock
Date Ca. 1989
Medium Graphite on graph paper
Dimensions Image: 20 1/4 x 18 1/4 in. (51.4 x 46.4 cm)
Sheet: 24 x 21 15/16 in. (61 x 55.7 cm)
Credit Line Gift of the wife of the artist, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University
Accession Number 2009.30
About this Work
Born in Indianapolis, Felrath Hines was active in the Civil Rights movement and participated in Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, March on Washington on August 28, 1963. Hines joined a club of sixteen African American artists called the Spiral Group, which was formed by Romare Bearden in 1963. It was around this time that Hines became labeled as a “black” artist, an epithet that he neither expected nor liked. While not opposed to participating in exhibitions of African American artists, Hines wanted his imagery to remain universal and not to be seen as having relevance exclusively to black social causes or to African Americans. As a result, in 1971 he refused to participate in the Whitney Museum of Art’s exhibition Contemporary Black Artists in America.
By focusing on nonrepresentational subject matter and harmoniously balanced shapes and colors, Hines hoped to create works that held a conceptual meaning. As he remarked, “an artist’s work is to rearrange everyday phenomena so as to enlarge our perception of who we are and what goes on about us.” Hines intended his imagery to be absorbed visually, mentally, and spiritually by all people regardless of gender, ethnicity, or race. There is a peacefulness and optimism in his luminous, tranquil works, which belie the period’s social turmoil. This study relates to a pastel drawing also in the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art's collection (Eskenazi Museum of Art 2009.29).
