ABSTRACT
Southern-born African American artists who pursued careers in the South are typically omitted from mainstream art history. Hale Woodruff established the Atlanta University Art Annuals, national juried exhibitions for African American artists. He and his contemporaries created art designed to reclaim African American history, dignify the image of black people, refute denial of black culture, and counter black stereotypes produced by white artists and the press. Roger Rice, born in Crawford, Mississippi, earned the Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts degrees but was promoted for decades by Robert Cargo Folk Art Gallery as a folk artist. Influenced by Albrecht Durer and William Blake, his drawings, prints, and paintings narrate conflict, good versus evil, and the Bible. James Richmond Barthe exhibited with the Harmon Foundation and was collected by the Whitney Museum and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
