I am trying to learn about the history of African-American art in order to better understand the work of many talented artists of color. There’s a lot I have to learn, but this one point really comes through loud and clear. One of the most important ways of ending the perpetual cycle of inequity is to make sure to represent people of color in every medium, in every realm and sector of society. Art is one powerful tool towards that end. Margaret Burroughs was very focused on that goal, especially with regard to children.
“Artist Margaret Taylor Goss Burroughs used her art to make the statement that skin color is a greatly over-emphasized minor difference among people. She dealt with the divide between white and black by bridging it. Her main themes reflect family, community, and history. Margaret Taylor Goss Burroughs’ paintings often depict black and white people together, or people with half-white, half-black faces. Artist Margaret Taylor Goss Burroughs was also a teacher, a community activist, a poet, a writer, and the founder of a community center, a museum, and Chicago’s Lake Meadows Art Fair.”
“An article published by The Art Institute of Chicago described Burroughs’ Birthday Party and said: “Through her career, as both a visual artist and a writer, she has often chosen themes concerning family, community, and history. ‘Art is communication,’ she has said. ‘I wish my art to speak not only for my people – but for all humanity.’ This aim is achieved in Birthday Party, in which both black and white children dance, while mothers cut cake in a quintessential image of neighbors and family enjoying a special day together.”[14] The painting puts in visual form Burroughs’ philosophy that “the color of skin is a minor difference among men which has been stretched beyond its importance.”[15]”
Today’s prints are a couple of Burroughs’ works which are simple in terms of meaning, and lovely and simple in terms of taking them in.
Birthday party (Linocut, 1957) and Hopscotch (Linocut, 1991)
