Oh what a night to be a Canvas member!
Local collectors and longtime VMFA patrons Meg and John Gottwald opened their home to Canvas members this May for the group’s annual private collection event. Dr. Leo G. Mazow, Louise B. and J. Harwood Cochrane Curator of American Art, accompanied the group. “There was a strong sense of community that evening at the Gottwalds’ home,” he said. “The Canvas group does so many interesting things. VMFA has brought people together with a shared enthusiasm for art.”
According to Mazow, the Gottwald collection is particularly unique because they acquired close to one-third of the Barnett Aden Gallery’s holdings, the first gallery in the United States operated by African Americans from 1943 to 1969. “In those racially challenging times,” Mazow says, “this gallery was a beacon of cultural light. Meg Gottwald is essentially continuing the mission of James Herring (1898-1969), the founder and chair of Howard University’s Department of Art, and his student Alonzo Aden (1906-1961). Their mission was to create a space for all artists regardless of race and, ultimately, to give a voice to African American artists.”
Meg Gottwald’s story of how she acquired so many prints and drawings belonging to Elizabeth Catlett, one of the key artists featured at the Gallery, could be the makings of a novel because it’s filled with so many twists and turns. “I feel like I was chosen to safeguard this body of work,” says Gottwald of her journey to preserve and share this art with the public again. In fact, Catlett’s resilience and talent enthralled Gottwald so much that she went back to school to earn a graduate degree at Virginia Commonwealth University; her thesis was entitled “I am the Negro Woman: Emerging from the Margins.”
Mazow also notes the work of James Porter, an artist and art critic, in the Gottwald collection. Porter was the first historian of African American art during that time.
“That night was special to me,” explains Mazow. “I felt a sense of belonging with such a diverse group in every way. I enjoyed meeting new people and the enlightened appreciation with kindred spirits.”