One Night at Jimmy's We Saw the Supremes on Color Television (Primary Title)
Willie Anne Wright, American, born 1924 (Artist)
We’re living in an exciting period—a period of change. Value patterns are changing and to me it’s fascinating. —Willie Anne Wright
Of the same generation as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, Wright finished her MFA in painting at Richmond Professional Institute (now Virginia Commonwealth University) in 1964, just as Pop Art began to take hold outside New York. Here Wright quotes Matisse with bold, overlapping floral motifs and a domestic scene, but unlike Matisse’s Parisian interiors, Wright’s setting is distinctly American with a TV as its focal point. When network television converted from black and white to color in 1965, the Supremes were a favorite musical group on The Ed Sullivan Show and other widely viewed programs. A keen observer of popular media and an avid fan of soul music, Wright translates this “period of change” into a singular visual composition.
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