Southern Landscape (Primary Title)
Eldzier Cortor, American, 1916 - 2015 (Artist)
Richmond-born artist Eldzier Cortor recounted seeing homes floating down the Salt River near Shepherdsville, Kentucky, when he drove across the country in 1937. This event inspired a detail in the background of Southern Landscape. A sense of loss is reinforced by the tombstones seen in the middle ground, which resound in the crucifix necklace clutched anxiously by the woman. Her basket contains other personal essentials she was able to save in the moment of crisis: a framed photograph, a book (perhaps a Bible), a jug, and a piece of fruit.
The woman’s loose bunch of anemones, cropped at the bottom of the painting, introduces a time-honored sign of death, suffering, and abandonment. With the flowers, Cortor reminds us of the proximity of life and loss for African Americans in the 20th-century South.
"Extra Ordinary: Magic, Mystery and Imagination in American Realism", Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, February 27 - April 26, 2021
Three Masters: Eldzier Cortor, Hughie Lee-Smith, Archibald John Modley, Jr., Kenkeleba Gallery, New York, NY, May 22 – July 17, 1988, catalogue no. 4.
African American Art: 200 Years, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY, January 10-March 28, 2008. Illustrated in the exhibition catalogue on page 81 and on cover of the announcement card.
A Force for Change: African American Art and the Julius Rosewald Fund, The Spertus Museum, Chicago, IL, February 6-August 16, 2009; Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, PA, September 13, 2009- January 10, 2010; Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ, February 6 – July 25, 2010. Illustrated in the exhibition catalogue on page 71, figure 17.
After Tanner: African American Artists since 1940, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA, January 28- April 15, 2012.
RISING UP / UPRISING: Twentieth Century African American Art, Michael Rosefeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY, March 15 – May 3, 2014.
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