So nice to see everybody here. Welcome to mechanical hall gallery. My name is Amanda sender. I am the Chief Curator and head for museums here on campus who are part of the University of Delaware library museums and press. And we're just so thrilled to see so many people here in person. We're so excited to be getting back to a regular roster of in-person events with receptions and everything else. So it's wonderful after all the trials of the COVID era. So tonight's event celebrates this new exhibition that just opened on Tuesday. So this is really a true real opening event, which we don't always do. Sometimes they're later into the semester. But this exhibition, seeing textiles and in painting, printing and paper-making, 1960 through today. Again open this week and it's on view until May 13th. And we hope that you will have time over the course of the semester to come back and revisit the exhibition here, take more time looking at this really thought-provoking exhibition. Also, just to let you know, we have two other museum exhibitions that opened this week. One in bold College Gallery, which is focused on painting. And in the mineralogical museum we have ground pigments from ground minerals from pigments to palette. Also open through May 13th. All of our galleries are always free and open to the public, just like our events. So please remember that. Spread the word with all your friends and family because everybody is welcome to come. And I would like to very much thank all of my museums colleagues for all of their hard work on these various exhibitions and events that have started this week. I'd also like to mention another exhibition that opened in the special collections gallery and Morris library on the second floor, curated by your Curtis Small. And that exhibition is called the artist's book and our time. So there's a lot going on that's new this week I'm on campus and museums and special collections. So for tonight's event, Julia hammer light, guest curator for this exhibition, will be giving a few brief remarks about the exhibition. And that will lead into some questions for our special guest, James Phillips. And then his presentation, and then a few moments for questions and answers from the audience. And following all of that, there'll be a reception with food upstairs. And we're continuing conversation about what we'll discuss here tonight. In this program. We were just delighted to welcome tonight's special guest, James Phillips. His print on the wall here in front of you, as you might notice, is the featured image for the banner and other images related to promoting this exhibition. And we just think it's a wonderful addition to this exhibition. And we're delighted that Mr. Phillips is here to talk about it and the rest of his work with us. So Mr. Phillips, work is driven by the pursuit of ancestral heritage. Born in 1945 in Brooklyn, Phillips attended the Fleisher Art Memorial School and the Philadelphia College of Art during the 1960s. From there he became a member of the Harlem based, you see artists collective as well as a member of the African commune of bad relevant artists. Today, Philips art is included in numerous collections, both nationally and internationally. Alongside his own ongoing artistic practice, he is currently an associate professor of art at Howard University, where he has led students in producing multiple public art installations. I'd also like to introduce Julia hammer light. She is a fourth-year PhD student at the University of Delaware Department of Art History. And again, she has the guest curator of this exhibition seeing textiles. Her dissertation research looks at native North American artists working in textiles, ceramics, woodwork, and other media from the 1960s and 1970s. Previously, she has held positions at the Yale University Art Gallery, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the winter term museum, garden and library. So without further ado, I will hand things over to Julia. Thanks everyone for joining us tonight. We're so glad you're here. Thank you. In particular to, I guess, James Phillips and his wife Shelley for making the trek from Baltimore to be with us tonight. So before we begin, I do want to offer the University of Delaware is living land acknowledgment. The University of Delaware occupies lands vital to the web of life, philanthropy and anticoag who share their ancestry, history, and future in this region. Udi has financially benefited from this regional occupation as well as from indigenous territories that were expropriated to the United States land grant system, European colonizers and later the United States for semantic Coke and monopoly westward and northward, where they form nations in present day Oklahoma, in Wisconsin, and Ontario, Canada. Others never left their homelands are returned from exile and they cut. We express our appreciation for ongoing indigenous stewardship of the ecologies and traditions of this region. Harm to indigenous people and their homelands are beyond repair. We commit to building right relationships going forward by collaborating with tribal leadership. So I wanted to share that and then I wanted to share just a couple of words about the exhibition which you've had a chance to experience before we move forward with the lecture, I had the opportunity to cure it seemed textiles. As a graduate research assistant at the university museums, that exhibitionist largely from the collection of work done either by the late Paul R. Jones, who was a major collection of modern African American art. We received part of his collection in 2001. In part because our history department is well-known for its focus on American art. By making a home for his flexion here, Jones wanted to see, make sure the artists were properly seen as catalysts for the development of national cultural dynamics. More broadly. The artists in this exhibition, not least our guest tonight, Let's tie their textiles as source material or worked in fiber weaving themselves. The translation and designs patterns and techniques, bends and blends how we understand our history of modern and contemporary art. I included a number of works by indigenous artists alongside works from the Jones collection to highlight the multiplicity of this thing we call modernism, or modernism's. Each artist chooses their own cultural, historic anesthetic reference points to triangulate themselves. It's echoed in the video. Oh, okay. That's fine. Do you want me to give this to you? Whatever. That's correct. Okay. I can do that, right. Sorry. Sorry, everyone. We're recording at for classes to you. Okay. Great. Okay. Okay. Great. Thanks everyone. So I'll just reiterate, HR does chooses their own cultural, historic anesthetic reference points to triangulate themselves within diverse expressive lineages. And I welcome you to wander the galleries either tonight or in the coming weeks as you have time. So without further ado, we can start with a couple of questions and then your presentation. We wanted to start just by talking about veins two prints that you made in 199041 of them is in the exhibition brandy Wine workshop. And I wanted to talk a little bit about or asking you about the contexts in which these works were made. Okay, I'm brand new, won commission Africa over series of prints. And each one of us individually came up to Philadelphia and we stayed for about a week to work on his friends. They had a place to stay. And not everybody in Africa were made friends, but most people, okay. The interesting thing with me, I thought when they were making the prints, it would be like say e.g. take a piece of work to lose Stonewall Inn for it and he would print it. Well, I had a piece in mind and I took it in and they said, No, you have to start from scratch. I had worked in the printing industry as a full print broker. So I knew something about per inch. So but this was really the first time actually going on and work on a plate. So that was pretty Thank I wasn't ready to do that. Yeah. What was it like? What how did he approach it? This sort of patterns and design of the prints? Well, generally stop work with a grid. Okay. So on-grid the paper down the way I wanted. And then I started breaking the patterns of the colors. And I think what kinda threw everything off. I was approaching the print is I would approach a pain when I shouldn't have been approaching the reverse way, I feel like I should have put the yellows there verse and then then the other Carlos. Okay. Because I'm particularly on the offset inks, they're transparent. So you have to be EFL, put the color down certain way. And so that's where you see the layering coming into this work because of the way that the transparency was working with one another. During certain things in it. I use water. So it wouldn't bubble up to give you this sort of a textured look. And that's what, I mean, It's purposely done like that so that you would get the sensation of like looking at the wondered, well, what is on the window. Nice. So were you thinking about textile patterns and these prints or have a textiles? Textiles influenced their work. And the way in which you think about pattern and design. Patterns that started out with, I'd say maybe like late 60s. Okay. And i inch to go and do research on him. Museum, various museums like the Metropolitan Museum in New York, particularly the African Pavilion. And then I go to the various galleries, the Dell, traditional African art. And then I discovered the contemporary artists like people like twins, 77, diva pop, a tall, skinny guys and people like that. And I was me more, I guess focus on abstraction. And I can see a gap. Particularly at the cube, is how the African influence what helped me to become what I am now. And also part of my research was reading elaine Lux book, negro art. And the most important thing he said was african American artists. When I say Negro artists should look to Africa as the foundation for their work. So that was, that's where it really started that I've been working with patterns, every sentence, zigzag lines, triangles nicely, I'm going to create, I made a career out of that, right? If it gets your career. I'm sorry, everyone. Okay. There we go. Do you want to move to your other works to talk about that career that you made out of it? That's me. Okay. This is a I guess you'd call it a chart where I tried to show where my influences come and was at figure number one. Yeah, that's a that's a zigzag line is most problem than my work. And it also has certain spiritual meaning in dealing, particularly with the doggone, dealing with their cosmology, and the zigzag lines. Just the life force coming down from the Creator. Also you can see that in Egyptian cosmology to like zigzag lines coming from the sun, particularly the work and Nuba, the one next to it. That's the Scheele from Central Africa. And the reason why I put that in, because it has the grid. And the grid is really a part of the zigzag line only it's more solid. And where the lines come together to form that v. In the Congo, their belief is that's the birth of creation. So even though the European, Europe of people in Nigeria, which is further to the East, Eastern part of Africa, western part of Africa, sorry. And this is still link. And also. I kinda draw influences from those two cultures because most of the people that were brought here come from me to West Africa or Central Africa. Yellow one isn't next to that is a door. And again, I'm showing, um, I was inspired because of the way the zigzag line is using also the incorporation of animals as well as people. And then the three on the bottom, and they're just different. Not Tillman for the Congo and the other one. It's like it's from the house of people in northern Nigeria. And then this, this clock here at the bottom is from from Nigeria. And it also shows human elements as well as animal elements included incorporated into call in cooperative groups in the grid. The last piece is a cosmetic box from the Congo. And I showed that to show how I was influenced in terms of decorating the face with the motifs. The next slide. This is awesome essential in the word too. Because it shows the movement of life comes in two forms. It comes in a circular form and it comes in a diamond form for square if you look at them side. So like going counterclockwise, he had birth, life, death, and rebirth. And also with the diamond deficit on one side, like it's only other. And no births and deaths on one side versus on the other light is at the top, rebirth because at the bottom they create a cross. Like the quill were from African American quilts. They call it the bowtie motif. But if you look at it, you, it's like looking at a pyramid from an aerial perspective. Also the what I, what I just said about the bear for creation. That's modern sciences version of The Big Bang Theory. So you can move. I started out as a figurative painter. So this is a portrait of John Coltrane that I paint it back in, I think 1968. Acrylic on canvas. As surely after that I moved on into kind of thing. So I'm doing two motifs now. One of the first pieces I did was this mixed me a piece called Juju. And it was inspired by a drawing pin, an atrium on while I know, twin 77 says version of Shanghai. So my mass has my painting juju juice you with a Nigerian where if a magic, it has a, it's a combination of, I guess, West African and condo imagery. The other things like they were incorporated in there as colored tissue paper. Some fabric and saying, that's done 1960s. This piece here, this call Mother Nature. And it's inspired by a beaver pop at all. What I liked about this is also a pin in a drawing by Eva papa tall. My work, by the way is on the curve, is acrylic. And what I liked about the way he was using a motif to create a sense of aluminum, which I tried to convey in the painting, whether nature, so that I can get to feel like a new descendants stairs but I must to the shop. And these are just some other works that I created doing that to keep going. At a certain point after reading the Elaine's lots book, I started looking at African American painters, particularly from the Harlem Renaissance. And people like Rome and beard and Jacob Lawrence. And this is a painting by Aaron Douglas Swallow. Thank six, no premier roles that he paid for the Countee Cullen library and in New York County Collin libraries on 100.3057 Street and Schaumburg is right. Around corner. In fact, they merged the two together to create what they exist. But this is called Negro and the African setting. What I tried that then I did my version of it. You see the two dancers, they intersect, but they use a transparent effect that they learned from Aaron Douglas to get the sense that two dancers fill in the same space, but not, I'm canceling out the other one. And also the mass from the the cost. The last mass that you saw on the chart, the cosmetic box that was the best way are incorporated that into it. Along with the zigzag lines. Flush, Yea, sorry. This is from a different culture. This is from the dog on people from Mali. And this piece is called the ancestral couple. What I did a little different on this is like the surname of the man's got his arm around a moment. But the head, it's like a frontal view. What I changed it up. More likely to influence Egyptian or where you get a profile. And all those symbols in it relate to the doggone cosmologies. And then at the bottom with the checks. That has to do with the way the doggone people approach to agriculture. Like what they'll do is like one, check them one square. They'll, they'll work that land. And then they are moved to the next one the following year so that the land that they had worked there before can get all its nourishment back. This piece here is called a freedom fighter. And that's based, has allowed a decrease symbols in it. It's got a zigzag lines. And the influences this doorway, which is the line drawing on the left. And also I used crown because I wanted to make a statement, I guess, about bus here to work. So that's why the crown is there. And then e.g. like in terms of the degrees symbols, the two rifles, one isn't gold and the other one is still in silver. And they assembled the King's power. And also they represent the colon, represents the moon. The sun, and silicon represents the moon, as well as then both represent male and female elements. This is probably the closest thing in Africa anywhere relates to African American quilts because this is where they have Apple Pay in Africa. But this work is quilted because it's supposed to be armor for the horsemen. These are the house household warriors that protected Emir. I'm pretty sure that they also were involved with the Muslim wars. In Europe. Believed they, they use the African troops to do the damage they did there. So this is strictly just straight grid work. I'm working on the left there. Okay. Well, I went back into working with Egyptian motifs and symbols. And this is a piece I call Union, is like this to see the woman has given birth to the sun and the man on the bottom is there. And when I did change it a little bit in the center, you see a man and woman standing by what's looks like a red shovel, but that's really hard. And at stem come up is supposed to be too long. And that's supposed to be symbolized as animatable with life. And then they are to plants pad around and not one is papyrus and the other one's slow this. And that's supposed to symbolize the unification of lower and upper Egypt and the one country. I paid this form for me and my wife's birthday. Now, anniversary. Well, that's the same thing because we've got bought we got married on birthday and we hadn't seen birthdays. So this is some more grid work. And the use of Egyptian cosmology in my work. The two loops at the top there called shepherds. And it's the one at the bottom. That's all. That's the arc, which is similar like the shepherd and that is supposed to be for, is supposed to be for protection. This is call rural module for a whole room. And that was painting, painting inspired, when I was painting that was inspired by Nelson Mandela. Thinking I was living in California to time and I think he came to some business and he made a speech. One of the things he said was, I'm not free until we all have free. So what I did now on, I incorporated in SciPy handwriting, instead of me writing from like a crossover area of Nigeria to make it to say that. But I had a friend of mine write it out in shorthand, type insurer there. And then I stylized each one of the letters to make the saying at the end semi writing a tribute to John beggars, It's called soul. The soul and now the bicarb, John biggest, which means a soul and spirit of John beggars. There is a combination of things that relate to the doggone cosmology. There's also, there's a crocodile in the center. And the body is made up in like a diamond shape. And the motifs within that dam, and they were really based on African American quilts like the flying geese motif that they use. The crocodile basically, is there a similar stability? And string? The figure and the arms go on working with. One arm is going up and the other one's going down. That's symbolized as uplifting positive energy and hand down to suppress and negative energy. Okay. And this piece here is called, What's the name of that? Forgot the name that quiz. All I know, st. Alpha. Yeah. Hey, you can that age. Anyway. At the top, there's the Shanda what the double double act. And he has a jaundice head. One's facing one way, the other ones facing the other way, yes, symbolize. What is symbolized looking in the past now don't, it's looking into the future. And then below that. Use the rooster for the same cough over. And the way I arranged it. Because the same colorful bird, one supposed to be looking back into the past. So one head is loving Bath and the other moons looking forward. The reason I use the rooster cause it's symbolizes one realizing its strength and being very tenacious about it. And the rooster was a symbol for the revolution in Haiti, as well as in Mozambique. Further down you have a more abstract version of sand cocoa. And it's in a heart shape. And also, you can see this cost is so, so small. But there's like the ram arm, which is another symbol, is symbolizes knowledge. Knowledge is power. And so yeah, so basically, I think that's a big guys. Realize peace. Thank you so much for sharing. That's right quick. I believe we have time for questions. Okay. So I can bring the microphone I can bring the microphone to anyone who has a question that they would like to ask. Can I see a few hands in the back? Curious about this painting and about several of them are 8 ft by 4 ft. And some of the earlier pieces they were like four by six. Like Mother Nature painting, that's four by 6 ft. Much about that. That's a little different. That's like 18 ft by 5 ft. Or their question pardon me. One Canvas. Oh, the 1800s? Yes. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Stop stretching them on a stretcher bars. And what I do is I take the canvas that I get too warm on in place and I have them either put asleep pins on the link. I haven't put grommets cross the top. Soda size. So when I get ready to ship it, all I got to do is roll it up. Does the wave goes crazy and can get pretty expensive? Yeah. This particular piece has to sleep. But I think that I'm pretty sure that 18 foot one, That's all Brahmins. You go back to that for sure. Yeah, Yeah. Wow. Here I'm going to start so that everyone can hear on the recording what decision for scale, which scale you're going to work on. Space I'm working in. Earlier. I was working enlarged while I was working in section, and I had them hinged together. And that was influenced by many answers. And one time he was doing a show and I credit came in and asked him, Well, why don't you work in these sections like this? Why not just do it on a big piece of cannons and says, Well, hey, I gotta get it out the door. Thank you so much for your great talk. You've mentioned a couple of times your friendship with other artists and I was just wondering if you could speak a little bit about your affiliation with the African cobra and whether that was really productive, regenerative for your work and sort of what influence your friendships had on your work. Okay. I'm still a member African cobra and believing that was still strong. But before that I was belong to a group called The way you see collected. And they were out in New York. When I got the job in DC. Howard in 74, moved here. And that's when I became a member of Africa cobra. At the time I thought that might have been a good move because I remember at one time the East Coast West Coast Panthers were trying to form a union, but that didn't work out. This didn't quite work out the way I envision it, but it's workable. Hello, Good evening. My name is OPIA. I'm a master's student in the Black Studies program here. I'm also an aspiring artist. So I just wanted to know what do you think is the connection or the correlation between black art and imagination and creativity. Like what do you think is the purpose of that in our community? Want to say that again? I'm sorry. I said a lot. You write, what, what do you think is the purpose of black art, sorry, a black imagination within art? And how does creativity kind of serve our community? That makes sense. I don't think you can separate the two and up 11 phase to the other. I guess I'd kind of a technical question about how do you, do You do a lot of preparatory work on these paintings? Or how do you lay them out? Your colors are so vibrant, it's so beautiful and the space that is created by the way you've laid those colors on top of each other is just really, really, there's so much depth to the work. Is it a, is it a free form process that you go after it? Or a lot of preparation. Unlike the idea of, I guess, once you call free form. And really the only piece is how a lot of preparation is commission work. But pretty much when I'm just paying them on my own, I just start somewhere. Now. I'm just starting any somewhere. I put a grid down first and then I let the grid dictate where I want to go with the painting. And then soon as you put a color, then you've got to figure out the next color is going to go next to it. So that's all part of the problem solving process when it comes to painting. So I just pretty much let the music can guide me and any ancestors. I mean, they don't tell me what the pain, but I get a lot of inspiration from listened to the music and I think of them work as being musical. Like it's visual music. I mean, when I'm, when I put them, when I put the music on, these are the kind of things that I see. So you listen to music while you paint can vary if I'm allowed to. I mean, sometimes recently. I guess because I've been concentrating on, um, I called start painting and then I forget about the music. I've heard the music so much already, I can hear it in my head. I had a question. First of all, I just wanted to say I really appreciate the color palette and this one which is different from the others you showed us. I want to ask you about texts. This is the only one that of the group that you showed us that has text in it. But text was from what I understand, a really important part of a lot of African cobra paintings, like Wadsworth Charles paintings and the Angela Davis series. Yeah, So first of all, K2 parts, what what what was it in Africa? Brad, did you all talk about that, about the importance of putting texts in the images. And second, what motivated you when you put text in your paintings? But actually their texts and so many other things. But this is the only one I talked about. But Africa were using texts in their posters, in their painting. That was before I became a member. So after I became a member, when they started moving away from them, at least at least three or four or five. And I just felt that the texts miscounting, getting in the way what I want to express. So I tell my students that if you go, if you want to write on the pain, he punchy right? Handbook. Use paying for painting, U-shape, U-shape and form. How are you doing? I'm all right. Thank you for your presentation. I had a question. So many of your paintings had like notable black activists in them. I was curious to know what, what, what did social movements have? The social movements have any impact in your artistic expression? The politics of like you had Angela Davis, Nelson Mandela. So what did put it, the politics of those individuals have in shaping your artistic expression. Maybe more likely, it's probably something they said or something that they stood for. And then it was someone that can relate to. And then I believe it's important to keep the tradition of the movement. So I like being connected to the Harlem Renaissance. I'm part of the Black, Black Arts Movement. And then I look and I like, I like the idea. But Afro Futurist movement, I'm not too sure about post black. That's a little hard for me to get my head around because every time I look in the mirror I see a black person. I don't see nothing post about it. Also. The other thing that I'm working a lot with African American quilts, and I must say African American quilts are the first line of resistance. Visually. I mean, they had many other uses for them, but they were also way to freedom. To answer your question. Okay? Yes. What do you try printmaking again? Resolved? No, I don't think so. I I liked painting. Olive Charlie's miniature and currently holds and has been trying to get me up there for quite some time. You talked a little bit about education and teaching your students. Has educated being an educator and formed your career as a painter as well? Well, yeah, I'm working with the students and keeps me young kids to me. Want to stay active as is, is a practicing artists and its Belt and go and work the non the five-minute bank. Sand tried to sell shoes of a car. So I'd rather be doing this. And also I got to say this. But I'll say it. I won't hear the end of it. I haven't met before Professor in there so I can go home. Because if I didn't say it, I was going to hear about it. Congratulations. Anymore questions? I think sometimes, yeah. The time between when you created the John Coltrane portrait and when you moved into the graphic abstraction, what was going on in your practice that made that so drastic? Do you think it was in an editable transition or did did did something ignite a change of perspective in you that allowed you to change? Yeah, in a way. I don't know. I was painting figurative and then I just decided, okay, this is the last big of freedom them on doing. And I'm going to go to the next thing. But early in my life, when I was growing up, I was always afraid of the dark. And that's because I always see patterns. So patterns for a long time. When I started painting, they went away and then I didn't see him anymore. So interesting. Thank you. Okay. So you said something that I can't get out of my head but quilts or the way to freedom? Yeah. Something like that. Yeah. Explain what you mean by that. Oh, they were signs that that showed people were the Underground Railroad was. They were, they were put there were put on some clothes line. So they run away because C and they would get an information on where they need to go to keep from getting caught. I think we have time for a couple of more questions, although I'm curious to hear more about your recent work to do with quilts, also, if you want to share. Oh, you asked me to do. I'm asking you and anyone else has a different question. Okay. Yeah. Phrase that again. So you mentioned where I think we're on the quote wave here. What are you doing with the quotes right now? Are you working in textiles? Are you painting this still painting now, I'm planning. I guess the biggest different is using more than bowtie motif and drop all the symbolism. And just let the, the various colors play off each other. And a lot of interesting things Happening them because like in the Congo, Congo they gotta saying they can't even meet, which means the pattern plays the mind. So, yeah. Unfortunately, this is a new body of work, so I haven't had a document and yet so he could see him. Thank you. Any last questions before we convene? I think we have time for one or two more. No. Okay. I see Tim War, so I'll do good to those tomorrow. I just want to know what music do you listen to when you're painting? Well, the music I listen to. When I was teaching high school, I had to listen to rap. But I like, I like long types of international music, Japanese music, music from all over the world. Yeah, we're on music, so to speak. But my favorite is jazz. Like people like John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor, Sunrise does the music that I really get motivated by. And I have a second part to that question. Has the music motivated your art? And do you see like differences in your pieces based on what you were listening to when you painted them. And see that every day or every if? Every day that I come to. My workspace is a different field. In fact, I have to control that to keep it from becoming another painting. So and also I have to know when I get to my space, when I leave it, I got to know exactly where I stopped. So I'm won't be trying to figure out where to go. So soon as I hit hit my head, my workspace, I'm right back in the same group. She asked you a question. Okay. I think that's time for us. Okay. Thank you so much for sharing with us this evening. We have refreshments upstairs, so I know we all hope that you all will join us for those. Yeah. Just thank you once again. Thank you.