Exhibit (at NCCU) pays tribute to living civil rights hero
http://heraldsun.southern....com/durham/4-1098437.cfm
By KEITH UPCHURCH : The Herald-Sun
kupchurch@heraldsun.com
Feb 16, 2009
http://www.nccu.edu
DURHAM -- Tribute to a hero.
That's how Kenneth Rodgers, director of the art museum at N.C. Central University, describes the exhibition of artist Benny Andrews' works honoring civil rights leader John Lewis.
"He [Lewis] is the only one living of the Big Six, as they are called -- the six major figures who had crucial roles during the civil rights movement," Rodgers said in an interview Sunday during the opening of the exhibit at the museum. "And actually, this began as part of a book illustration for a children's book. Benny Andrews took it a little further."
One painting at the exhibit shows Lewis speaking at the 1963 March on Washington, the same day Martin Luther King Jr. spoke.
"Of all the speakers that Sunday at the March on Washington, John Lewis may have been one of the more compelling, principally because he believed so deeply in the civil rights movement and the agenda that was part of the march," Rodgers said. "Benny Andrews manages to give us a depiction of John Lewis as he literally enthralls the multitude."
In the foreground of the collage are people holding signs that say "equal rights now" and "we deserve respect." In the upper left is the image of Abraham Lincoln.
Rodgers said Lewis and Lincoln had a lot in common. "They both were civil rights fighters of sorts," he said.
Andrews completed all the paintings and drawings in the 37-work exhibit in about a year, Rodgers said.
"The realization of these images had to come from his mind's eye," Rodgers said. "And that's probably at the very core of his genius -- his ability to mine that reservoir of creativity that few people have."
"Benny Andrews is a masterful storyteller, and that comes through loud and clear," he said.
The exhibit runs through April 24 and is open to the public without charge.
"It is certainly an excellent opportunity for the university, particularly our students, many of whom were just children during the civil rights movement," he said. "They'll have a firsthand opportunity to not only see an extraordinary example of an incredible artist's work, but they'll be able mesh that with the incredible figure of John Lewis."
"He was a prolific artist," Rodgers said of Andrews, who died in 2006. "He left us all too soon."
© 2009 by The Durham Herald Company. All rights reserved.
