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Six figures, each with a telling attribute, are arranged in a stylized landscape against a mustard-colored sky. In several letters contained in the Museum’s archives, Gwathmey decoded the symbolism of the painting, a powerful critique of his native South.
“Belle is the Southern stereotype who was told that if you read too many books you limit your chances of marriage. She accepts the role of submitting to ‘the man of the house’ and would be the antithesis of woman’s lib. At this late date she still plays the game of ‘he loves me, he loves me not.’ Now there are three double images. As the preacher with two crosses, one the Christian and the other the fiery cross. Then there is the Klansman hidden under his sheet with two feet protruding, one shoe representing the powers that be while the other shoe is that of the uneducated. The nest of chirping birds is at the base of a fence rail while the mortarboard is on the top (bird brain). The highway markers almost obliterated by the botanical growth suggest provincial attitudes. The circus performer is supposed to represent ‘bread and circuses.’ The superstitions, ace of spades and number 13. Also the medicine man with his rustic appeal. Finally the black being given a book with hands tied behind his back. ‘Can I still visit?’” [2]
Gwathmey was a careful and deliberate painter. His technique features a consistently smooth surface and careful feathering in the painted outlines. He worked with paint thinned to allow greater ease in manipulating his paintbrush. The artist prepared working drawings for determining his final composition and elaborate iconography.
The overall presentation resembles that of a staged performance or play, with the principal characters placed on a slightly receding ground plane. Three figures are placed on each side of a central axis. To the left, on the ground, is a closed grid that suggests a game board, and three of the figures are placed in or adjacent to it, thus the reference to being a player, or pawn in a game. The ancient Southern belle of the title attempts to disguise her age behind a mask of make-up and plays the childish game “he loves me, he loves me not,” as she strips the first petal from the daisy in her hand. Each of the other characters holds something, in the manner of Gothic painting and sculpture, where a saint is identified by an attribute. Gwathmey was a professed admirer of Gothic art and architecture, and his predilection for outlining shapes has been equated to medieval stained glass windows. The individual poses heighten the static quality of the composition, giving it immediate graphic impact, much like a poster. Having captured the viewer’s attention, Gwathmey then unfolds an increasingly complicated image through his innovative use of symbols that are at once topical and universal.
The most powerful indictment of Southern racial prejudice is the depiction of the African American, who is shown from the rear with his hands tied behind his back. The slump of his shoulders and his placement in an open dirt pit directly allude to the many horrific acts of violence endured by blacks in the South. Gwathmey rendered the multicolored checked shirt with great care to convey dignity, and reinforced the firm grip of the man’s thumb on the open pages of a book, which he cannot possibly read with bound hands.
Another compelling figure is that of the robed figure on the right, whose costume is a direct reference to the white supremacy organization, the Ku Klux Klan. Gwathmey has changed the notorious white hood of the Klan to black to suggest an executioner. In addition to wearing one dress shoe and one boot to indicate that the KKK drew its membership from all classes, the Klansman holds an official-looking badge implying the complicity of local law enforcement in many Southern towns. Gwathmey often portrayed characters as racially indeterminate, as he does here; the hands of the Klansman are painted in darker skin tones. This is especially ironic because the Klan held to the “one drop rule”—any trace of African ancestry, however distant, made one black. Above the Klansman, the burning cross is held in the left, or sinister, hand of the hypocritical preacher. Since the Klan used burning crosses in people’s yards as a form of intimidation, this preacher, identified by his clerical collar, is apparently involved directly or indirectly with the activities of the Klan. His duplicity may also be autobiographical; the preacher resembles Gwathmey who was conducting an affair with his dealer at the time he was working on Belle.
The acrobat performing a handstand closely resembles a widely circulated circus poster of Unus, who was a star performer with the Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey Circus. Circus themes occur in several of Gwathmey’s paintings, an allusion perhaps to the fact that African Americans were not welcome or were relegated to peripheral cheap seats. [3] This acrobat is attempting to write an “x;” he could be illiterate, x-ing out something, or simply a fool distracting the viewer’s attention from more serious matters. The confidence trickster, or medicine man, holds a bottle in his upraised hand. He seems to be promising a “quick fix,” something to “cure all ills,” as if the South could be cured of its sickness, prejudice. His potbelly and bolo tie connect him to other Gwathmey paintings of pompous white Southern males.
The painting’s symbolism is not restricted to the figuration and depiction of objects; it is also revealed in the landscape setting. The sky is a dull yellow, indicative of oppressive heat. The bare ground is a reddish brown, reminiscent of Southern red clay soil as well as dried blood. The vegetation is a dull green, enlivened only by the red trumpet flowers— beautiful to look at but an irritant to touch. Shown across the width of the composition in the background, growing in the fields, are cotton and tobacco. These two agricultural products are associated with the oppression and exploitation of African-American slaves and their descendants, sharecroppers. Almost obscured in the background is a sitting figure with his hand to his forehead, perhaps wiping the sweat from his brow. Also visible in the background is the outhouse, indicative of the most primitive conditions. The horseshoe on the door is one of several common symbols implying superstition and bad luck; the others are the ace of spades and the number thirteen. The nest of birds, Gwathmey’s “bird brains in academia,” is not placed in a tree but sits on the ground, completely vulnerable, an indication of the futility of education as a cure-all for society’s ills.
Notes:
[1] Millhouse to Gwathmey, November 28, 1978, Reynolda House Museum of American Art object file.
[2] Gwathmey to Nicholas Bragg, December 12, 1978, Reynolda House Museum of American Art object file.
[3] E-mail communication from Nan Brewer to Kathleen Hutton, May 26, 2011, Reynolda House Museum of American Art object file, and Michael Kammen, Robert Gwathmey: The Life and Art of a Passionate Observer (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1999), 72.
ProvenanceEdward Newstater [1]
To 1978
Terry Dintenfass, Inc., New York, NY [2]
From 1978
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, purchased from Terry Dintenfass, Inc., New York with funds from Barbara B. Millhouse on November 29, 1978. [3]
Notes:
[1] Joan Durana Provenance Research, c. 1983, object file.
[2] Invoice, object file.
[3] See note 2.
Exhibition History1984
Robert Gwathmey
Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, New York (7/28/1984-9/16/1984)
1990-1992
American Originals, Selections From Reynolda House Museum Of American Art The American Federation of Arts
Center for the Fine Arts, Miami, FL (9/22/1990-11/18/1990)
Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs, CA (12/16/1990-2/10/1991)
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (3/6/1991-5/11/1991)
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN (6/2/1991-7/28/1991)
Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth, TX (8/17/1991-10/20/1991)
Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, IL (11/17/1991-1/12/1992)
The Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK (3/1/1992-4/26/1992)
1998-1999
Robert Gwathmey: Works from Southern Collections
Columbus Museum, Columbus, GA (10/18/1998-1/10/1999)
1999-2000
Robert Gwathmey Retrospective
Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH (9/5/1999-10/17/1999)
Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL (11/7/1999-12/26/1999)
Virginia Historical Museum, Richmond, VA (1/16/2000-2/20/2000)
Telfair Academy, Savannah, GA (3/12/2000-5/28/2000)
Pennsylvania Academy of Art, Philadelphia, PA (6/18/2000-8/13/2000)
2018
Outlaws in American Art
Reynolda House Museum of American Art (February 28, 2018 - December 2, 2018)
Published ReferencesHutton, Kathleen and Wanda Urbanska. "Examining Prejudice Through Art: Reynolda House, Museum of American Art," Art Education v. 50, no. 5 (September 11997): 25-28; illus., 25.
Kammen, Michael. Robert Gwathmey: The Life And Art Of A Passionate Observer. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999: 158, 165, 195, pl.33.
Millhouse, Barbara B. and Robert Workman. American Originals. New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1990: 126-127.
Piehl, Charles K. Robert Gwathmey: Works From Southern Collections. Columbus, GA: The Columbus Museum, 1998: (ex cat.) 2, illus. 1.
Reynolda House Annual Report. Winston-Salem NC: Wake Forest University, 2003.
Woestendiek, Kathryn. "Examining our Prejudices: A piece of art can teach us a lot about the way we view the world." Today In The Triad. 3, no. 4 (July-August 2000): 14-5.
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Reynolda: Her Muses, Her Stories , with contributions by Martha R. Severens and David Park Curry (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Reynolda House Museum of American Art affiliated with Wake Forest University, 2017). pg. 158, 159
DepartmentAmerican Art
Belle
Artist
Robert Gwathmey
(1903 - 1988)
Date1965
Mediumoil on canvas
DimensionsFrame: 45 1/16 x 66 7/8 in. (114.5 x 169.9 cm)
Canvas: 40 x 62 in. (101.6 x 157.5 cm)
Image: 39 7/16 x 61 5/8 in. (100.2 x 156.5 cm)
Signedgwathmey
Credit LineMuseum Purchase with funds provided by Barbara B. Millhouse
Copyright© 2021 Estate of Robert Gwathmey / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Object number1978.2.1
DescriptionPainted in the mid-1960s, after the heyday of Abstract Expressionism and during the ascendancy of Minimalism and Pop Art, Belle is a compelling example of Robert Gwathmey’s steadfast commitment to Social Realism. Its acquisition for Reynolda House Museum of American Art is well documented and its meaning has been thoroughly explicated by the artist and others. In November 1978, Barbara B. Millhouse, art collector and founding president of the Museum, wrote the artist: “When I walked into the gallery, I was stunned to see a painting there that I had considered buying a number of years ago before we embarked on the Reynolda House Collection. At the time I showed the transparency to my father who commented that it insulted everyone in the South, and I quietly put its possible purchase out of my mind. As the goals and purposes of Reynolda House have clarified over the years, I have often regretted this decision, and was delighted to find it once again available and appearing more splendid than ever.” [1]Six figures, each with a telling attribute, are arranged in a stylized landscape against a mustard-colored sky. In several letters contained in the Museum’s archives, Gwathmey decoded the symbolism of the painting, a powerful critique of his native South.
“Belle is the Southern stereotype who was told that if you read too many books you limit your chances of marriage. She accepts the role of submitting to ‘the man of the house’ and would be the antithesis of woman’s lib. At this late date she still plays the game of ‘he loves me, he loves me not.’ Now there are three double images. As the preacher with two crosses, one the Christian and the other the fiery cross. Then there is the Klansman hidden under his sheet with two feet protruding, one shoe representing the powers that be while the other shoe is that of the uneducated. The nest of chirping birds is at the base of a fence rail while the mortarboard is on the top (bird brain). The highway markers almost obliterated by the botanical growth suggest provincial attitudes. The circus performer is supposed to represent ‘bread and circuses.’ The superstitions, ace of spades and number 13. Also the medicine man with his rustic appeal. Finally the black being given a book with hands tied behind his back. ‘Can I still visit?’” [2]
Gwathmey was a careful and deliberate painter. His technique features a consistently smooth surface and careful feathering in the painted outlines. He worked with paint thinned to allow greater ease in manipulating his paintbrush. The artist prepared working drawings for determining his final composition and elaborate iconography.
The overall presentation resembles that of a staged performance or play, with the principal characters placed on a slightly receding ground plane. Three figures are placed on each side of a central axis. To the left, on the ground, is a closed grid that suggests a game board, and three of the figures are placed in or adjacent to it, thus the reference to being a player, or pawn in a game. The ancient Southern belle of the title attempts to disguise her age behind a mask of make-up and plays the childish game “he loves me, he loves me not,” as she strips the first petal from the daisy in her hand. Each of the other characters holds something, in the manner of Gothic painting and sculpture, where a saint is identified by an attribute. Gwathmey was a professed admirer of Gothic art and architecture, and his predilection for outlining shapes has been equated to medieval stained glass windows. The individual poses heighten the static quality of the composition, giving it immediate graphic impact, much like a poster. Having captured the viewer’s attention, Gwathmey then unfolds an increasingly complicated image through his innovative use of symbols that are at once topical and universal.
The most powerful indictment of Southern racial prejudice is the depiction of the African American, who is shown from the rear with his hands tied behind his back. The slump of his shoulders and his placement in an open dirt pit directly allude to the many horrific acts of violence endured by blacks in the South. Gwathmey rendered the multicolored checked shirt with great care to convey dignity, and reinforced the firm grip of the man’s thumb on the open pages of a book, which he cannot possibly read with bound hands.
Another compelling figure is that of the robed figure on the right, whose costume is a direct reference to the white supremacy organization, the Ku Klux Klan. Gwathmey has changed the notorious white hood of the Klan to black to suggest an executioner. In addition to wearing one dress shoe and one boot to indicate that the KKK drew its membership from all classes, the Klansman holds an official-looking badge implying the complicity of local law enforcement in many Southern towns. Gwathmey often portrayed characters as racially indeterminate, as he does here; the hands of the Klansman are painted in darker skin tones. This is especially ironic because the Klan held to the “one drop rule”—any trace of African ancestry, however distant, made one black. Above the Klansman, the burning cross is held in the left, or sinister, hand of the hypocritical preacher. Since the Klan used burning crosses in people’s yards as a form of intimidation, this preacher, identified by his clerical collar, is apparently involved directly or indirectly with the activities of the Klan. His duplicity may also be autobiographical; the preacher resembles Gwathmey who was conducting an affair with his dealer at the time he was working on Belle.
The acrobat performing a handstand closely resembles a widely circulated circus poster of Unus, who was a star performer with the Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey Circus. Circus themes occur in several of Gwathmey’s paintings, an allusion perhaps to the fact that African Americans were not welcome or were relegated to peripheral cheap seats. [3] This acrobat is attempting to write an “x;” he could be illiterate, x-ing out something, or simply a fool distracting the viewer’s attention from more serious matters. The confidence trickster, or medicine man, holds a bottle in his upraised hand. He seems to be promising a “quick fix,” something to “cure all ills,” as if the South could be cured of its sickness, prejudice. His potbelly and bolo tie connect him to other Gwathmey paintings of pompous white Southern males.
The painting’s symbolism is not restricted to the figuration and depiction of objects; it is also revealed in the landscape setting. The sky is a dull yellow, indicative of oppressive heat. The bare ground is a reddish brown, reminiscent of Southern red clay soil as well as dried blood. The vegetation is a dull green, enlivened only by the red trumpet flowers— beautiful to look at but an irritant to touch. Shown across the width of the composition in the background, growing in the fields, are cotton and tobacco. These two agricultural products are associated with the oppression and exploitation of African-American slaves and their descendants, sharecroppers. Almost obscured in the background is a sitting figure with his hand to his forehead, perhaps wiping the sweat from his brow. Also visible in the background is the outhouse, indicative of the most primitive conditions. The horseshoe on the door is one of several common symbols implying superstition and bad luck; the others are the ace of spades and the number thirteen. The nest of birds, Gwathmey’s “bird brains in academia,” is not placed in a tree but sits on the ground, completely vulnerable, an indication of the futility of education as a cure-all for society’s ills.
Notes:
[1] Millhouse to Gwathmey, November 28, 1978, Reynolda House Museum of American Art object file.
[2] Gwathmey to Nicholas Bragg, December 12, 1978, Reynolda House Museum of American Art object file.
[3] E-mail communication from Nan Brewer to Kathleen Hutton, May 26, 2011, Reynolda House Museum of American Art object file, and Michael Kammen, Robert Gwathmey: The Life and Art of a Passionate Observer (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1999), 72.
ProvenanceEdward Newstater [1]
To 1978
Terry Dintenfass, Inc., New York, NY [2]
From 1978
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, purchased from Terry Dintenfass, Inc., New York with funds from Barbara B. Millhouse on November 29, 1978. [3]
Notes:
[1] Joan Durana Provenance Research, c. 1983, object file.
[2] Invoice, object file.
[3] See note 2.
Exhibition History1984
Robert Gwathmey
Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, New York (7/28/1984-9/16/1984)
1990-1992
American Originals, Selections From Reynolda House Museum Of American Art The American Federation of Arts
Center for the Fine Arts, Miami, FL (9/22/1990-11/18/1990)
Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs, CA (12/16/1990-2/10/1991)
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (3/6/1991-5/11/1991)
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN (6/2/1991-7/28/1991)
Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth, TX (8/17/1991-10/20/1991)
Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, IL (11/17/1991-1/12/1992)
The Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK (3/1/1992-4/26/1992)
1998-1999
Robert Gwathmey: Works from Southern Collections
Columbus Museum, Columbus, GA (10/18/1998-1/10/1999)
1999-2000
Robert Gwathmey Retrospective
Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH (9/5/1999-10/17/1999)
Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL (11/7/1999-12/26/1999)
Virginia Historical Museum, Richmond, VA (1/16/2000-2/20/2000)
Telfair Academy, Savannah, GA (3/12/2000-5/28/2000)
Pennsylvania Academy of Art, Philadelphia, PA (6/18/2000-8/13/2000)
2018
Outlaws in American Art
Reynolda House Museum of American Art (February 28, 2018 - December 2, 2018)
Published ReferencesHutton, Kathleen and Wanda Urbanska. "Examining Prejudice Through Art: Reynolda House, Museum of American Art," Art Education v. 50, no. 5 (September 11997): 25-28; illus., 25.
Kammen, Michael. Robert Gwathmey: The Life And Art Of A Passionate Observer. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999: 158, 165, 195, pl.33.
Millhouse, Barbara B. and Robert Workman. American Originals. New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1990: 126-127.
Piehl, Charles K. Robert Gwathmey: Works From Southern Collections. Columbus, GA: The Columbus Museum, 1998: (ex cat.) 2, illus. 1.
Reynolda House Annual Report. Winston-Salem NC: Wake Forest University, 2003.
Woestendiek, Kathryn. "Examining our Prejudices: A piece of art can teach us a lot about the way we view the world." Today In The Triad. 3, no. 4 (July-August 2000): 14-5.
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Reynolda: Her Muses, Her Stories , with contributions by Martha R. Severens and David Park Curry (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Reynolda House Museum of American Art affiliated with Wake Forest University, 2017). pg. 158, 159
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