DepartmentAmerican Art

Flora and Lillie

Artist Stephen Towns (American, born 1980)

Date2022

MediumAcrylic, Oil, Metal Leaf on Panel

DimensionsOverall: 48 × 36 in. (121.9 × 91.4 cm)

SignedLower right, in white paint: Stephen Towns 2022

Credit LineMuseum purchase with funds provided by the Wells Fargo Foundation

CopyrightStephen Towns

Object number2023.3.1

DescriptionIn 2022, Stephen Towns visited Winston-Salem for a two-week residency to learn about the history of Black labor in the region. His research resulted in Flora and Lillie, a painting based on a photograph of Flora Pledger and Lillie Hamlin, longtime residents of Five Row. Five Row was a segregated village on the Reynolda estate occupied by employees and their families from 1916 to 1960. Flora Pledger, at left, served as a cook at Reynolda House, while her husband, Ellis Pledger, worked on the farm. Lillie Hamlin's son Sam wrote that his mother “was never directly employed at Reynolda, [but she] has done community work that is commendable—for often in case of sickness, she was both doctor and nurse. In case of misunderstandings, she was counselor and peace maker." In the source photograph, they are seen outside the Five Row schoolyard, with a volleyball net visible in the background. In Towns’s painting, their neighborly embrace is enveloped by a botanical abundance befitting of Flora’s name: Southern magnolias, pine trees, and azaleas.

The painting was first exhibited in the Spring 2023 exhibition Stephen Towns: Declaration & Resistance at Reynolda House Museum of American Art. Towns has said, “Declaration & Resistance’s sojourn at Reynolda House feels like a homecoming of sorts. I haven’t had a solo exhibition in the south since I moved from Lincolnville, South Carolina, to Baltimore in 2008. My residency at Reynolda provided insight into the people and the history of Winston-Salem. I’m looking forward to sharing my portrait of Flora Pledger and Lillie Hamlin that I painted in homage to the legacy of the industrious people of Five Row.”

Provenance2022
Purchased from De Buck Gallery [1]

[1] Bill of sale, object file
Exhibition History2023
Stephen Towns: Declaration and Resistance
Reynolda House Museum of American Art (2/18/2023 - 5/14/2023)
Published ReferencesLuckett, Kilolo. Stephen Towns: Declaration and Resistance. Westmoreland Musseum of American Art, 2022.

Status

On view