Arty (Centerpiece)

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

Arty is the centerpiece of Nelson Stevens’s triptych, Unity, and was inspired by the archetypal Christian altarpieces from the Byzantine era. Stevens replaced the traditional white religious figures with an image of a young Black woman. To elevate African Americans to a position of reverence and respect, he painted this composition using the technique of forced perspective: the viewer occupies a position of supplicant, or child, looking up to what Stevens calls the “hero’s position.” Stevens was a founding member of the African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists, or AfriCOBRA, a collective formed in 1968 to create uplifting art relevant to Black communities. His triptych was displayed in the group’s first exhibition, AFRI-COBRA I: Ten in Search of a Nation, in Harlem in 1970. This is an abstract acrylic painting depicting a woman from the neck up. Done in a color palette of red, orange, blue, and purple, the woman's form is made up of clusters of rounded and abstract pools of color. Viewed slightly from below, she faces forward and gazes upward.

Catalog date

1970

Recorded subjects

African American; Activism; Art; Associations and institutions; Christianity; Identity; Professional organizations; Religion

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