EDWARD M. BANNISTER: A CENTENNIAL RETROSPECTIVE

The Roger King Gallery of Fine Art of Newport, Rhode Island announces the opening of a major new exhibit on early African-American landscape painter Edward M. Bannister (1828-1901). Bannister was the first African-American artist to win national recognition for his work. This special retrospective marks the centennial of Bannister's death in 1901. On view will be nearly fifty works from public and private collections as well as the gallery's holdings. A full-color catalogue will accompany the exhibit, which will travel to the Kenkeleba House Museum in New York this winter.

Edward Bannister was born in Canada and initially settled in Boston, where he worked as a barber while struggling to establish himself as a portrait painter. When he moved to Providence, Rhode Island, in 1869 he joined an active artistic community; with two of his friends and colleagues, Charles Walter Stetson and George Whitaker, he established the Providence Art Club in 1878. He also became an instructor at the newly-founded Rhode Island School of Design. Bannister is best known today for his Barbizon-influenced landscapes, many of them in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts. He won a first-prize medal at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876 with his landscape painting, Under the Oaks. Wanting the painting to stand on its own merits without regard to his race or what he referred to as "sentimental sympathy," Bannister had submitted it to the judges with only his signature attached. He created a sensation when he appeared unannounced before the awards committee to claim authorship of the painting, becoming thereafter one of the best-known painters in New England and the first African-American artist to win widespread acclaim. A relentless perfectionist, Bannister was known to destroy works he was not satisfied with, and constantly attempted to improve his technique. Today, his works are rarely seen grouped together.

Although Bannister's achievements were eclipsed after his death when the vogue for landscape painting waned, he was "rediscovered" by a few serious collectors and historians in the late twentieth century. Gallery owner Roger King was one of the first to reassess and study the works of Bannister. He has worked with Bannister paintings for the last twenty-five years, in the process assisting several collectors who have built major collections of African-American art. A number of the paintings in the exhibit were

placed by the gallery in private collections across the country, and their appearance in the exhibit provides a rare opportunity to see many of Bannister's finest works. The exhibit will travel to Kenkeleba House in New York City, where it will be on view from December 12 to February 9, 2002.

Bannister lacked the resources and opportunities to travel to Europe to study with the recognized teachers of his day, as was customary for many aspiring American artists. Though he was largely self-taught as an artist, he was both a well educated and a highly spiritual man. He was greatly influenced by the French painters of the Barbizon school, whose works would have been familiar to him through exhibitions held in Boston and Providence. The frequently idealized depictions of peasants toiling in the fields and the serene yet majestic depiction of nature popularized by this school provided Bannister with a form of expression that he could adapt to his belief in the underlying spirituality and harmony "in all living things." Many of Bannister's bucolic landscapes were populated by cows and sheep and the occasional farmer or shepherd. Later, as Bannister sought to emphasize mood and the elements of nature, the prominence of both animals and figures receded in his paintings. Always, Bannister was concerned with the atmospheric effects of sky and clouds and their interaction with land and sea. His repeated use of a road or path leading through deep woods or across fields suggests a foray into darkness or a long, expansive journey. Though figures appear in some of his paintings, in others man's presence in nature is only subtly indicated -- by a rail fence, an abandoned bridge, or a small farmhouse tucked unobtrusively in a corner of the canvas. The exhibit highlights the range of Bannister's work in oils, watercolors, and drawings, including works which have recently come to light and a watercolor that was featured in

the 1901 memorial exhibit held in honor of the artist at the Providence Art Club. The evolution of Bannister's style and the various techniques he employed are apparent in works spanning nearly fifty years of Bannister's career.

Edward M. Bannister: A Centennial Retrospective will be at the Roger King Gallery of Fine Art from October 21 to November 30. The gallery is located at 21 Bowen's Wharf in the heart of Newport's historic maritime district, occupying two floors including a new exhibition gallery. A full-color catalog illustrating approximately half the works in the show is available from the gallery for $29.95 (plus tax for Rhode Island residents). For more information, contact the gallery by phone at (401) 847-4359 or email at paintings@rkingfinearts.com. The gallery also maintains two websites at www.rkingfinearts.com and www.artnet/rking.html. The gallery is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

ŠThe Fine Arts Trader 2009