Beschreibung:

Robert Gwathmey (1903-1988)Country Gospel Music signed 'Gwathmey' (upper left) and inscribed with title (on the stretcher) oil on canvas 40 1/8 x 50 1/4 in. (101.9 x 127.6 cm.) Painted in 1971.FootnotesProvenance Terry Dintenfass, Inc., New York, acquired from the artist. Dr. and Mrs. Robert S. Aaron, acquired from the above, 1973. Terry Dintenfass, Inc., New York, acquired from the above. Acquired by the late owners from the above, 1990. Exhibited New York, Terry Dintenfass, Inc., Robert Gwathmey New Paintings, November 30-December 31, 1971. St. Mary's City, Maryland, St. Mary's College of Maryland, Robert Gwathmey October 2-27, 1976, n.p., no. 23, illustrated, and elsewhere. East Hampton, New York, Guild Hall Museum, Robert Gwathmey Works From 1941-1983, July 28-September 16, 1984, p. 21, and elsewhere. Literature M. Kammen, Robert Gwathmey The Life and Art of a Passionate Observer, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1999, pp. 40, 181, 195, 234, pl. 40, illustrated. M. Kammen, "A Historian's Pursuit of a Passionate Painter," The Chronicle of Higher Education, Washington, D.C., September 10, 1999, vol. 46, iss. 3, p. B8, illustrated. Robert Gwathmey's Country Gospel Music is one of Gwathmey's most accomplished works from the 1970s that emphatically portrays the uplifting, inspiring, and spiritual qualities of music in rural Southern African American communities. In Country Gospel Music, Gwathmey paints six figures singing an impassioned tune in harmony with two figures playing a guitar and a fiddle. The image of a black man playing a guitar is one that reappears in Gwathmey's work numerous times. Behind the revelers is a simple country church that stands respectfully before a monochromatic orange-red sky that dominates the painting.