Blues on the brush: Rose Piper's 'Blues and Negro Folk Songs' paintings of the 1940s

• Published in: The International review of African American art Vol. 22; no. 1; pp. 18 - 29
• Main Author: Lock, Graham
• Format: Journal Article Magazine Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hampton Hampton University Museum 01.01.2008
• Subjects: Art history; Artists studios; Folk music; Poetry
• ISSN: 1045-0920

Lula, Guitar Blues, Back Water, I Been to the City, St Louis Cyclone Blues, Conjur, I'm Gonna Take My Wings and Cleave the Air, Long, Long Time to Freedom, The Death of Bessie Smith, Slow Down, Freight Train, Grievin' Hearted and Empty Bed Blues.10 (The two remaining canvases were Subway Nuns, based on lines from a poem by Myron O'Higgins, and Circus Clowns.)11 The exhibition proved a great success: it was well-received in the press, its run was extended for an extra week and many of the paintings were sold. 58 And her political purpose, that desire to place injustice on the canvas, remained strong: noting that the current state of many inner-city blacks is not unlike the desperate situation of the slave ancestors,59 Piper set half of her Slave Song paintings in contemporary cityscapes, most notably I Want Yuh To Go Down, Death, Easy / An' Bring My Servant Home, in which she depicted her local subway station, 96th Street, where the skeletal figure of Death, dressed in a blue velvet robe and white lace gloves, waits to escort home a destitute woman, who sits crumpled in rags on the platform floor.