 |
Simmie Knox's portrait of Chief Judge Gregory Sleet of the United States District Court for
the District of Delaware is part of an exhibition at Gallery 919 in Wilmington,
DE. GANNETT. Image via www.thetowntalk.com.
|
Portrait artist captures spirit of black trailblazers
Published
| February 23, 2013
Along the continuum of representational art, Simmie Knox takes the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm.
A
nip here. A dissolved wrinkle there. In the end, a portrait is supposed to
"make you look your best," says the man who wields a tiny brush to
encapsulate the spirits of Muhammad Ali, Bill and Hilary Clinton and U.S.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
And,
at age 77, Knox is the unofficial portraitist for trailblazing African
Americans.
He
has painted baseball legend Hank Aaron; media magnate Oprah Winfrey; former
Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall; comedian Bill Cosby; Bishop Quintin
Primo, the first black bishop elected in the dioceses of Delaware and Chicago;
David Dinkins, the first and only black mayor of New York City; and Peter
Spencer, founder of A.U.M.P. Church in Wilmington, the first independent black
church in the nation.
Knox,
himself, was the first African-American artist to create an official White
House portrait, painting former President Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary
Rodham Clinton in 2000.
"Sometimes
it's not always the size of your hammer or the size of the rock, but it's how
often you hit that rock," he is fond of saying.
Training his eye
A
childhood friend of Aaron, Knox practiced baseball with bottle caps and
broomsticks until he got socked in the face with a real ball at the age of 13.
Doctors
suggested that he retrain his eye by sketching. At the time, it wasn't socially
acceptable for young blacks in Alabama to study art, so the nuns at Knox's
school arranged for private drawing lessons with a postal carrier.
Practice
made perfect. A selection of Knox's portraits, along with his abstract
landscapes and still-life drawings, are on display through March 21 in the
lobby of the Citizens Bank Center in downtown Wilmington. The collection
features portraits of all five current state Supreme Court justices, the first
time the oil paintings have been assembled in one space.
Last
month, the Delaware Humanities Forum premiered a short film about Knox's life,
"Strokes of Justice," emphasizing his strong ties to the First State.
Knox
lived in Delaware for 13 years, and received game-changing art training at the
University of Delaware before moving on to Tyler School of Art at Temple
University in Philadelphia. He also taught art in high schools for four years
in Wilmington.
"It's
a very tender and honest presentation," says Marilyn Whittington,
executive director for the humanities forum, which spent $20,000 on the film
project.
Coming full circle
Born
in 1935 to a family of poor sharecroppers in Aliceville, Ala., Knox moved to
Milford more than two decades later on the heels of his parents, who were
seeking work up north.
After
a three-year stint in the Army, he enrolled in Delaware State College as a
biology major, producing stellar drawings of microorganisms, before heading to
UD.
As
one of only a half-dozen black students at the school, Knox recalled feeling
isolated in the dining hall, ignored by white students.
"Every
now and then, some brave soul followed the courage of conviction," he
says.
While
attending school and working at a textile factory in Milford, Del., he painted
an 11-year-old Randy Holland at the request of Holland's father, who worked
with Knox at the factory. Nearly a half-century later, Holland returned the
favor by asking Knox to paint his portrait when he was appointed to the
Delaware Supreme Court.
In
1961, Knox completed his first notable portrait -- a full-size self-portrait
depicting a young man as an emerging force, his browstrong, his expression
enigmatic.
"I
wasn't trying to communicate anything except looking in the mirror," he
explains.
Knox
chose to pursue the current fad, abstract art, exhibiting alongside heavy
hitters like Hans Hofmann and Roy Lichtenstein. He learned tricks that later
influenced his portraits, such as manipulating warm colors to make objects pop
and using cool colors to help them recede, creating a 3-D canvas.
In
1971, he was honored in the "Thirty-Second Biennial of Contemporary
American Painting" at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
But
he missed the challenge of painting the human face, each one different than the
next. "If I talk to you for five minutes, I have you pretty much sized
up," he says.
Most
difficult are the hands, he continues, simulating the blood flow around the
joints. In his portrait of Darnell Dockett, defensive tackle for the Arizona
Cardinals and father of Knox's grandson, the hands are crossed on the player's
hulking chest with a prominent tattoo "Laugh now, cry later."
Judges
appear less imposing. Often, they are surrounded by objects that have shaped
their lives, from family portraits to stuffed ducks.
In
painting then-Justice Marshall, Knox manipulated a smile, narrowing the eyes
and thinning out the lips.
"He
gave me a serious look but I wanted to make him look pleasant," remembers
Knox.
Marshall
kept the painting behind his desk and joked to Knox that he wanted to be known
as the "hanging judge," the artist recalls.
Plum assignment
Knox
had his "personal Super Bowl" moment in 2000, when he was selected to
paint the Clintons. The New York Times and a host of other publications came
calling and the president praised Knox as "a part of America's
promise."
Gone
were the days when subjects would sit for two hours a day for weeks on end
without changing clothes. For President Clinton, Knox made do with 45 minutes,
snapping photos in a frenzy.
It
took Knox several months to complete the presidential portrait, submitting five
poses for Clinton to review. The two bonded over a shared passion for jazz.
In
the end, Clinton chose a standing pose, one hand resting self-assuredly in his
pocket, surrounded by an American flag and military medallions.
Initially,
the first lady disliked the way her hand grazed a table, so Knox tweaked it.
"I
didn't get anything out of the Bush administration," he notes. Indeed, the
only Republicans Knox has painted were Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and
freed slave and famous abolitionist Frederick Douglass but, as Knox notes,
"He had no choice."
After
earning his degrees, Knox moved to Washington to earn a living as an artist
serving the capital coterie. Now, working from his home's converted garage in
Silver Spring, Md., the father of three charges $18,000 to $60,000 per
portrait, depending on size and complexity. He routinely works from photographs
and his portraits are imbued with the vibrant clarity of a photo.
It
is a highly subjective craft, where reputation is paramount and a commission
can collapse if a subject prefers a brown dress to red. Incidentally, Oprah was
a vision in red in her 6-foot-tall portrait.
Knox
also has completed at least a dozen portraits for the Cosby family -- early
supporters of his work -- including painting Cosby's wife, Camille, four times
because it "wasn't quite right."
Recently,
he finished portraits of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, New York Gov.
Andrew Cuomo and former Aetna CEO Ron Williams. Knox also created a bronze
sculpture of the first African-American mayor of Baltimore, the late Clarence
"Du" Burns. Destined for Baltimore's Inner Harbor, the sculpture
depicts Burns holding the hand of a small child, modeled by Knox's grandson.
Breathing life in
In
Knox's down time, which is becoming more common in a troubled economy, he
focuses on landscapes and still-life paintings. He manages to capture the
personality of a ripe pomegranate or the curled lip of a tulip.
Last
month, the dapper Knox attended the opening of his exhibit in Wilmington. Soon,
he was surrounded, flipping through his iPhone camera roll to dazzle guests
with other examples of his portraiture.
Among
the attendees was one of Knox's subjects, Chief District Judge Gregory Sleet,
the first African American to be appointed U.S. Attorney in Delaware and the
first to be appointed to the federal bench in the state.
Sleet
applauded Knox for putting him at ease during the portrait-making process.
Sleet is portrayed as relaxed and approachable, surrounded by the scales of
justice, and a photograph of him as a young boy meeting Martin Luther King Jr.
at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Sleet's father, Pulitzer
Prize-winning journalist Moneta Sleet Jr., introduced his son to the civil
rights leader.
"My
father was probably the greatest influence on my life," says Sleet, in
explaining why he chose to include the photo.
Knox
"breathes a life into a flower or judge," says Citizens Bank gallery
director Jerry Bilton, while confronting some of the eternal questions of art:
"What is illusion? What is truth?"
 |
Simmie
Knox stands among his paintings during a gallery preview of his works in
Wilmington, Del. The portrait features Justice Carolyn Berger of the Delaware
State Supreme Court. Knox was the first African-American artist to create an
official White House portrait, painting former President Bill Clinton and first
lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2000. Photo by WILLIAM BRETZGER/GANNETT via www.thetowntalk.com.
|
