The Barnett-Aden Gallery was a nonprofit

art gallery An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The lon ...

in Washington D.C. founded by

James V. Herring James Vernon Herring (January 7, 1887 – May 29, 1969) was an African-American artist and professor of art at Howard University. James V. Herring founded the Howard University Department of Art in 1922. In 1943 along with Alonzo J. Aden he op ...

and Alonzo J. Aden, who were associated with Howard University's art department and gallery. The gallery, which opened on October 16, 1943 and operated until 1969, was the first successful Black-owned private art gallery in the United States;The cited source explains this particular phrasing at footnote 4, on the basis that the

Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the t ...

sculptor

Augusta Savage Augusta Savage (born Augusta Christine Fells; February 29, 1892 – March 27, 1962) was an American sculptor associated with the Harlem Renaissance. She was also a teacher whose studio was important to the careers of a generation of artists who w ...

opened a New York City gallery, The Salon of Contemporary Negro Art, earlier, in June 1939, but it closed after only a few months. showcased numerous important artists; and became an important, racially integrated part of the artistic and social worlds of 1940s and 1950s Washington, D.C. The gallery was located in the first floor of the 127 Randolph Place, NW row home shared by the two founders, who were life partners. Herring joined the Howard faculty in 1921, started the University's Art department in 1922, was its head until he retired in 1953, and founded the University's Gallery of Art in 1928 (it opened in 1930). Aden, a former student of Herring's at Howard who was the first curator of the University's Gallery of Art until he left that position in 1943, was the director of the Barnett-Aden gallery, and it was named after his mother, Naomi Barnett Aden. Artists featured at the gallery included Alma Thomas,

Elizabeth Catlett Elizabeth Catlett, born as Alice Elizabeth Catlett, also known as Elizabeth Catlett Mora (April 15, 1915 – April 2, 2012) was an African American sculptor and graphic artist best known for her depictions of the Black-American experience in th ...

, Lois Mailou Jones, Charles White,

Edward Mitchell Bannister Edward Mitchell Bannister (November 2, 1828January 9, 1901) was an oil painter of the American Barbizon school. Born in Canada, he spent his adult life in New England in the United States. There, along with his wife Christiana Carteaux Bannist ...

Jacob Lawrence Jacob Armstead Lawrence (September 7, 1917 – June 9, 2000) was an American painter known for his portrayal of African-American historical subjects and contemporary life. Lawrence referred to his style as "dynamic cubism", although by his own ...

, Laura Wheeler Waring, Romare Bearden,

Henry O. Tanner Henry Ossawa Tanner (June 21, 1859 – May 25, 1937) was an American artist and the first African-American painter to gain international acclaim. Tanner moved to Paris, France, in 1891 to study at the Académie Julian and gained acclaim in Fren ...

and

Bernice Cross Bernice Cross (1912–1996) was an American artist and art instructor born in Iowa City, Iowa, who was based in Washington, D.C. for most of her professional career. Known for her originality, creative imagination, sense of humor, and love of ...

. The collection featured artists of every race, particularly African American artists whose work was shown in few other venues. "...there were few such opportunities in the years following World War II...in those bleak years, the Barnett-Aden Gallery was one of the few private galleries where Black painters, sculptors and graphic artists had a continuing opportunity to expose their works.”Anacostia Neighborhood Museum; Barnett-Aden Gallery; Corcoran Gallery of Art (1974). ''The Barnett-Aden collection: catalog''. Washington, DC: Published for the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum by the Smithsonian Institution Press; pg. 153. The gallery opened on October 16, 1943 with the exhibition "American Paintings for the Home." It was officially incorporated on August 19, 1947. The early gallery as it existed in 1947 can be seen in the painting ''First Gallery'' by John Robinson. Exhibitions, shows, receptions and other events provided a racially integrated gathering place for the art community in a segregated city from the 1940s-1960s.

Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...

was photographed visiting the Barnett-Aden Gallery in 1944, as First Lady. Romare Bearden said that the first time he saw a

Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...

in Washington was at the Barnett-Aden. Therese Schwartz wrote that the Barnett-Aden was the most important art gallery in America south of New York. The gallery began to decline in the late 1950s. After the death of the founders in 1961 (Aden) and 1969 (Herring), the gallery closed and the bulk of the gallery's collection was transferred via Adolphus Ealey to the Museum of African American Art in Tampa, FL, (now defunct) as well as to private collections. The collection was shown in the 1970s at the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum of the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

and the

Corcoran Gallery of Art The Corcoran Gallery of Art was an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University. Overview The Corcoran School of the Arts & Design ...

. The majority of the collection was owned by

Robert L. Johnson Robert Louis Johnson (born April 8, 1946) is an American entrepreneur, media magnate, executive, philanthropist, and investor. He is the co-founder of BET, which was acquired by Viacom in 2001. He also founded RLJ Companies, a holding company ...

. In 2015, he donated portions to the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Notes

References

{{Authority control Art museums and galleries in Washington, D.C. Defunct art museums and galleries in the United States 1943 establishments in Washington, D.C. Art galleries established in 1943