Herman "Kofi" Bailey (also known as Kofi X) (1931–1981) was an African-American artist. He was best known for his conté and

charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, cal ...

drawings reflecting of the African-American experience.

Personal life

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Bailey grew up in Los Angeles, California.Fuller, H.W. "Editor's Notes." '' Negro Digest'' 16.9 (1967):4. He received his education from Alabama State College and then attended Howard University where he studied under Alain Locke, Sterling Brown and

James A. Porter James Amos Porter (December 22, 1905 – February 28, 1970) was an African-American art historian, artist and teacher. He is best known for establishing the field of African-American art history and was influential in the African American Art ...

. He obtained his MFA at the University of Southern California. At Alabama he received commissions for large paintings and murals as a student. He was described as a " black bohemian" at the time, often seen wearing a beret, talking jive, carrying a bottle "in one pocket" and talking about music and art. While living in Atlanta his studio space was located at the Institute of the Black World's second building. He lived at Paschal's Motor Lodge Hotel, where if he was unable to make rent he would trade artwork with one of the Paschal brothers in exchange. Bailey spoke with slurred speech, which was due to his heavy use of drugs and alcohol. Bailey was described as taking pills then drinking, spending his money on "a full pint of scotch" or vodka. Herman "Kofi" Bailey died in 1981 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Professional career

His work and illustrations have been described as "... Combining both geometric and figural elements, he often used massive shapes to surround the sensitively rendered figures that serve as focal points for most of his compositions." Geometric forms are often make up the background, as if to appear emerging from it. Bailey usually used

or conté as a medium, experimenting with oil and acrylic painting as well. Sometimes he used three to four mediums in an artwork and color often took a secondary role in his work, preferring to rely on

earth tones Earth tone is a color scheme with multiple meanings. In its narrowest sense, it refers to "any color containing some brown" – the color of ground or soil (earth). It can also refer to "natural colors" (colors found in nature) such as brown soil, ...

. Bailey was influenced by artists such as Goya, Rico Lebrun, Jacob Lawrence and Charles White. He described himself in 1967 as a "representational" artist "rather than " abstract" because his work is committed to the masses who, he feels, "want to see art that deals with man, art which tries to express the varying moods of man; and man is my principal concern."" In 1967 Bailey was artist-in-residence at Spelman College which held an exhibition about Bailey's work that was created while he was living in Ghana in 1962–1966.

Political and racial themes

His artwork often reflected influences of Pan-Africanism. Portraits of

Kwame Nkrumah Kwame Nkrumah (born 21 September 190927 April 1972) was a Ghanaian politician, political theorist, and revolutionary. He was the first Prime Minister and President of Ghana, having led the Gold Coast to independence from Britain in 1957. An in ...

often appeared, with Nkrumah, then President of Ghana, depicted as a heroic figure in front of a black

star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

. While living in Ghana he served as an art teacher and the artist-in-residence to Nkrumah until the leader was deposed in 1966. Bailey also covered other areas of the African-American experience such as Black Power, anticolonialism, and African-American civil rights. Black women and children often made frequent appearances as well. These socially aware and often politically charged artworks reflected the racism experienced by Africans and African Americans primarily in the 20th century. The stark contrast of the black inks or charcoals on white paper at times dramatizes the conflicts of blacks and whites. His work is commonly found in art and literature about the Civil Rights Movement . While living in Atlanta he created posters for the

H. Rap Brown Jamil Abdullah al-Amin (born Hubert Gerold Brown; October 4, 1943), formerly known as H. Rap Brown, is a civil rights activist, black separatist, and convicted murderer who was the fifth chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ...

Center, a venue that was frequented by members of the

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, often pronounced ) was the principal channel of student commitment in the United States to the civil rights movement during the 1960s. Emerging in 1960 from the student-led sit-ins at segrega ...

(SNCC). Eventually he would create posters for and serve as newsletter illustrator for the SNCC. After the Six-Day War, which Israel won, SNCC launched an

anti-Zionist Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism. Although anti-Zionism is a heterogeneous phenomenon, all its proponents agree that the creation of the modern State of Israel, and the movement to create a sovereign Jewish state in the region of Palestine ...

campaign featuring

anti-Semitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

images. Bailey created an illustration featuring an Israeli firing squad shooting a group of Arabs with a caption reading: "This is the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...

, Palestine, not

Dachau , , commandant = List of commandants , known for = , location = Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany , built by = Germany , operated by = ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) , original use = Political prison , construction ...

, Germany". While some SNCC officers distanced themselves from the article and image, the SNCC's pro-Palestinian stand cut support from many Jewish organizations. Bailey continued to create at times controversial comics for SNCC including depictions of

Moshe Dayan Moshe Dayan ( he, משה דיין; 20 May 1915 – 16 October 1981) was an Israeli military leader and politician. As commander of the Jerusalem front in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (1953–1958) du ...

, believed by some to be stereotyping of Jewish financial dominance and by others as showing the financial dependencies between the US and Israeli military's. ''The Palestine Problem'', another comic by Bailey during this time, connects United States racial violence, military imperialism in Vietnam and the Arab world, and the Afro-Arab freedom struggle.

Reception

James Early cites Kofi's work as a major influence, describing the illustrations by Bailey as "among the great, energizing artistic expressions created in the crucible of social justice activism and organizing that was Atlanta in the 1960s." Artist and

art historian Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

Floyd Coleman described Bailey as a rule breaker: "Although he didn't follow the rules he was committed to the struggle of African Americans and set a standard in his work that many of us tried to emulate." Carmen Riddle described Bailey as "a genius, a pure genius at his art."

Notable collections

* California African American Museum *

Hampton University Hampton University is a private, historically black, research university in Hampton, Virginia. Founded in 1868 as Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School, it was established by Black and White leaders of the American Missionary Association af ...

* National Museum of African American History and Culture * National Civil Rights Museum * Spelman College *

University Museums at the University of Delaware The University Museums at the University of Delaware is the collective name for the University of Delaware's collections of American art, minerals, and Pre-Columbian ceramics. The museums are open to the public and are used as laboratories by Un ...

Notable exhibitions

* ''Showcase & Tell: Treasures from the Spelman College Permanent Collection'', 2009, Spelman College, Atlanta * ''Tradition Redefined: The Larry and Brenda Thompson Collection of African American Art'', 2009, University of Maryland, College Park * ''A Century of African American Art: The Paul R. Jones Collection'', 2004, University of Delaware, Newark * ''Atlanta Collects'', 2004, City Gallery East, Atlanta * ''Black Power/Black Art: and the struggle continues: Political Imagery from the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s'', 1994, San Francisco State University, San Francisco * ''African American Art in Atlanta: Public and Corporate Collections'', 1984, High Museum of Art, Atlanta * ''A Memorial Exhibition'', 1982, Spelman College, Atlanta * ''Highlights from the Atlanta University Collection of Afro-American Art'', 1973, High Museum of Art, Atlanta * ''TCB'', 1971, National Center of Afro-American Artists, Boston

References

External links

''Untitled (Closed for King)''
by photographer Robert Sengstacke featuring artwork by Bailey. * featuring Bailey's portrait of Kwame Nkrumah in the background.