Renowned Black artist finally gets major N.B. exhibition — almost 200 years after he was born here
Edward Mitchell Bannister was born in Saint Andrews in 1828, found success in U.S.
His works are considered by experts to be some of the best examples of 19th century American art and have sold at auction for tens of thousands of dollars.
And yet Edward Mitchell Bannister is almost unknown in his home province.
A new exhibition at the Owens Art Gallery in Sackville aims to correct that.
Called Hidden Blackness, it comes more than a century after Bannister's death in 1901.
According to the Owens Art Gallery website, Hidden Blackness is the first major exhibition of Bannister's work ever presented in Canada. Several of his works have also been displayed at the N.B. Museum.
Bannister, who was born in Saint Andrews in 1828, was also an outspoken advocate for the end of slavery and worked to better the lives of African-Americans through much of his life.
Charmaine Nelson, provost professor of art history at the University of Massachusetts, said while most artists stick to one genre or type of painting, Bannister worked in several, including portraits, figure studies and what he was best known for — landscapes and seascapes.
From early publications, Nelson said it's largely believed that Bannister was self-taught.
He eventually earned recognition for his art, even winning a prize for now-lost painting Under the Oaks at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876, she said.
Bannister also lived in the U.S. before slavery abolished.
"We have to factor in all of the structural racism that he faced, and what that looked like, in part, was art education was racially and sexually segregated," she said.
"Bannister understood what he was up against in terms of the racial segregation and the racism that he was facing because he submitted that painting with only his name," said Nelson, referring to the prize he won at the Philadelphia exposition.
"He declined then to give, kind of, a curriculum or a CV attached to that and many of the other artists would have been trying to add as much information as they could."
Nelson said the judges assumed he was white, and when he showed up to claim his medal, the judges tried to take back the award. But protest from the other artists allowed him to claim the award.
Nine of the works that will be on display at the Owens Art Gallery are on loan from the Smithsonian, which has well over 100 of Bannister's pieces.
Gwen Manthey, a paintings conservator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, said along with having admiration for Bannister's incredible brush skill and colour memory, she also enjoyed digging into who he was as a person and the motivation for his art.
"We're really, really lucky to be able to learn from his artworks," said Manthey.
From Washington, D.C. to N.B.
Manthey said in preparing some of Bannister's pieces to go to Sackville, the Smithsonian looked at the gallery and ensured it was the right environment for the paintings.
Manthey drove with the team to deliver the paintings all the way from Washington, D.C.
"You don't stop with something like that," she said. "I drive along with because I act as caretaker, you know, in case something happens to the truck or, you know, something at the border, I'm there to communicate with the agents, you know, these crates cannot be open now."
Manthey said while quite a few of the paintings in the exhibition are from the Smithsonian, there are other works from various museums and private collections in Canada, as well as some sketches from his childhood.
The exhibition, curated by David Woods, runs until April 6 on the main floor of the Owens Art Gallery.
For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.
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With files from Information Morning Saint John, Moncton
