Lonnie Holley Live
A night of music
Friday 17 March 2023
6.30 — 8pm
Souls Grown Deep like the Rivers
Black Artists from the American South
17 March — 18 June 2023
Souls Grown Deep like the Rivers
Discover the Black artists from the Southeastern United States who created some of the most spectacular and ingenious works of the last century.
Please note, this exhibition will be open until 9pm on Friday evenings.
For generations, Black artists from the American South have forged a unique art tradition. Working in near isolation from established practices, they have created masterpieces that articulate America’s painful past – the inhuman practice of enslavement, the cruel segregationist policies of the Jim Crow era, and institutionalised racism.
Drawing its title from the work of Langston Hughes, Souls Grown Deep like the Rivers brings together sculpture, paintings, reliefs, drawings, and quilts, most of which will be seen in the UK and Europe for the first time. It will also feature the celebrated quiltmakers of Gee’s Bend, Alabama and the neighbouring communities of Rehoboth and Alberta.
Made from the materials available locally – like clay, driftwood, roots, soil, recycled and cast-off objects – the 70 works range from the mid 20th century to today. Many respond to issues that are global in nature: from economic inequality, oppression and social marginalisation, to sexuality, the influence of place and ancestral memory.
Artists include Thornton Dial, Lonnie Holley, Ronald Lockett, Hawkins Bolden, Bessie Harvey, Charles Williams, Mary T. Smith, Purvis Young, Mose Tolliver, Nellie Mae Rowe, Mary Lee Bendolph, Marlene Bennett Jones, Martha Jane Pettway, Loretta Pettway, and Henry and Georgia Speller.
Exhibition organised by the Royal Academy of Arts, London in collaboration with Souls Grown Deep Foundation, Atlanta.
This exhibition contains images that some visitors might find upsetting. Please contact us for more information.
Our Friends preview days take place 15 March, 10am–6pm, and 16 March, 10am–9pm.
#RASoulsGrownDeep
17 March — 18 June 2023
Tues–Sun: 10am–6pm
Fri: 10am–9pm
Tickets £15 (£13 without donation). Concessions available. Become a Friend of the RA and see all our exhibitions for free.
The Gabrielle Jungels-Winkler Galleries, Burlington Gardens, Royal Academy of Arts
Book nowSupported by
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Gallery
Thornton Dial, Stars of Everything, 2004.
Lonnie Holley, Keeping a Record of It (Harmful Music), 1986.
Ralph Griffin, Eagle, 1988.
Marlene Bennett Jones, Triangles, 2021.
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Are you 25 or under? Go halves with us
See great art for less with half-price tickets to all RA exhibitions. All you need to do is sign up online for free.
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Start here: Souls Grown Deep like the Rivers
A bald eagle crafted from a root and salvaged driftwood; a geometric quilt of blue denim offset by red corduroy; an animal skull with a hollow-eyed stare, mounted on chipped vinyl and a rusting record player.
Find out more about the unique artistic traditions the artists in ‘Souls Grown Deep like the Rivers’ forged and the enormous social and economic challenges they confronted.
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