Works of color capture journey of slavery

HAGERSTOWN, MD (PNAN) – Viewing through Saturday, January 14, 2023, “Joseph Holston: Color of Freedom, Journey Along the Underground Railroad” is an exhibition at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts of more than 50 paintings, etchings, and drawings by Maryland-born Joseph Holston, which were created to enhance viewers’ understanding of the condition of slavery, and the powerful instinct toward freedom.

Although this exhibition is one artist’s visual representation and expression, of a range of human experiences and emotions within the framework of this period in American history, nonetheless it captures the essence of the enormous courage and perseverance required to both survive under and escape from slavery.

In Color of Freedom, artist Holston leads the audience as well as embraces four “movements” that track the journeys of those who traveled along the Underground Railroad: 1. The Unknown World, 2. Living in Bondage, 3. The Journey of Escape, 4. Color in Freedom with every stroke of his paintbrush, every choice of color, subject and even canvas size; Holston takes the viewer on a journey of slavery from somber darkness to the bright light of hope.

Holston’s sensitivity to all forms of artistic expression includes an appreciation of music. His understanding of musical composition informs a natural translation of the Color in Freedom themes to the parallels in movement and rhythm of classical symphonic pieces or the thematic approach of jazz long-form compositions.

    For more details on this exhibition, go to https://wcmfa.org/color-in-freedom-joseph-holston-journey-along-the-underground-railroad. Color in Freedom has toured nationally and internationally, including an exhibition at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.

About

American artist Joseph Holston (b. April 6, 1946) is known for a body of work that highlights the African American experience through his use of vivid colors exaggerated and simplified forms, powerful lines, and rhythmic compositions. With a career that spans more than half a century, Holston expresses himself through a variety of media – oil painting, etching, silkscreen and collage. Holston grew up in a rural Black community outside of Chevy Chase, Maryland, before moving in 1960 to Washington, D.C. There, Holston was accepted into the commercial art program at Chamberlain Vocational High School. From 1964 to 1970, Holston worked as a commercial artist and illustrator and studied with portraitist Marcos Blahove (1928-2012). In 1971, he studied in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with portraitist, landscape and still-life painter Richard Vernon Goetz (1915-1991). Months later, Holston resigned from his job in Washington, D.C., and began a full-time career in painting.Today, his widely acclaimed work is included in private and public collections such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum; The Phillips Collection; the Baltimore Museum of Art; the U. S. Federal Reserve Fine Art Collection; the Library of Congress Fine Print Collection; the Yale University Art Gallery; the DuSable Museum of African American History; the Butler Institute of American Art; the Georgia Museum of Art; the Museum of Art of the Rhode Island School of Design; the Amarillo Museum of Art; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York; the University of Maryland University College; the David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland; the Lyndon B. Johnson Library at the University of Texas; Howard University, and the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, where his canvas Jazz at Tacoma Station is a visitor favorite.