The Anacostia Community Museum will be closed from January 8, 2024-March 22, 2024. We will reopen on Saturday, March 23, 2024 with our next exhibition, A Bold and Beautiful Vision: A Century of Black Arts Education in Washington, DC,1900-2000. We hope you will join us! 

3:00 PM in the Studio

Object Details

Author
Kenn Simpson
Date
Between 1960 and 1980
Medium
oil on canvas board
Dimensions
Frame: 25 × 30 11/16 × 1 11/16 in. (63.5 × 78 × 4.3 cm)
Caption
Bright light bathes this still life by painter, printmaker, and art educator Kenn Simpson (1926-1986), a lifelong Washington, DC resident. In greys, browns, and whites, five vessels of varying sizes nestle into a white tablecloth whose craggy topography reflects Simpson’s painterly style. At the center of the oil painting on canvas stands a glass syrup pitcher with a metallic spout. To its left, a small creamer sits in front of a tall tea pot, while a parallel pair on the right features a large terracotta jug towering behind an earthenware pitcher in two shades of grey. The scene is set on a brown drop-leaf table with matching chairs that almost disappear under broad strokes of grey and white paint.
Simpson graduated from Dunbar High School, the renowned public school for African Americans in the District’s segregated system and earned his teaching certificate from DC Teachers College. Both institutions offered innovative art instruction developed by visionary art educator Thomas W. Hunster (1851-1929). He continued his studies at Howard University (AB), Catholic University (MFA), and with DC-based painter and printmaker Jack Perlmutter (2019.1.15). Joining colleagues who were also his artistic peers, such as William N. Buckner, Jr. (1888-1984) and Alma W. Thomas (1891-1978), Simpson taught art for three decades in DC public schools, including Kelly Miller Junior High, Roosevelt High School, and Woodson High School. Like Buckner, Thomas, and Hunster before them, he participated actively in local and national art communities, serving as president of the DC Art Association (DCAA), an organization founded by art educators in the DC public schools, and the National Conference of Artists. Simpson’s artwork was on display in several DCAA exhibitions at the Museum in the 1970s and featured posthumously in Inspiration: 1961-1989, the group’s retrospective in 1989.
Accession Number
2014.0027.0001
Type
painting
See more items in
Anacostia Community Museum Collection
Data Source
Anacostia Community Museum
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
GUID
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dl872d00e61-9827-4fdf-835f-014fbc47d5f9
Record ID
acm_2014.0027.0001
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