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Homage to the Mothaland (Africa), by Anderson J. Pigatt, 1979. Paint/Wood. 38 in. x 12 in. Collection of the artist.
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In Honor of the Brothers and Sisters of Reclamation Site #1, by Anderson J. Pigatt, 1969. Paint/wood. 8 ft. x 2 in. x 26 in. Collection of the artist.
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Khadeja, by Anderson J. Pigatt, 1968. Paint/Wood. 31 in. x 16 in. x 11 in. From the collection of Edward Smith, Jr.
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Medium/Discipline: Sculpture
Birthplace: Rayford, North Carolina
Maryland Affiliation: Active while in residence
Style/Period: Folk Art; Primitive Art
Active Dates and Place: Baltimore, Maryland: 1930-1963, 1977-present; New York, New York: 1963-1977
Gender: Male
Race/Ethnicity: Black/African-American
Biography: Anderson "Andy" J. Pigatt, born in Rayford, North Carolina, moved to Baltimore with his family at age two in 1930; his father worked at Bethlehem Steel. Andy Pigatt was trained in general woodworking, cabinetmaking and carpentry after serving in the U.S. Army from 1950-55, and apprenticed in antique furniture repair and refinishing with James W. Leach of Baltimore, Pigatt became an antique furniture restorer and carpenter when he moved to New York in 1963; he simultaneously gained an interest in wood carving, which he took up on his own without any formal training. While in New York, he worked with firms such as Worldwide Antiques, Leonard's Antique Gallery and Knapp and Seigal Antiques to restore pieces by Chippendale, Jacobean, Sheraton, Queen Anne and Duncan Phyfe.
Pigatt's woodcarving took the shape of mid- to large-scale monumental sculpture and sculpture in relief that formally "absorb African methods of high and low relief West Indian craft traditions of rough whittling, the introduction of polychrome color areas into the sculpture, and combinations of direct carving and assembled units." (Taylor, Boston Globe, 1973). His work is frequently painted with bright coats of paint.
Pigatt was perhaps most prolific as an artist in the 1960s and 1970s. In New York, Pigatt received praise from New York Times art critic John Canaday who highlighted Pigatt's work on display in the New Black Artists show at the Brooklyn Museum of Art held in 1969. Canaday referred to Pigatt as one of the three strongest artists represented in the exhibition, noting that they also happened to be the only three self-taught artists represented in the show. Canaday attributes the success of Pigatt's work in part to a particular strength of expression of the African American experience. "Mr. Pigatt's style is devoid of niceties; his blunt crude forms have a power like that of speech in a simplified vocabulary by an angry poet who used each word the way a natural fighter uses a fist." (Canaday, New York Times, 1969.)
Work by Pigatt, such as "Hope" (1964) and "Khadeja" (1968), both oversize heads of women, has been described as possessing "a monumentality that owes much to simplicity." (Dorsey, The Baltimore Sun, 1998). Later work, such as "Oneness" (1997), is complex and detailed in form, colorful and hierarchical, symbolizing ancestors and earth below and life and sky above. Pigatt's subjects derive from personal and political motivations. "One Leg of Alabama" from the 1960s depicts carvings that wind around a central column and tell the story of the Birmingham bombings with the children who were its victims while Klansmen and lynch mobs on one side destroy the community that is being constructed by black citizens on the other.
In 1998, Maryland Art Place in Baltimore held a retrospective of 34 of his sculptures dating from 1964 to 1998. Other significant showings of Pigatt's work took place in 1973 at The Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists in Boston, MA, called Speaking Spirits; a critic cited a statement Pigatt made about his work during this show: "These dead trees that I write stories on may last 1,000 years for the world to see...For when God made man, there were lights, color and sound happiness all around, and my dream is to bring it about again by returning light, color and sound to the consciousness of mankind. And I will work until hate be replaced with love and greed is replaced with giving." (Chandler, Bay State Banner, 1973).
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of The New York Public Library in New York City holds a number of Pigatt's pieces, including his first sculpture "Nigger Chained" and a sculpture entitled "Alone, Together and Alone Again" that was donated by the Andy Warhol Foundation. His work is also in the private collections of Maryland, New York, Texas and Tennessee residents, including Dr. Leslie King-Hammond, Dean of Graduate Studies at the Maryland Institute College of Art, and Dr. John Biggers.
Art-related Employment: sculptor; antique furniture restorer; woodworker; carpenter; cabinet-maker
Selected References: Canaday, John. "Sculpture is the Strength of 'New Black Artists' Show," The New York Times (October 8, 1969).
Chandler, Dana. "Anderson Pigatt: A Self-Taught Artist," Bay State Banner, Boston, MA (November 22, 1973).
Dorsey, John. "Pigatt Retrospective," The Baltimore Sun (October 20, 1998).
Taylor, Robert. "Anderson Pigatt's Sculpture Seen in Speaking Spirits," Boston Globe (November 22, 1973).
Single-Artist Exhibitions: Andy Pigatt: A Retrospective, Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, MD. Curated by Charles Camp and Jack Rasmussen, 1998.
The Last Stop Gallery, Richmond, VA, 1993.
AURA, Pikesville, MD, 1977.
Stories in Wood, A. J. P. Gallery, New York, NY, 1976.
In Honor of the Brothers and Sisters, Harlem State Office Building, New York, NY, 1975.
Speaking Spirits, The Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, Boston, MA, 1973.
Multiple-Artist Exhibitions: Through the Fire to the Limit, Government House, Annapolis, MD, 1999.
Black New York Artists of the 20th Century: Selections from the Schomburg Center Collections, New York Public Library, New York, NY, 1998.
ARTSCAPE, 1996.
Masters, Mentors and Makers, ARTSCAPE, Baltimore, MD, 1992.
Black Art-Ancestral Legacy: The African Impulse in African-American Art, traveling exhibition: Dallas Museum of Art, TX; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Milwaukee Museum of Art, Milwaukee, WI; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, 1989-91.
Dream Time is Real Time, ARTSCAPE, Baltimore, MD, 1989. Curated by Dr. Leslie King-Hammond.
The Intuitive Eye, Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, MD, 1985. Curated by Dr. Leslie King- Hammond.
Afro-American Jubilee, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA and The Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, Boston, MA, 1974-75.
Directions in Afro-American Art, The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 1974.
Ulster County Association of Black History, New Neighborhood Community Center, Kingston, NY, 1972.
Distinctly Black, North Shore Unitarian Church, Manhasset, NY, 1971.
New Black Artists, traveling exhibition, sponsored by the Illinois Bell Telephone Co.: Lobby gallery, Chicago, IL; Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL; University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI; Sloan Galleries, Valporaiso, IN; Peoria Art Guild, Peoria, IL; Burpee Gallery, Rockford, IL; Davenport Municipal Gallery, Davenport, IA, 1971.
New Black Artists, traveling exhibition, sponsored by the American Federation of Fine Arts: The Urban Center of Columbia University and the Harlem Cultural Council: Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, NY; Columbia University, New York, NY; Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts, Dorchester, MA; University of Florida, Gainesville; Millikin University, Decator, IL; Reading Public Museum and Art Gallery, Reading, PA, 1969-71.
Kenyon and Eckhardt Advertising and the Great Real Society, Inc., The Pan Am Building, New York, NY, 1968.
Awards: Certificate of Merit, Through the Fire to the Limit, Government House, Annapolis, MD, 1999.
Certificate of Citation, The Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX, 1990.
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