Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 3/8/2023
SPRINGFIELD — The Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts debuted a new exhibit “Nelson Stevens: Color Rapping” on March 4 in honor of the legacy and work of Stevens — a local Springfield artist, activist and educator who left a sizable impact in the community and world at large.
Reminder Publishing attended an early press preview of the art exhibit moderated by D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts Curator Maggie North and local and internationally recognized artist Don Blanton – a friend and contemporary of Stevens with his own rich history in the arts. Blanton and his brother, Paul, painted Heritage on the Wall, a mural in Springfield’s Winchester Square, along with 30 other murals in the city. He also served as president of the Afro Art Alliance in the 1970s, a local organization dedicated to the advancement of Black artists.
Stevens is renowned for creating powerful, rhythmic compositions that celebrate black life and reveal his technical mastery of his craft. His works can be found in private collections and public museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, according to a Springfield Museums press release.
Stevens lived in Springfield from 1972 through 2003, teaching at the University of Massachusetts Amherst while spearheading the creation of public art projects in the city. He helped create over 30 murals in the city, lasting symbols that promoted Black empowerment, pride, activism and tied in cohesively with a local Black arts movement in Western Massachusetts.
“He was local. He was right here working in this community, and he was dedicated to representing Black people in beautiful ways that would be inspirational to the folks around him,” said North.
“He took so much pride in that. One of his major things was to respect everyone,” said Blanton.
Stevens is also well-regarded for being an early member of the AfriCOBRA (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists) in the late 1960s — a Chicago art collective that still leaves an impact today with their uplifting representation of the Black community through artistic platforms.
In July 2022, Stevens died at the age of 84. Before his death, Stevens was aware of the developing exhibit being crafted in his honor. It first premiered at the University of Maryland Global Campus in September 2022.
“He knew it was coming. He knew it was on the way. We hope this is a way to honor him,” said North reflecting on the exhibit’s Springfield debut.
The “Nelson Stevens: Color Rapping” exhibit showcases the full breadth of Stevens’ career. When first walking into the exhibit hall, patrons are greeted by early works crafted when Stevens was emerging from his student career to becoming an educator.
“They were done when Nelson was studying in Ohio. He was experimenting with color and abstraction. You can see that importance of color as a foundational element of art that comes through in his work,” said North.
After establishing himself in abstraction art, Stevens continued to develop his style and shifted towards portrait art. One of his early portraits was inscribed “Me and My Brother” – a self-portrait molded within the imagery of African death masks. Blanton shared how the work reflects on the cultural artifact as a symbol of eternal life.
“A death mask is not really what it is. They wore those masks in death in order to continue to live,” said Blanton.
North and Blanton discussed how Stevens’ transition to portrait work served as a nuanced extension of advocation and pride for the Black community.
“That was related to this idea that was going around in the 70s in the Black power and Black arts movements that Black artists were coming together in order to advocate for pride, for self-sufficiency and empowerment,” said North.
Blanton said Stevens’s work and his own mural, “Heritage on the Wall,” were works intended to uplift the Black community at a time when racial discrimination was unignorable in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement. Blanton worked in the Afro Art Alliance after being denied by local art initiatives.
“It was not to put down being white, but to bring up people who had been pushed back down [throughout history]. We got to go forward, not backward,” said Blanton.
Many of Nelson’s works merge artistic forms, showing “an explosion of color that makes you almost think in sound.” North and Blanton said music played a deep influence in his works, including several portraits created in the likeness of Stevie Wonder and Bob Marley.
“He loved soul and improvisational jazz … They are these great examples of the way he could merge abstraction and figuration too. This style he came up with could be so recognizable, but [also] so inspired by music,” said North.
“He was a historian of music. I was surprised at times how vast his knowledge was of different artists and different musicians,” said Blanton.
Stevens also created works modeled after students, friends and other Black icons, such as Muhammad Ali.
“He called people like Muhammed Ali transformers because they were folks who created a better path for those who came after them. They transformed the world around him, but they also allowed people to walk in their own footsteps,” said North.
In the 1990s, Stevens transitioned toward works representing spirituality through different religious motifs from the viewpoint of Black subjects. These works served as a tool to revise historical cannon and “push back against Eurocentric models of art.”
“He was interested in finding a way to instill belief and spirituality in his community,” said North.
North and Blanton reflected deeply on the impact Stevens left in the community through his art and philosophy.
“This is a celebration of an incredible artist and an incredible educator. He’s somebody whose work will only grow with importance over time,” said North.
“More than anything else, this is a celebration of a genius … I look at his work, and its just so different. Every single piece, think of the hours and all the time it took, and the dedication more than anything else,” said Blanton.
Blanton continues to empower and educate the youth through his Art Esteem Program. He started the concept initially at Shriner’s Hospital as a way to build self-esteem for the hospitals young patients. Blanton said building self-esteem was essential to his own career, including his first experiences selling a work of art that a patron paid quadruple its initial value due to the deep way the piece impacted them.
“It’s about building self-esteem through the arts … I decided to give back, there’s no better place than Shriner’s [Hospital],” said Blanton.
The program has grown throughout the state, including a workshop at Harvard University.
The “Nelson Stevens: Color Rapping” exhibit will be on display until Sept. 3.
Readers can learn more about “Nelson Stevens: Color Rapping” and other Springfield Museum exhibits at https://springfieldmuseums.org/.