The National Gallery of Art, in Washington, D.C., — considered one of the greatest museums in the United States — has acquired two images from Springfield artist Julie Blackmon.
“Flatboat” and “Paddleboard,” both from 2022, are gifts from Bill Haw Jr. and Blackmon, respectively.
‘Flatboat' reworks a painting by famous Missouri artist
Blackmon, a recent guest on the Daily Citizen’s podcast “In Our Town,” reworked Missouri artist George Caleb Bingham’s 1846 painting “The Jolly Flatboatment” for “Flatboat.” Her photo puts a twist on what former NGA director Earl Powell called one of “the first distinctly American paintings that capture the allure of Western expansion through the mid-19th century.”
“In 'Flatboat,' Blackmon has restaged Bingham’s iconic painting ‘The Jolly Flatboatmen’ as a tableau of children and adolescents loafing on a raft,” a press release from The National Gallery of Art said. “However, in Blackmon’s present-day reimagining the central white male figure of the painting becomes a young Black girl reveling in the joy of a summer’s day.”
The girl in that photograph lives around the corner from Blackmon in Springfield. It’s not uncommon for the artist to feature neighbors or family members in her work.
“Her subject is her sprawling family, including her many nieces and nephews, as well as friends and neighbors, who have become her ‘troupe of players,’” the NGA said. “Working in bright, saturated color, her witty photographs are full of detail and layered meanings. They are unabashedly fictitious, evoking both a theatrical set and a film still.”
‘Paddleboard' replaces fur traders with pregnant woman and child
“Paddleboard” is inspired by another Bingham painting, “Fur Traders Descending the Missouri,” from 1845. That painting lives in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In her photograph, Blackmon replaces the two fur traders with a pregnant woman and a child.
“The cargo of the fur traders has been swapped with a tall stack of coolers,” the NGA said. “The child swimming in the background, with a shark fin strapped to their back, adds a menacing note, suggesting the struggle for survival despite the apparent tranquility of the scene.”
The National Gallery of Art is now the third museum to add “Paddleboard” to its collection, following Kansas City's Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, on the campus of Kansas State University.
Related podcast
Podcast: A Springfield artist with a national following, Julie Blackmon talks inspiration, meaning
Episode description: Fine artist Julie Blackmon discusses inspiration — including the Rountree neighborhood setting — with host Tom Carlson. Blackmon discusses her approach to making images, along with the trajectory of her career with Kansas City gallerist Bill Haw of Haw Contemporary. Blackmon was recently featured in a New York Times piece headlined, “Springfield, Missouri is…
