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In the mid 1960s, a group of young, gifted, and Black
artists came together to form Toledo’s Black Arts Movement.
The group, known as the Confederation of Black Artists (COBA),
and later, the Creative Workshop, consisted of visual
artists, poets and creative writers, choreographers,
musicians, and dramatists. The group’s goal was to provide a
creative space to communicate the Black cultural experience
at the highest level of artistic excellence.
There is, perhaps, no greater danger that confronts a
community than to have its cultural memories, values, and
heroes either erased or forgotten.
White pushback on Nikole Hanna Jones’ Pulitzer Prize-winning
1619 Project and its adoption into educational curricula
bears me out. As does the White backlash surrounding freedom
of Black cultural expression in Black History Month
celebrations at Toledo’s St. John’s Jesuit High School.
Numerous other protests are occurring throughout America
over inclusion of history’s cold, hard facts of racial
injustice in schools’ educational curricula.
I spoke with internationally-acclaimed artist Johäna,
co-founder of Toledo’s Confederation of Black Artists (COBA)
between 1968 and 1975. This article is the conclusion of our
two-part conversation on his award-winning cultural
expressions and Toledo’s Black Arts heritage.
Perryman: When did you
first know that you wanted to be an artist?
Johäna: At Pickett School in
Toledo, the teacher gave us some tempera paint. I did two
pieces from drapery or curtains, and he hung them on the
boards along with the other students’ work. From there, it
grew on me, and I knew I wanted to be an artist at nine or
10 years old. I would get myself a little odd job helping
people in the neighborhood and get about a quarter to do
some small tasks. I would buy a pack of paper for 20 cents
and use the other nickel to buy me some candy or cookies.
By the time I got to high
school, we had an excellent art department and a whole
school of artists, so I elevated my work. Then, in the 11th
or the 12th grade, my pastor opened an account for me
downtown at the art store so I could go down and get art
supplies to take home.
Perryman:
You have done so many inspiring Black cultural pieces,
including the African Odyssey collection you painted or
exhibited in Cameroon. My favorite work of that series is
the watercolor called “Marketplace.” The Black Madonna is a
religious gem that you did earlier in your career. However,
my absolute favorite is the series you did of the legendary
American jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. Please tell me
about your Coltrane series and how it came about.
Johäna: Former U.S.
Representative John Conyers came to Cincinnati to see the
Coltrane series. I was in Africa at the time, so I couldn’t
oblige him. When I got back, an article in the newspaper
said that he personally came to town to see the series
because he had strongly followed John Coltrane.
Most of the work I do
emerges from interests, situations, or previous experiences.
That’s the same thing with Coltrane. I’ve always liked his
music and that of Miles Davis, Pharaoh Sanders, and all
those guys. That interest developed as a result of my
association with jazz musicians, especially the progressive
types.
The series emerged from my
involvement at the Creative Arts Workshop in Toledo and
listening to jazz to the extent that I was at the time. It
grew to a point where I decided to do a tribute to John
Coltrane as an appreciation for his work. I liked him
because he had a progressive side to his music. When you
create from a source as I did with Coltrane, your source
becomes the basis of energy, and it pushes or forces you to
respond in a way that you wouldn’t if you just sat down at a
desk. That was the idea behind the Coltrane Series and
other ones as well; it was a push.
There was a musician, and
he’s a writer and music critic also, who was saying that
when he first saw Pharaoh Sanders playing with Coltrane, his
first impression was that Pharaoh Sanders was trying to
outplay John Coltrane. Then, later, he realized Sanders
wasn’t trying to outperform Coltrane. Instead, he learned
that Coltrane put together musicians. All the musicians in
his group were there to push the other musicians. It’s like
Miles (Davis), in Stanley Nelson’s Grammy-nominated film
Birth of the Cool. Miles brought Herbie Hancock and
other guys. They were ages 22 and 26, and another guy in the
group was 17. Miles told them, ‘I’m not paying you to play
what you know. I want you to play what you don’t know!’
He brought them on stage
to play during the performance, not playing or practicing in
advance. They were all put together to push each other
because it often pulls you to do things that logically you
wouldn’t do.
In doing Coltrane, I knew
the basics and hadn’t had a lot of experience, but working
from Coltrane’s music, would force you to step out there and
do things that, if you have to think about, may not happen.
That was the idea about the John Coltrane Series apart from
the appreciation for his music and everything. It also
served to push me beyond that creative zone that I was
familiar with.
Perryman: How would you
describe the style of your Coltrane series?
Johäna: To a degree, the series
is a form of abstract expressionism. I have evolved to
become a little bit more of a lyrical abstractionist now.
So, I guess you could call it lyrical abstraction because it
responds to Coltrane’s compositions.
Perryman: Black Art icons
such as Jacob Lawrence used a dynamic cubism style. Romare
Bearden was a master of abstract collages.
Johäna: Lawrence’s style is much
more analytical. He breaks the composition down into shapes
and forms. He uses color, movement, and space in relation to
the subject in a very well-thought-out or analytical way.
Bearden is also
analytical. You have paper and stuff all over the studio
floor, and Bearden would look at it and figure how he wanted
to use it in a composition. That requires a lot of
meditation, thought, and imagination to take what’s before
you and then use it to create a statement or work of art out
of it.
I created the Coltrane
series differently. When I’m creating, I can put down 2 or 3
strokes of color on a canvas, and it begins to dictate what
the next move is going to be. What I do is just work with
it. I don’t try to make it into something. I work with what
the dictates are.
Perryman: How many pieces
make up the Coltrane Collection?
Johäna: There are about 22
pieces, including the pair you have. Your canvases are
approximately 3x4 each and put together make a 4x6. The
remaining 20 paintings are each 4 feet wide by 5 feet high.
Perryman: Marvin Vines was
also one of Toledo’s great Black artists. How would you
describe Vines’ style and art?
Johäna: Marvin was a very
dedicated artist with a realistic style, probably influenced
by his experience as a mathematician and math teacher. He
was very exacting anatomically. Vines was a magnificent
artist, and that was the realm in which he worked.
In later works, he got
heavily into Maxwell and emphasized using decorative
patterns in his paintings. Part of that, though, was
inspired by me.
Perryman: Please elaborate.
Johäna: I painted Coretta King
at Martin Luther King’s funeral using a technique with
Elmer’s glue to create some exciting patterns in her veil
and the image. I gave it to Marvin and his wife as a wedding
present, and he really liked it. We were good friends, and
he said, “Johana, you don’t mind if I use your patterns and
paint technique?” I said, “No, Marvin go ahead, man.” He
got married back in about ’71-’72, and he got into those
patterns, and kept those. He didn’t use the same technique
as the pattern itself, but he incorporated those patterns.
A lot of his work from
that point on, you can find that the execution or the image
is very realistic. Sometimes they were realistic. Yet, he
would also use a variety of different colors in his
paintings. So, he could be somewhat impressionistic too,
because he used a lot of different colors. Vines used simple
colors and then would incorporate patterns in a lot of
images as well. He was a good friend. I met Marvin in ’66,
and we had been friends ever since.
Perryman: You have painted
several works for churches and community institutions also.
Haven’t you?
Johäna: I did a series,
Religious Crisis in Social Ministry at Jerusalem Baptist and
I painted one of Christ for the Ascension Lutheran Church.
Then Imani Temple in DC, Archbishop Stallings, he has a
piece there in DC. Then there’s a 6’x8’ piece that sits
right above the baptismal pool one in Arkansas at New Hope
Baptist Church. I also did a social commentary years ago for
the Economic Opportunity Planning Association.
Perryman: Thank you for
helping to preserve these historical memories about our
cultural identity.
In 1980 Johäna was
nominated for the Corbett Award for work done by an
individual artist. In 1981 he was honored by the NAACP for
artistic contributions and with a feature in the Black
Art International Magazine. In 1987 he was a finalist
for a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1988 he was
nominated for an Award in the Visual Arts (AVA).
Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, D.Min, at
drdlperryman@centerofhopebaptist.org |
