Nude Reflecting by Mel Green
In part 1 of Getting Gullah-Geechee I shared some personal experiences related to the spiritual expressions of Gullah culture, the significant ways that faith is demonstrated and embraced. Now I’m turning to a consideration of color as a cultural marker, and in particular the work of painter Mel Green.
Someone told me I should visit the Gullah-Geechee Cultural Visitors’ Center right there at the corner of Sea Island Parkway and MLK Drive, but I had no idea how much art was on display in the adjacent LyBensons Gallery. There was so much art that some of it is not mounted on the wall but simply sits on the floor, leaning up against the walls, including a few Mel Green canvases of different sizes.
Mel Green is from the Jenkins Community of Beaufort County, part of a large extended family, and he joined the army in 1953 after graduating from Robert Smalls High School. The story goes that he was sightseeing in Europe during military leave and was deeply struck by the ravaged postwar countryside, sparking a political consciousness based on awareness of oppressed people around the world, including back home. It was also then that he took an interest in oil painting to go with his lifelong love of drawing. When he left the army he went to study art in New York City, eventually graduating from the School of Visual Arts in 1959. He worked as an illustrator for a while, returned to Europe briefly, and ended up settling in 1967 in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico to pursue his passion for abstract painting. For the next 4 decades he created abstract canvases that displayed a profound and nuanced understanding of form and line that pleases even casual gazers, but his work extends into the sublime by virtue of his gift for color.
While it’s clear that he was influenced by cubist ideas and forms, particularly Picasso, I would argue it’s even more apparent that his Gullah heritage informed an appreciation of bright and warm rejuvenating tones of blues, yellows, oranges, and reds.
In an artist statement I came across in an article from 2011, Green does talk about the bright colors
Adoration by Mel Green
expressing how he feels about Mexico’s intense sunlight, but my view is that his mastery of color is rooted further back in the St. Helena light of his childhood. This is based on how it feels when you walk into LyBensons Gallery and look at this collection of paintings, all kind of gathered around a corner, on both sides of a doorway. The fit and alignment of mood and magic is resounding, they sit there and glow among the crowded and diverse offerings.
It was also in that artist’s statement that Mel Green talks about while faith and talent are necessary for artists, a commitment to the ideas he wishes to express is paramount, saying, “My art is an expression of my love, ideas, and true feelings and philosophy of life.”
The ideas I get from basking in front of these Mel Green canvases have to do with a rich appreciation for the authentic and sensual. The forms are recognizable (including flowers, women, faces, suns, waves, water) but in their realized shapes add up to more than the sum of their parts. The canvases celebrate life and emit an urgency of an embrace: pay attention, they seem to cry, life is here for you and glorious.
Green also suggests the fluidity of his approach with this quote from the same artist’s statement, “The lines in my paintings express a continuous movement and changing of shapes, colors, and forms. I think of them as lifelines that are always changing into other relevant forms. If you can see and understand the waves in the ocean or a beautiful dance in motion, then you will get the idea of what I’m trying to express in my paintings.
There are two paintings that absolutely astounded me, both female forms. In one, titled Adoration and measuring about 33X23 inches, the figure is hunched over, head down on her arms, face away from the viewer. In two spots, over her head and at the base of her back, there are these little clusters of colorful brush strokes, suggesting an underwater wave of fantastical seaweed. Above a slanted line there is both a sun and a star, referencing an eternity in the moment.
The second female form is called Nude Reflecting and is a bit larger, approximately 38X28 inches. A woman’s form faces you on her side, curiously considering you taking her in. An off kilter flower pops up on from behind a shoulder, and an bright eggy-eyeball shape sits near the center and adds to the sense that you are also on display as much as you are the viewer. There is a mutuality and shared vision taking place, you are part of and co-celebrant.
Mel Green’s work is in private collections and embassies around the world. He died in 2007 in Mexico and is buried in Beaufort in the family burial plot. What lives on is the energy in his canvases, and the way it welcomes you into a captivating and colorful world.
I’ve only scratched the surface of Gullah-Geechee culture with these short reflections on the webs of significance around the spiritual realm and the primacy of color as a cultural marker. I plan to continue to be receptive for what comes my way to explore. Until then, powah to di Gullah folks!
