Felrath Hines (1913-1993) was an artist and conservator. As an African American artist in the twentieth century, Hines faced substantial pressure from his peers to incorporate political and cultural symbols into his work, transforming them into a tool for social commentary. Hines, however, strongly resisted being defined by his race or labeled as a “Black artist.” For him, his art needed to be evaluated on its formal qualities alone.

When Hines arrived in New York, it was on the precipice of transitioning into the center for modern art because of Abstract Expressionism. His early works reflect the influence of cubism and figurative expressionism. Three Figures demonstrates Hines’ experience with the art of Picasso and his introduction to cubism. However, he found the sharp lines to be too restricting and Totem reflects his desire to experiment with a more improvisational style with looser applications of paint and less definable figures. Inspired by formalist aesthetic theories, he sought to flatten his images in order to emphasize the surface of the canvas. Hines prioritized these theories because they excluded any social and political considerations from their aesthetic analyses. Modernist painting of the twentieth century was an entirely self-referential contained object. It utilized color and form to emphasize the process of creation, the employed materials, and, of course, the inherent flatness of the canvas itself. Hines refused to conform to the cultural and political demands placed on artists from racial backgrounds that were considered to be “Other.” He had no interest in participating in the stereotype of “Black art,” which was used to define artworks that explored one’s African roots and/or reflected on their experience as an African American in a White society. His strategic choice to produce abstract art and express the universal through the possibilities of form, color, and texture instead of depicting the expected African American subjects was demonstrative of his personal philosophy that artists should be free to explore different art styles regardless of any societal expectations. Although Felrath Hines is today recognized for his success in conservation, his legacy as an artist remains under-recognized. This is attributable to his refusal to be pigeon-holed on the basis of his race, declining participation in exhibitions concentrated on African American artists. Yet the White-dominated art world had few other opportunities for Black artists to be exhibited and therefore he was not recognized in his lifetime for his achievements in abstraction. This exhibition, while not exhaustive, seeks to illuminate Hines’s innovative mastery of color, shape, and form throughout his career. Spanierman Modern is honored to represent the Estate of Felrath Hines and hopes to continue its efforts in educating the public on the life and career of this impressive artist.