Artist: Salvador Dalí
Medium: oil on canvas
Date: c. 1970
Dali’s paintings tell stories, and this painting is a story of a toreador (bullfighter) and his love for the Venus, both strongly representing masculinity and femininity, respectively. But their love can never be fulfilled, because the toreador dies, as does the bull (pictured near the lower left). Continue reading The Hallucinogenic Toreador
Artist: Norman Lewis
Medium: oil on canvas
Date: c. 1948
Artist: Emiliano Di Cavalcanti
Medium: oil on canvas
Date: c. 1955
Artist: Aaron Douglas,
Aspects of Negro Life Series
Medium: oil on canvas
Date: c. 1934.
Artist: Aaron Douglas
Medium: oil on canvas board
Date: c. 1944
Building More Stately Mansions was a study for a larger work Douglas painted while teaching at Fisk University in Nashville, TN. It symbolizes the labor of black men and women. Their active figures are silhouetted against a utopian background, while concentric bands of muted color suggest the continuum of history and knowledge. The implied passage of time links the builders of pyramids, temples, and churches to those of modern skyscrapers and anticipates the intellectual and artistic achievements of African Americans in the future.
Artist: Salvador Dalí
Medium: oil on canvas
Date: c. 1937
Metamorphosis of Narcissus is Dalí’s interpretation of the Greek myth of Narcissus. Narcissus was a youth of great beauty who loved only himself and broke the hearts of many lovers. The gods punished him by letting him see his own reflection in a pool. He fell in love with it, but discovered he could not embrace it and died of frustration. Relenting, the gods immortalized him as the narcissus (daffodil) flower. Continue reading Metamorphosis of Narcissus
Artist: Emiliano Di Cavalcanti
Medium: oil on canvas
Date: c. 1955
Artist: Norman Wilfred Lewis
Medium: Lithograph
Date: c. 1937
Artist: Aaron Douglas
Medium: oil on canvas
Date: c. 1936
Artist: Archibald Motley, Jr.
Medium: oil on canvas
Date: c. 1941
Camden Civil Rights Project 