A prominent and versatile printmaker, Jennings executed this engraving during his employment with the Works Progress Administration, part of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. Composed of flowing lines that describe a wide range of textures and materials, Still Life with Fetish showcases Jennings’s elegant draftsmanship. Placed prominently near the center of the composition, an African carving sits between a healthy sansevieria plant and a funerary urn. Evoking the artist’s own African ancestry, the sculpted figure also mediates literally and symbolically between life and death.
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Inscription: Signed and inscribed (lower left, in graphite): 'Still Life'; (lower center, in graphite): 19; (lower right, in graphite): WilmEr JEnnings
[Kenkeleba House, New York, until 1992; sold on April 1, 1992 to Williams]; Reba and Dave Williams, New York (1992–99; their gift to MMA)
Bronx. Lehman College Art Gallery of The City University of New York. "Black Printmakers and the W.P.A.," February 23–June 6, 1989, unnumbered cat. (p. 32; dated 1938, lent Courtesy Kenkeleba Gallery) [possibly this edition].
Newark Museum, held jointly at the Equitable Gallery, New York. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," December 10, 1992–February 28, 1993, no. 34 (as "Still Life").
Long Beach Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," June 4–August 8, 1993, no. 34.
Cambridge, England. Fitzwilliam Museum. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," October 5–December 19, 1993, no. 34.
Albany. New York State Museum. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," January 5–March 13, 1994, no. 34.
New Haven. Yale University Art Gallery. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," April 7–June 12, 1994, no. 34.
Louisville. Speed Art Museum. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," July 12–September 4, 1994, no. 34.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," October 9–December 4, 1994, no. 34.
Baltimore Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," January 4–February 26, 1995, no. 34.
Charleston. Gibbes Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," March 26–May 21, 1995, no. 34.
Miami Beach. Bass Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," June 18–August 13, 1995, no. 34.
Little Rock. Arkansas Arts Center. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," September 10–November 5, 1995, no. 34.
Mobile, Ala. Fine Arts Museum of the South. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," December 3, 1995–January 28, 1996, no. 34.
Brooklyn Museum. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," February 25–April 22, 1996, no. 34.
Art Institute of Chicago. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," May 17–July 14, 1996, no. 34.
Dallas Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," August 9–October 6, 1996, no. 34.
Saint Louis Art Museum. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," November 1, 1996–January 2, 1997, no. 34.
Atlanta. High Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," January 31–March 30, 1997, no. 34.
Hamilton, N. Y. Picker Art Gallery, Colgate University. "Life Impressions: 20th-Century African American Prints from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 10–November 4, 2001, no. 19.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "African-American Artists, 1929–1945: Prints, Drawings, and Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," January 15–May 4, 2003, extended to July 6, 2003, no. 3.
Alain Locke. Contemporary Negro Art. Exh. cat., Baltimore Museum of Art. Baltimore, 1939, unpaginated, no. 85 (unknown edition, lent by the artist), calls it "Still Life".
Alain Locke. The Negro in Art: A Pictorial Record of the Negro Artist and of the Negro Theme in Art. Washington, D.C., 1940, p. 7, ill. p. 119 (unknown edition), calls it "Still Life".
Hale A. Woodruff in Lawrence F. Sykes. Four from Providence: Bannister, Prophet, Alston, Jennings. Black Artists in the Rhode Island Social Landscape. Exh. cat., Rhode Island College Art Center, Edward M. Bannister Gallery. Providence, 1978, unpaginated, no. 7 (unknown edition), calls it "Still Life".
Leslie King-Hammond. Black Printmakers and the W.P.A. Exh. cat., Lehman College Art Gallery. Bronx, 1989, pp. 10, 32, ill. p. 20 (possibly this edition), dates it 1938.
Gary A. Reynolds and Beryl J. Wright. Against the Odds: African-American Artists and the Harmon Foundation. Exh. cat., Newark Museum. Newark, 1989, pl. 43 (not this edition), call it "Still Life".
Gylbert Garvin Coker inCharles Alston: Artist and Teacher. Exh. cat., Kenkeleba Gallery. New York, 1990, p. 11, fig. 3 (unknown edition, collection Kenkeleba Gallery), calls it "Still Life".
Reba and Dave Williams inAlone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–40s by African-American Artists; From the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams. Exh. cat., Newark Museum. New York, 1993, pp. 23, 32, 49, no. 34, fig. 22, date it 1938.
Leslie King-Hammond inAlone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–40s by African-American Artists; From the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams. Exh. cat., Newark Museum. New York, 1993, p. 19.
Adrienne L. Childs inNarratives of African American Art and Identity: The David C. Driskell Collection. Ed. Juanita Marie Holland. Exh. cat., Art Gallery, University of Maryland, College Park. San Francisco, 1998, pp. 104, 184, no. 38, ill. (color) (not this edition), calls it "Still Life" also known as "Still Life With Fetish" and dates it 1939.
Richard J. Powell and Jock Reynolds. To Conserve a Legacy: American Art from Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Exh. cat., Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. Andover, Mass., 1999, p. 201, no. 117, ill. (not this edition, Collection of Howard University Gallery of Art), call it "Still Life–#71".
Claude L. Elliott. Pressing On: The Graphic Art of Wilmer Jennings. Exh. cat., Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design. Providence, 2000, pp. 18, 21, 39, 44, ill. p. 19 (not this edition, courtesy of Kenkeleba Gallery, New York), calls it "Still Life" and notes that an edition of this print was given to the Newark Museum by the WPA in 1943.
Mary Ann Calo inLife Impressions: 20th-Century African American Prints from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Dewey F. Mosby. Exh. cat., Picker Art Gallery, Colgate University. Hamilton, N. Y., 2001, p. 10.
Dewey F. Mosby and Jane Seney inLife Impressions: 20th-Century African American Prints from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Dewey F. Mosby. Exh. cat., Picker Art Gallery, Colgate University. Hamilton, N. Y., 2001, pp. 49–50, 53, 64, no. 19, fig. 29 and ill. front cover.
Lisa Gail Collins inAfrican-American Artists, 1929–1945: Prints, Drawings, and Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2003, pp. 23, 50, no. 3, ill.
Lisa Mintz Messinger inAfrican-American Artists, 1929–1945: Prints, Drawings, and Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2003, p. 19.
Rachel Mustalish inAfrican-American Artists, 1929–1945: Prints, Drawings, and Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2003, p. 85.
Edward J. Sullivan. The Language of Objects in the Art of the Americas. New Haven, 2007, p. 161, fig. 114.
Dave H. Williams. Small Victories: One Couple's Surprising Adventures Building an Unrivaled Collection of American Prints. Boston, 2015, pp. 102, 109, fig. 9 (color).
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