A retrospective of work by multi-styled East St. Louis native Abraham Lincoln Walker opened recently at 10th Street Gallery, 419 N. 10th St., and remains open through November 9.
“Abraham Lincoln Walker was an inspired, self-taught, reclusive, African-American artist of great talent,” said curator Jacquelyn Lewis Harris, associate professor of education and director of the Connecting Human Origin & Cultural Diversity program at the University of Missouri – St. Louis.
She said his work is best described as “visionary narrative, with an insightful combination of social commentary and artistic expression.” He produced mono-prints, paintings on butcher paper (“the most surreal of all his works,” Harris said) and an occasional drawing. His paintings, she said, are “visionary in scope and content, containing hundreds of detailed faces and forms hidden in a rich, textured, monochromatic background.”
The artist came to East St. Louis before he was five years old to live with his maternal aunt and uncle. By the time he was seven, he had become an evangelistic, inspirational speaker in the Church of God in Christ, accompanying his aunt on her evangelistic tours of African-American communities. During his adolescent years, he served as his uncle’s apprentice, decorating and painting houses.
Walker’s childhood poverty, religious conviction and concern for the African-American community color all of his work.
However, it was the 1963 East St. Louis riots that provided the catalyst for his first series of large paintings. “The anger, frustration and confusion of this time inspired the artist to begin painting in earnest,” Harris said. “Many of his earliest paintings depict the aftermath of the riots.”
After his retirement in 1990, he devoted the majority of his time to developing a surrealistic painting style “to encapsulate the many visions which came to him in the early evening hours,” Harris said. “He was self-taught and guided by spirit.” The artist passed in 1993.
Abraham Lincoln Walker’s “A Body of Work” Retrospective Exhibition will be at 10th Street Gallery, 419 N. 10th St., and remains open through November 9. Call 314-436-1806, e-mail pat@10thstreetgallery.com or visit http://www.10thstreetgallery.com.
