Oliver LaGrone (1906-1995)
Oliver LaGrone was born in 1906, one year before Oklahoma became a state. His father, William was an ordained pastor of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion church and both he and his wife were active leaders in the community who valued education and African-American heritage.
LaGrone attended Howard University in 1928-1929 where he became acquainted with Ralph Bunche and Dr. Carter G. Woodson. He served as an assistant to Woodson, interviewing subjects in Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma for Woodson and Lorenzo Greene's upcoming volume, The Negro Wage Earner. When the Depression brought his studies to a pause, he moved to New Mexico to help take care of his mother after the death of his father. He and his brother opened a funeral parlor to help support the family.
In 1934, LaGrone began attending the University of New Mexico where he studied sculpture with William Emmett Burke, and in 1937, he won a competition held by the Works Progress Administration to create a sculpture titled, Mercy, for the Carrie Tingley Children's Hospital, another casting of which is now installed at the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History.
After his marriage, LaGrone and his family moved to Detroit, where he received a scholarship to attend Cranbrook Academy of Art under famed Swedish sculptor Carl Milles. He was the first Black artist to attend this institution. In addition to sculpting, LaGrone was an accomplished poet. He published a volume of poetry titled, Footfalls: Poetry from America’s Becoming, which was illustrated by Hughie Lee-Smith. He also incorporated his poetry into many of his exhibitions throughout his career. In fact, LaGrone developed a touring exhibition which included a lecture, poetry reading, and an exhibition of his sculptures. He took this exhibition, Odyssey of the Afro-American and His Art, on the road in 24 states through the American Program Bureau. During his tour, he was approached by Penn State with an offer for him to work for them - teaching art, humanities, and African-American history. After he retired from Penn State, he continued to teach children and adults with programs he developed with grants received from the National Endowment of the Arts.
LaGrone’s work may be found in many private and public collections including, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, NY; Pennsylvania State University; and the Unitarian Church of Harrisburg, PA.
Charles McGee (1924-2021)
Charles McGee came to Detroit at the age of 10, when we moved with his mother from his grandfather’s sharecropper farm in Clemson, South Carolina. At an early age, he was taking art classes through the public library, as well as the Detroit Institute of Arts.
During WWII, he served in the Marines, in the Pacific Theater and upon his return found work in the automotive industry. He was later hired with the Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant as a cartographer and statistical draftsman.
McGee used the GI Bill to study art at the Society of Arts and Crafts from 1947-1950 where he met fellow artists Hughie Lee-Smith, Harold Neal, and James Lee. It was here that he was rigorously trained in drawing and design before even painting, which was the philosophy of the curriculum at SAC. McGee studied drawing with Guy Palazzola, in fact Palazzolo was, according to McGee,
Teaching a classical type of art. And he was very into precise drawing. I found that this sort of suited my taste particularly at that particular time. I thought that, not knowing that much about art, it was necessary to learn how to draw and draw well and I felt that from that I would be able to branch off into anything that I wanted to do.
Under Palazzolo’s tutelage, McGee became a very sophisticated draftsman as seen for example in the detailed drawing of the woman’s transparent and delicately flowered mantilla in Barbara, mid 1950’s…
In his works from the 1950’s, McGee too experimented with different textures and paint application, as for example in Barbara, where the visible strokes of many different flesh tones shape the three dimensional contours of the woman’s face.
-Julia R. Myers, Energy: Charles McGee at 85, University Art Gallery, Ford Art Gallery, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI, 2009
McGee exhibited regularly in Detroit and by 1958, he and 14 other black artists created Contemporary Studio. He continued to be at the forefront of the Detroit Black Arts community throughout his career, opening another gallery, Gallery 7, establishing the Charles McGee School of Art, and curating an exhibition of Black art titled, Seven Black Artists which included himself, Lester Johnson, Henri Umbaji King, Robert Murray, James Lee, Allie McGhee, Harold Neal, and Robert J. Stull. In 1978, he helped found the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit, serving as co-director the following year.
With all of these accomplishments, McGee continued to create and exhibit his work, which gradually evolved into abstract patterns, movement and complex design. He painted murals, and created assemblages and large scale public sculptures for his beloved Detroit. His work is found in many private and public collections, including the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African-American History.
Harold Neal (1924-1996)
Photo courtesy: Allie McGhee
Born in Memphis, TN, Harold Neal was the oldest son in a family of 8 - an affluent family whose mother had attended college. He was artistic at an early age and participated in activities at the LeMoyne Art Center in Memphis. After his father’s death, he joined the Army, served in WWII and moved to Detroit. He used the GI Bill to enroll at the Society of Arts and Crafts, along with Charles McGee. Like McGee, his early works reflect the influence of teachers, Sarkis Sarkisian and Guy Palazzola, with a combination of layering, blending, glazing and overpainting.
Harold Neal and other African-American artists are the subject of a book written in 2020, by Julia R. Myers titled Harold Neal and Detroit African American Artists: 1945 Through the Black Arts Movement. This book has brought new attention to artists of the Black Arts Movement in Detroit who have gone overlooked.
James Lee (1927-1975)
Native Detroiter James Lee was a painter, printmaker, and sculptor who attended Wayne State University and Detroit Arts and Crafts. His work has been featured in many exhibitions including Charles McGee’s Seven Black Artists, held at the Detroit Artists Market in 1969; Eight Prints for the Detroit Institute of Arts (1969); Contemporary Black Artists is America, Whitney Museum of American Art, NY (1971); and a one man show at Gallery Seven in 1973.
“An artist should be concerned about the world in which he lives” He depicted his philosphy in abstract art through the media of acrylics (mixed media), diversified prints: silkscreen (serigraph), photo silkscreen, intaglio.
-James Lee Artist File, Detroit Institute of Arts