Feels like Freedom: Phillip J. Hampton
October 7, 2022 to January 29, 2023 Jepson Center
Telfair Museums presents Feels like Freedom: Phillip J. Hampton, the first large-scale museum retrospective of American painter Phillip J. Hampton (1922–2016), an artist long overdue for continued research and recognition. For 17 years, between 1952 and 1969, Hampton served as an influential visual arts professor and eventual department head at Savannah State College, today known as Savannah State University. He was instrumental in building and expanding a developing arts program and planned arts festivals, taught art appreciation workshops, and organized exhibitions including the first exhibition of African American art at the Telfair Academy in 1959. This new exhibition, alongside a companion exhibition The Early Years at Savannah State’s Kennedy Fine Arts Gallery, will consider Hampton’s impact alongside and as part of the broader context of African American artmaking in the mid-20th century.
Feels Like Freedom traces Hampton’s incredible and innovative artistic production from illustrative realism to abstract experimentation. Beginning with his social realist drawings and paintings created in Savannah, viewers will be captivated by the artist’s creative evolution toward the freedom and self-discovery he found in abstraction. His innovative spirit will be showcased and celebrated through his use of experimental mediums including string gridwork, acrylic emulsions, and shaped canvases. In an interview for the Savannah Morning News in 1995, Hampton stated that he “has always wanted to find something uniquely my own. … The search is more important to me than the conclusion.” This exhibition invites visitors to appreciate Hampton’s undeniably unique vision and revel in the lifelong search that led to an array of incredible works on view for all to enjoy.
This exhibition is organized by Telfair Museums in partnership with Black Art Auction and curated by Erin Dunn, curator of modern and contemporary art.
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View image 1 in lightbox:
Young Girls of Savannah, 1954; gouache on paper; museum purchase with funds provided by the Ronald J. Strahan Art Acquisition Fund, 2017.5.
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View image 2 in lightbox:
Savannah Skyline, 1965; acrylic on board; collection of Thom Pegg, Black Art Auction.
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View image 3 in lightbox:
Bang! Abel, 1966; acrylic and string on Masonite; collection of James and Brenda Rivers.
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View image 4 in lightbox:
Another American’s Autobiography―I Grew Up with the Chasm, 1971; acrylic and collage on shaped canvas; courtesy of The Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art.
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View image 5 in lightbox:
Feels Like Freedom, 1977; watercolor, acrylic, and elements of collage on Rives B.F.K paper; collection of James and Brenda Rivers.
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View image 6 in lightbox:
Plane Interchange, c. 1980; acrylic emulsion on melamine board; collection of Larry and Brenda Thompson.
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View image 7 in lightbox:
Intermediate Estate, 1997; water media on Arches paper; collection of Thom Pegg, Black Art Auction.
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View image 8 in lightbox:
Photograph of Professor Phillip J. Hampton and guests at opening of International Graphic Arts Society Exhibition, October 27, 1968; courtesy of the family of Phillip J. Hampton.