Seven Famous African-American Masters of American Art
Maxine E. Davis
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HORACE PIPPIN (1888-1946)
Sculptor, painter. Horace Pippin was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He completed his first painting at forty-three years of age. After spending fourteen months in the trenches during World War I, Horace Pippin was wounded in his right shoulder, and his arm was considered useless. However, using his left hand to prop up his right, he began to paint and in three years had completed his first painting: End of the War-Starting Home. His first group of paintings all dealt with his striking memories and impressions of war. They have the simplicity of the self-taught artist, with the color applied mostly in flat areas. There is an obvious feeling for design that characterize work by most of the better “primitives.” Pippin’s later works are regimented into patterned areas that are intensified by accents of pure white. “Pictures just come to my mind,” he once explained, “and I tell my heart to go ahead.
