Marion Perkins

Background

He was born in 1908 in Marche, Arkansas, United States. He lived briefly in Charme, Arkansas, and, after his parents died, he moved to Chicago, where he was raised by an aunt, Doris Padrone.

Education

He attended Wendell Phillips High School for three years, but had to leave to find employment.

In the late 1930's Perkins enrolled in a Works Progress Adminstration (WPA) playwright course. Simon ("Sy") Gordon, teaching at the South Side Community Art Center, instructed Perkins in the use of clay models, molds, and the mallet and chisel. (Other than this instruction Perkins was primarily self-taught. )

Career

He worked as janitor, dishwasher, and postal worker, and during the Great Depression he sold newspapers on Chicago's South Side. By this time he was carving likenesses of friends and relatives in soap.

Perkins' artistic career spanned the period from the late 1930's until his death. Exhibitions of his work were held at the Art Institute of Chicago, Howard University (Washington), Hull House (Chicago), Xavier University (New Orleans), Rockford College (Illinois), and the Du Sable Museum of African American History (Chicago). Although an avid student of Western sculpture from Greek times to the present, Perkins, a black, was most inspired by the art forms of Africa. He was an exponent of black pride through art.

Most sculptors of that day carved animated figures to convey motion. His Man of Sorrows is a stationary unshaven head. In this powerful depiction of a black Christ, Perkins conveyed the suffering experienced by his people at the hands of white society. Perkins' other works also reflect his interest in black themes.

Among his numerous sculptures are John Henry (1943), Ethiopia Awaking (1948), and Jean Baptiste Point du Sable (which appeared on the cover of the Autumn 1963 issue of the Illinois State Historical Society's Journal). He wanted to carve a statue of Frederick Douglass, but he died before he could complete it.

He was given the Julius Rosenwald Fellowship, that was particularly valuable because it allowed him to go to New York City, where he visited museums and discussed his work with other artists. Perkins was never able to support himself through his art, so he had to continue working as a freight handler even after he had gained fame from his sculpting. He had to search out buildings being demolished in order to acquire the limestone and other stone he needed for his art.

Several sources claim that Perkins taught at Jackson State College in Mississippi, where another Chicago black artist, Lawrence Jones, was head of the art department. Perhaps Perkins participated in a workshop there, but no records exist to validate this supposition. Jones has no recollection of Perkins teaching at the school. Perkins presented a lecture at the first Black Artists Conference at Atlanta University; it was published as Problems of the Black Artist in 1971.

He died of cancer in Chicago.

Achievements

• Marion Perkins was among the leading black artists of the twentieth century. His most famous piece was Man of Sorrows (1950). With several other artists he was a driving force in promoting the South Side Community Art Center, the first art institution in the city's black community. He also was a founder of the Lake Meadows Art Fair, a Chicago street fair that displayed the work of black artists. Perkins received several awards, including the Robert Rice Jenkins Prize (1948) and the Pauline Palmer Purchase Prize (1951). After his death his friends established the Marion Perkins Memorial Foundation to encourage art education for blacks.

Views

Perkins firmly believed that everyone could understand and appreciate art, and he actively encouraged art in the Chicago black community.

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• When he died, the art critic of the Chicago Daily News called him "an artist of great integrity, " particularly "noted for his expressive portraits. "
  
  Art historian Cedric Dover referred to him as one of "the more conscious social realists" among black artists.

Connections

Perkins and his wife, Eva, had three sons.

Spouse:

Eva Perkins

influencer:

Peter Pollack

aunt:

Doris Padrone

teacher:

Simon ("Sy") Gordon