Let’s Make a Record

Sister Gertrude Morgan, Let's Make a Record, 1971, tempera, acrylic, pencil, and ink on paperboard (album cover) vinyl (record), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Chuck and Jan Rosenak, 1981.136.5A-B
Copied Sister Gertrude Morgan, Let's Make a Record, 1971, tempera, acrylic, pencil, and ink on paperboard (album cover) vinyl (record), Album cover: 12 3⁄8 x 12 1⁄2 in. (31.4 x 31.8 cm) Record: 11 7⁄8 in. (30.2 cm) diam., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Chuck and Jan Rosenak, 1981.136.5A-B

Artwork Details

Title
Let’s Make a Record
Artist
Date
1971
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
Album cover: 12 3⁄8 x 12 1⁄2 in. (31.4 x 31.8 cm) Record: 11 7⁄8 in. (30.2 cm) diam.
Credit Line
Gift of Chuck and Jan Rosenak
Mediums
Mediums Description
tempera, acrylic, pencil, and ink on paperboard (album cover) vinyl (record)
Classifications
Subjects
  • Figure group
  • Performing arts — music — voice
  • Object — written matter
  • Religion — angel
Object Number
1981.136.5A-B
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1981.136.5A-B

Artwork Description

Around the time Sister Gertrude Morgan made this record album, she remarked "You can hear my singing all over the neighborhood!" Morgan was equal parts musician, painter, poet, and evangelist. She saw creative expression as a powerful means of communicating her faith, spreading the Word of God, and energizing her own sanctified journey.

In Let's Make a Record, Morgan's title plays with the flexible meaning of "record," both an action and a result. With help from her advocate and gallerist E. Lorenz Borenstein, she recorded gospel hymns and original compositions that conveyed her spiritual joy in a lasting, effective, and far-reaching way. Onto album covers printed with track titles and "True Believer Records," Morgan hand-painted herself, her brethren, and biblical passages. Although Morgan's expressively scrawled words are sometimes hard to make out, her passion and personalized style always ring clear.