The Long Rows

Image Not Available
Benny Andrews, The Long Rows, 1966, oil on canvas, 25 x 18 in. (63.5 x 45.7 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Andrews Humphrey Family Foundation, 2012.3.1

Artwork Details

Title
The Long Rows
Artist
Date
1966
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
25 x 18 in. (63.5 x 45.7 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of the Andrews Humphrey Family Foundation
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Subjects
  • Object — tool — hoe
  • Occupation — farm — sowing
  • Figure — full length
Object Number
2012.3.1
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2012.3.1

Artwork Description

In 1965 Andrews began what he called his autobiographical series – memory paintings that dealt with the lives of people he knew during his childhood in Georgia. In The Long Rows he takes the idea of memory painting a step farther. Andrews gives us no clues about the identity of the subject. She faces away so we see only the bowed curve of her body. The low vantage point is from the perspective of a child who works the fields behind a parent, as did Andrews and his siblings. Silhouetted against the sky, the figure is heroic, an homage to the hard labor and perseverance of Southern sharecroppers.


African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond, 2012