The Long Rows

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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: Benny Andrews
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: Painting
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