By Richard Maschal
Special to the Observer

Come in. Have a seat - the couch is comfortable, the side chairs, too.

Playing on the TV is a video you'll enjoy. "Hello," begins the charming gray-haired woman on the screen. "My name is Vivian Davidson Hewitt. Welcome to our home."

Welcome to the Gantt Center in uptown Charlotte and a full and proper introduction to the John and Vivian Hewitt Collection of African-American Art. All 58 works by 20 artists that form the center's core collection - a gift from Bank of America - are on view for the first time.

Paintings, prints and drawings by famous artists such as Jacob Lawrence, Charlotte native Romare Bearden and Elizabeth Catlett grace the west gallery. And then there's Vivian Hewitt telling the story of the art, the artists and what she and her late husband created over almost a half century of collecting.

The video provides a fresh window into a remarkable collection. Together with the works, it tells a story not just of African-American art in the 20th century but how such art is appreciated and shared.

"The show is very personal," said Michael Harris, consulting curator. "It's not a museum collection; it's a personal collection, and in a way the gallery felt like a big room in a home - and that's why we have the couch and the video.

"It came together in a wonderful way."

With a bang

About half of the collection went on view when the Gantt Center opened in 2009 on South Tryon Street. An opening in the schedule - and Vivian Hewitt's birthday Feb. 17 - sparked the exhibit.

"It's an extraordinary time to fully introduce the collection," said David Taylor, center president.

Thinking about installing it, Harris wanted to open with a bang. He used "Gate in Tangiers," an Impressionist-influenced work by Henry Ossawa Tanner, a famous artist of the 19th and early 20th century.

But now it is joined by two Tanner figure drawings, giving a fuller sense of the artist's graphic skills.

To end the show, also with a bang, Harris used work by Bearden. Here is a not-seen-before print, "Harlem Street Scene," with people gathered before a barber shop and a holiness church.

Also on view: "Waiting," by Ernest Crichlow from about 1965 showing a pretty and pensive young girl behind a screen of barbed wire and evocative of the struggle for civil rights. "Two Generations," a portrait of two women by James Denmark in pastel tones that shows the influence of African sculpture. And "Harlem Games," Virginia Evans Smit's exuberant street scene.

These works were gathered by Vivian and the late John Hewitt, a New York couple who had limited means (she was a librarian, he a medical writer) but a passion for art. They bought works to celebrate birthdays and holidays - and always a special piece at Christmas.

NationsBank, a predecessor of Bank of America, bought the collection in 1998 for what was then called the African-American Cultural Center. While the city conceived and executed plans for a new facility renamed in honor of former Charlotte mayor Harvey Gantt, a portion of the Hewitt Collection toured the country.

The video showing Vivian Hewitt in her New York home was made by the bank to accompany the tour.

Telling stories

John and Vivian Hewitt knew many of the artists they collected and formed relationships with them. More than one piece is signed to them, one "with love."

In the video, Vivian Hewitt has stories about them: how J. Eugene Grigsby, her cousin, raised $125 to come to New York in the 1930s and met Jacob Lawrence, who told him of other Carolinas artists in town - Bearden and his cousin Charles Alston, also born in Charlotte.

Showing how well she knew Alston, she calls him by his nickname, "Spinky."

She tells how Al Hollingsworth talked her into giving him a show in her Manhattan brownstone, the first of several.

And how she visited Bearden and his wife, Nanette, in his Canal Street studio in lower Manhattan.

The works and the video show the importance of collectors to artists - and not just because they provide a much needed source of income.

Collectors also matter as appreciators, people who give emotional support by being sympathetic to the artist's vision, willing to try to understand it and confirm what they do.

It can be a lonely life, working alone in a studio wondering if anyone will see the work and, if they do, whether they will connect with it.

Curator Harris knows about that. In addition to curating, teaching and writing, he is an artist working in mixed media.

"When you get someone who appreciates what you're doing, that gives you the strength to keep going against all you face as an artist," he said.

A story in the video told by artist Ann Tanksley underlines the point. A painting of hers sold out of show before she had a chance to photograph it, and she felt she'd lost a piece of herself.

Then she met Vivian Hewitt, who told her she had bought "Harvest of Shame." John made slides of the painting for her. "It was like finding a child," says Tanksley.

All art is autobiographical.

But, Harris believes, art collecting is also autobiographical, and that's what is on view at the Gantt Center - "a look inside the life of the collectors, the kinds of relationships with artists" and what that contributes to the making of art.
 

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