Met Museum gets major gift of African-American art

This photo provided by the Metropolitan Museum of Art shows a 2003 mixed-media work of art consisting of carpet, cloth, Splash Zone compound, enamel, and spray painted canvas on wood entitled “Four Hundred Years of Free Labor,” by American artist Thornton Dial. The piece was donated to the museum by the Atlanta-based Souls Grown Deep Foundation, a nonprofit started in 2010 by art historian William Arnett to bring attention to self-taught African-American artists. (AP Photo/Metropolitan Museum of Art)

By Associated Press November 25, 2014 1 min read

NEW YORK (AP) – The Metropolitan Museum of Art has received a major gift of works by contemporary African-American artists from the South.

The museum says the donation includes 20 works by female quilters in Gee’s (jeez) Bend, a remote community in Alabama.

It also contains 10 pieces by Thornton Dial, as well as paintings, drawings and mixed media works by Lonnie Holley, Nellie Mae Rowe and others.

The gift of 57 works comes from the Atlanta-based Souls Grown Deep Foundation. The nonprofit was started in 2010 by art historian William Arnett to bring attention to self-taught African-American artists.

Arnett says in a statement that the collection documents a little-known artistic tradition that began in the Deep South, likely during the earliest days of slavery.