60 Years of Art

Sixty Years of Art

Over his long and prolific career, Reggie produced hundreds of paintings, drawings, photographs, and limited edition prints. Although he occasional painted still lives and landscapes, the human figure was his essential means of expression. From single portraits to a group of gospel singers or the complexities of a political event, Reggie would use the figure to express his intense interest in the human condition. At the same time, Reggie’s work comments on a large range of subject matters. Since his work was often inspired by actual events and personal experiences, the artist’s development can be followed through the decades of the 20’s century and the turn of events in his life.

During his initial artistic training at the Philadelphia University in the ‘40s, Reggie created accomplished figure drawings while at the same time experimenting with cubism, something that found its way into his work occasionally over the next 60 years. During the 50’s, his painting style acquired an almost classical refinement which shines through his early beautiful portraits. Reggie’s most publicized images are his complex social commentaries inspired by the Civil Rights movement and the Scottsboro trials, two series he devoted himself to in the ‘60s while living in New York. During the 70’s, after moving to Kalamazoo, his work reveals the influence of pop art with flatter shapes and a more flamboyant color palette. In the early ‘80s, Reggie created a large body of work on gospel singers, while in the late ‘80s he became fascinated with body adornment and tattoo art. After the move to New Mexico in 1992, he produced a series of six complexly layered canvases comprising his autobiography. The sixth piece comments on his triple bypass which he referred to as “his second chance”. The bypass was followed by doctor’s orders to exercise regularly and Reggie joined a gym. This in return inspired the artist’s health club images, a humorous rendition of contemporary society’s addiction to spandex and sweat. It was not until the late ‘90s that Reggie started on his jazz images which he continued until his passing.

Reggie was an avid reader and always researched his subjects well, often collecting newspaper clippings and books on a particular topic well beyond the completion of his painting. It is quite evident that Reginald Gammon often looked beyond the African American experience and the parameters of his own time. Reggie’s work speaks of his keen perception of the human race, his curiosity about cultural behavior and taboos, and his wonderful sense of humor.

Regina Held
Director, New Grounds Gallery

Reginald Gammon’s work tackled an astonishing variety of subjects, interests and styles. It was a broad range, expressed in so many media that he's really tough to categorize. And I don't think that's what you want to do in any case. He was beyond category.

The emphasis he gave to central realities of black history in America (the Scottsboro Trial, Jack Johnson, MLK, and many other examples) demonstrated his powerful awareness of the unspeakable suffering racial hostility brought to this country.

But his love of people (no, more than that, his love of everything
he saw around him) was also apparent in his work. The vigorous pleasure of being alive always somehow showed up in his work, even in his somber sepia-toned renditions of American tragedies.

There's a line in a poem by Robert Browning that I think could be used to describe Reggie: He "loved whate'er he looked on, and his looks went everywhere."

As a teacher he brought his intense, sometimes combative, love of
the world of ideas into the classroom. He was always looking for
beauty and wisdom in the midst of struggle (to quote a line from
something I wrote on the occasion of his retrospective here in
Kalamazoo), and his students found him unforgettably engaging.

Larry Tenharmsel
Dean, Professor, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan

Reggie Gammon: Artist and Lover of People

Who was Reggie Gammon? He was an artist, friend, educator, mentor, husband, jazz aficionado and lover of people. According to numerous authors, critics and art historians, Reginald Adolphus Gammon—known to most as Reggie—was an African American artist who came of age in the Depression Era, in urban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; saw the specter of race and racism in America, and subsequently produced social-realistic art that depicted his culture, human values, his place in the world, and his fight against the socio-economic inequalities plaguing Black America. Reggie carried out this mission valiantly with Richard Mayhew, Emma Amos and his other colleagues that made up the group known as Spiral.

The other Reggie, that is often overlooked, was a student of art history, formally trained in the Western methodologies of painting, drawing and printmaking. His sensibilities, viewpoint and artistic techniques are clearly grounded in the work of artist predecessors and contemporaries like Duerer, Matisse, Picasso, Tanner, Bearden, Edward Hopper, Ron Adams, and J. Eugene Grigsby.

The essence of Reggie’s work revolved around the simple fact that he like people. He was sincerely interested in the lives of people: what they were doing, how they looked, how they walked, what made them happy, what made them sad, etc. Reggie liked black, white, and all shades of people in between. Thus, his figurative renderings of the human form—painted and drawn—convey an energy and virtuosity that depict humankind’s multifaceted nature, tempered by the daily struggle to understand our humanity. This construct is further evidenced by Reggie, the master draftsman, in his expert use of line and color as a visual modality, to show the multi-cultural, pluralistic and emotional reality of what it means to be a human being.

Reggie Gammon loved people and once they experienced Reggie—the man and his work—they loved him.

Carter B. Cue
Archivist & Librarian
Winston-Salem State University Archives
Winston-Salem, NC 27110

Reginald Gammon

I consider Reginald Gammon a master of interpretations and a master of explanations. His approach to creativity was not to sit and ponder, but to research his subject matter. He would spend months researching before putting a dot on the canvas. However, once the research was completed the creative juices would flow and - voila - another masterwork had been created! His research provided him with a wealth of information which he absorbed, interpreted, and then transformed onto canvas. An artist has to know how to gather information, how to interpret it and how to transform it into images. Reginald Gammon was truly gifted with this ability which is evident in the impressive body of work that he completed throughout his career.

Raymond Bullock
Sr. Art Director
Michelles of Delaware
Wilmington, DE