Time to learn and reflect...

I admit, my banked knowledge of history is rather sketchy - and of African American History nearly none. In fact, if it had a style, you'd label it minimalist.


It seems that I naturally enjoy learning only when there is something at hand that I need to research. When it is something concrete, that has a direct relationship to me, then I become rabid.


That's what happened when I stumbled on this excellent set of prints of Black History Leaders at a major estate sale here in Milwaukee. The folder of prints taunted me for months, then I finally relented and launched an extensive Internet research campaign - except that the Internet didn't cough up its usual 283,000 pages of useful info.


So, off to the library (after weeks of postponing...) to settle in at the reference department. What a refreshing surprise to find that the library has an incredible number of tools to research artwork. The librarian was so helpful! I felt humbled and a bit ashamed that I didn't know about the vast resources they had.


So, the mystery I needed to unravel was a folder of 12 prints, signed, titled and numbered by the artist, Clarence Shivers, with gold embossed lettering on the folder "Gallery of Greats" "Miller Brewing Co".


That's all I had to go on - that, and the puny amount of info the Internet coughed up.


As helpful as the librarian was, the sum total of info on this set was a few articles from 1983 and 1986 referencing an touring exhibit of the original paintings.


To be continued....





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