Artist sees a sacredness innate to individuals who worked for equality.
CHICOPEE –A collection of icons typically contains images of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, saints and Biblical stories like the Transfiguration.
But an installation of 30 icons created by artist Pamela Chatterton-Purdy focuses on the people of the Civil Rights Movement. It is currently on display in the Borgia Gallery on the campus of Elms College and includes images of Rosa Parks, the Little Rock Nine, and Medgar Evers.
Icons are commonly used in the Eastern Orthodox tradition where Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the saints and Fathers of the Church and other holy people are represented in a style filled with symbols and many layers of meaning, said Martin J. Pion, a professor in the religious studies department at Elms College. “The process of painting an icon is as much a prayer or meditation as it is a creative act.”
Artist Pamela Chatterton-Purdy with her husband, the Rev. David Prudy, at the opening of the Elms exhibit. In contemporary use, the word icon refers to something that is significant or an exemplar of some type or genre. “We could refer to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis as an icon of style or fashion or poise,” said Pion, the director of the Institute for Theology and Pastoral Studies at the college.
“What Ms. Chatterton-Purdy has created is both of these things. Martin Luther King Jr. is a martyr and an exemplar of commitment to social justice, so it makes sense to create an icon—image--of him that follows the artistic rules--more or less--of the style of icons that you would see in a Greek Orthodox Church for example.”
Chatterton-Purdy has taught art at Bay Path College in Longmeadow, Springfield College and The University of Massachusetts at Amherst and in the public schools of Middleboro and Brookline.
Chatterton-Purdy believes any piece of artwork should be created to “speak” to the viewer.
“The people, places and events of the Civil Rights Movement, the non-violent nature of the 1950’s and 1960’s, all led me to believe that there was a ‘holy spirit,’ a sacred dimension to this movement. In a period of horrific racism in this country, the people demonstrating for their constitutional rights remained non-violent,” she said.
“Their faith and courage in the face of terrorism, lynchings, assassinations and humiliation was extraordinary. Somehow these ordinary people knew that they were the beloved and precious children of God despite a segregated world that was telling them otherwise.”
In 2007 she took a traditional gold leaf workshop in New Hampshire, intending to create a series of “Icons of the Civil Rights Movement.”
Her original idea had been to use canvas like she had used with a previous series “Icons of 9/11.” However, wood was used in the workshop as the material on which the gold leaf was applied. So she decided to use wooden panels to build each icon.
“The wood and found objects became the materials that spoke to me. The durability of wood, the sacredness of the gold leaf, the vast possibilities of using ‘found’ objects, were chosen to symbolically enhance the meaning of each icon,” she said.
“Even the shape of each icon was designed and cut to give the feel of a holy tablet, a monument, a bridge, a cross, maybe even a headstone.”
The artist, who earned a master of fine arts degree in 1966 from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, used wooden objects, pieces of broken frames, hinged doors, broken stained glass and wooden birds taken from an old carved jewelry box in her work. There are yardsticks cut at number 14, the age that Emmett Till’s life was taken. There are pieces of a children’s chess set, used to imply the handles of a Torah, and alphabet beads strung together to spell “The Children’s Campaign, Birmingham Alabama, over 1,000 children jailed.” Broken metal chains and locks, signs of freedom and release, and verses from Scripture are used too.
Since January 2008, the show has traveled to more than 25 colleges, universities, schools and libraries. In January 2009 it was displayed in Washington, D.C., for the inauguration of President Barack Obama. It was also shown in 2008 at Springfield's Forest Park Middle School.
The installation is now a collection of 30 pieces of art in the style of icons that memorialize people and events from the 1950's to today that represent key aspects of the fight for civil rights in the United States.
“The exhibit is extraordinary because of the scope, beauty and power of the works created by Ms. Chatterton-Purdy,” Pion said. “What is unique to me is the thorough blending of accurate historical research with artwork that is a beautiful modern interpretation of an ancient art form with deep spiritual roots.”
The gallery will house this collection until Nov. 19. "Icons of the Civil Rights Movement" is also available in book form with text by the Rev. David Purdy, a Methodist minister and the artist's husband. For more information, visit http://www.chatterton-purdyart.com/
“Guests who visit the gallery should plan to spend time absorbing the depth of this exhibit,” Pion said. “No one should just breeze through.”
The exhibit is open daily from 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
The exhibit is scheduled for display at The Groton School in Groton in January and February, 2014.