My Home Town- Classic Antiquity Relic is a series of drawings featured in Leon Hicks’ exhibition Drawings Through Time, which opened March 1st and will be on display until April 28th. This series is about Mr. Hicks’ hometown: Gainesville, Florida. This series pays homage to Greco-Roman architecture, synthetic cubism, and various places of importance to the artist.
Mr. Hicks, also known as “Uncle Junior”, grew up during the 1930’s and 1940’s in Gainesville, Florida. Many of these pieces depict various federal buildings and places of importance to the black community during his life. In My Home Town- Classic Antiquity Relic #9, Mr. Hicks depicts the town square from 1945. According to Mr. Hicks, this classical antiquity in the buildings’ architecture is a universal symbol of the United States and plays a significant cultural role. It symbolizes the stature, permanence and solidarity of the U.S.
According to Mr. Hicks, his series of drawings also are influenced by the art movement Synthetic Cubism. Synthetic Cubism is a revolutionary movement influenced by cubist artists such as Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and Juan Gris. This division of cubism relies on the incorporation of more texture and collage into works from this movement. However, Synthetic Cubism’s intent is to flatten out the space, instead of making it appear 3-Dimensional or breaking down concepts of objects like with Analytical Cubism (Tate, Synthetic cubism). This influence can be seen in Mr. Hicks’ series through his juxtaposition of various federal buildings. While Mr. Hicks’ work does not include multiple types of paper, the juxtaposition of the way he drew the various federal buildings in his pieces clearly takes inspiration from cubist art of that time.
Sources:
Tate. (n.d.). Synthetic cubism. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/s/synthetic-cubism