African-American artist’s work on display | Arts & Culture

In the early 1940s, from the small apartment on the roof of a five-story apartment building in Mexico, African-American artist Harold Winslow created more than 1,300 pieces of art.

A traveling exhibit of 50 of the paintings by Winslow entitled “Una Vision de la Mexicanidad,” will be on display in the Learning Resource Center on the Dyersburg campus of Dyersburg State Community College from October 15 through October 23.

An opening reception will be held on October 18 at 6 p.m. The public is invited to attend and admission is free.

“Una Visión de la Mexicanidad”—“Mexicanidad” refers to the Mexican national identity and culture—offers a record of one artist’s experience in two cultures. Winslow, who was born in 1918 in Dayton, Ohio, moved to Mexico in 1940 in the hopes of escaping racism. He remained there until his death in 2001, at the age of 83.

“As a painter, Winslow expressed the enduring spirit of Mexican culture and the detailed harmony of human anatomy,” said Tracey Bradley, executive director of the consortium. “This unique perspective gives us all an opportunity to experience Mexico through his vision.”

Winslow spent the rest of his life in Mexico, working on projects as varied as illustrating the Treatise of Human Anatomy (1940), painting watercolors (he won a national watercolor competition in 1942), and painting murals (for example, the 1945 mural entitled “The Holocaust,” which can still be viewed in a private residence in Mexico City). He became a Mexican citizen in 1951, and continued to produce art and mount exhibitions until his death in Mexico City in August, 2001.

The exhibition is made possible by an agreement between Tennessee Consortium for International Studies (TnCIS) and the Ministry of Culture, represents the fourth exchange of art and culture between Mexico and the TnCIS community.

Dyersburg State has been a member of TnCIS since its founding in 2006. TnCIS is an academic association of 19 colleges and universities in the state of Tennessee that seeks to encourage international studies at all of its member institutions.

The study abroad division of TnCIS sponsors academic programs in 16 different countries.

For more information, please contact International Studies Coordinator Jorge Lopez at 731/286-3377 or lopez@dscc.edu.

To view images from the exhibition, click here.