School pageants, trick-or-treaters, family Christmas parties, dance recitals in
fancy dress, boy bands of the 1960s, beach scenes, ice skating teenagers,
and a high school Homecoming king and queen: Rosalind Letcher is a singular
painter of childhood joy. Animated by her warm chromatic palette and glossy
surfaces, Letcher has spent a lifetime immortalizing her memories of growing up
amidst a thriving community.
With painterly her alchemy, Letcher is able to crystalize the fleeting emotions
that emanate from the rituals and rites of passage that many kids of the baby
boom generation experienced, growing up after World War II. Her paintings are
often annotated on their backs, with specific dates and events that inspired each
work —not unlike a family scrapbook. Yet with her deft painterly skills and
emotive renderings, these scenes are committed to posterity, representing a near-
utopic vision of growing up Black in America.
From the mid-1970s onwards, Letcher forged a unique style of narrative
figuration that emerged parallel with artists like Faith Ringgold who similarly
merged civil rights activism, education, and the power of storytelling into the
substance of their art. Letcher's work has prefigured the current generation of
contemporary American artists of color whose work similarly focuses on scenes of
Black Joy. Derrick Adams, Mickalene Thomas, Amy Sherold, and Danielle
McKinney are great examples of living artists who have inherited Letcher’s DNA
through optimistic and visually gratifying explorations of everyday life.
Rosalind Letcher was one of the key members of a vibrant group of Black artists
called the Eastville Artists Association based in Sag Harbor—a community drawn
together by their social ties rather than an aesthetic program. “Africa, the Orient,
European Expressionism, Cubism blend here — yet above all, American
individualism is foremost.” The curator of Eastville Artists Association exhibition
at Guild Hall in 1979 made this astute proclamation in her introduction to a
groundbreaking show of Letcher and her peers' work. Since receiving her
professional artistic training at NYU and City College, Letcher forged a singular
approach to figurative painting that draws upon her childhood memories.
This exhibition at Keyes Art will be her first public exhibition in 20 years that will
foreground her recently rediscovered oeuvre.
Rosalind Marie Letcher (born, 1953, New York City, lives and works on Long
Island)
Rosalind Letcher was born to a prosperous, joyful middle-class family—her father
was a decorated Lieutenant with the Tuskegee Airmen 99th Fighter Squadron
during World War II. Her mother, Evelyn Harrison, studied education at Ohio
State University where she met her future husband. Both Rosalind’s parents
become teachers. Letcher’s father's first cousin was Duke Ellington—hence music
and culture permeated her extended family life.
Her family moved to Washington DC where Letcher’s love for art began at an
early age. Her father owned The Letcher Art Studio in Washington DC where
both her parents taught. This studio was known for teaching returning WW II
African American veterans and young adults commercial art, sign painting,
architectural drafting, as well as teaching children the beauty of art and
expression. Letcher was a regular student at her father's studio. Her parents and
their school community were a decisive influence on her decision to become an
artist.
In high school, Letcher spent a summer in Kenya in 1969 with a group of students
on a project to build a road and cabin for the Christian Council of Kenya. This
trip left a lasting impression that was often seen in her artwork. Her love for
African Art and African culture originated from this formative experience. After
her graduation in 1971, the family moved to Sag Harbor Hills, New York to live
permanently in a summer home that had been built by her father.
Letcher attended New York University and graduated in 1976 with a Bachelor of
Science in Fine Arts. During her time at NYU, Letcher was able to attend the Sir
John Cass School of Art to in London England on a grant to study Art History and
Studio Art. Letcher worked as an art teacher in the New York City area schools
after her undergraduate training. Simultaneous to teaching, she continued her
studies and received her Master of Fine Art from City College of New York in
1986.
As a vital member of the Eastville Artists of East Hampton from the late 1970's,
Letcher’s work flourished amid this community of East End artists. During her
involvement in the Eastville Artists group, Letcher began to paint her signature
themes: the joyful world around her in Sag Harbor Hills, as well as scenes rooted
in her childhood memories. Her house, friends, families, pets, the Sag Harbor
beach and the community of African Americans on the far end of Long
Island provided her main tropes. Letcher’s spirituality permeated her work, and
she also created a number of self-portraits.
Music was ever present in Letcher’s home and often a recurring theme in her art.
