If it’s not the eyes of the young men with the crowns on their heads that get your attention as soon as you walk in the door at Buckhead Art Company, then maybe it’s the familiar face of award-winning actress and talk show host Whoopi Goldgerg.
In celebration of the 2023 remake of “The Color Purple,” the Buckhead Art Company is now featuring its latest exhibition, “Shades of Purple”. Inspired by the 1985 film and 1982 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker, “Shades of Purple” brought mixed media and traditional pieces of art to Atlanta for a limited time.
The “Shades of Purple” exhibit will be on display through January 2 and is free to enter.
The exhibit was curated by LaMont Zeno Russell, the gallery’s events and marketing manager, in collaboration with the gallery curator Talyn Hohneke. “We wanted to do something in conjunction with the release of the musical, so we decided to highlight purple pieces from our represented artists with specific depictions from the 1985 movie,” said Russell.
Originally from Chicago, Russell cites the film as having had a profound and personal impact on his life. “The gallery owner S. Karimah McFarlane made the suggestion and I was all on board because “The Color Purple” is a movie deeply rooted in my family,” Russell explained.
A call was then sent to the approximately 25 artists for pieces to be submitted based on themes of strength, power, and royalty. The color purple is universally associated with royalty, wealth, power, and nobility.
Some of the pieces within the exhibit depict positive images of young Black men with crowns, women surrounded by the color purple, characters from “The Color Purple”, and of course the late musician and global icon Prince.
“Purple One” by Jerrell Gantt depicts Prince with white doves to his left and right, with a deep purple background. The mixed media piece gives off a 3-D appearance and includes a bejeweled purple ring on Prince’s left ring finger.
On either side of “Purple One” are nods to Black excellence and youth. “Boy and the Beast” by Gantt combines an image of a young Black man with a gold crown on his head and a white tiger cub in his hands. The 48 x 36 inch mixed media piece also includes the image of a purple sun and in the background. “Crowned,” also by Gantt, combines another young Black man with a crown being placed upon his head, an African safari as the backdrop. Purple stones are embedded into the crown and around the lower half of the piece.
Another contributing artist to the exhibition is Dean Beresford, a musician and artist from Hayfield, GA. “One of the pictures I have is the moment when Celie and Nettie were embracing each other right before they separated. That piece, “Us Never Part” is made up of a combination of charcoal and colored pencil to bring to life one of the film’s impactful moments. The piece is stationed near the front door of the gallery and drew a small crowd the afternoon of Saturday, Dec. 23.
“I felt a certain way because that’s one point in my life. I have two brothers. I was living in LA, one was living in New York, and one was still living in Atlanta and I was separated from them,” he said. Beresford further cited how he wanted to make his work stand out, adding details such as quotes from the movie into his work.
Raised in a middle-class family, Beresford discovered his passion for art as a means of obtaining things he couldn’t have growing up. “Drawing was a way for me to have those things,” Beresford explained. “I would draw the watches, I would draw the shoes, and I would draw the toys. I would draw everything.”
Though Beresford has a number of pieces in the exhibit, “God Is Trying To Tell You Something” does the best job of combining multiple parts of the film into one full-functioning piece. He used charcoal, colored pencil, and pink silk flowers to portray Celie with an unbothered look on her face.
Brittany Barr’s painting, “Smile”, depicts Goldberg’s character and one of film’s heroines, Celie, surrounded by splotches of purple, red, white and blue. In the painting Celie rests her chin in her hands and grins.