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Artwork

Cane River Baptism

Clementine Hunter

1886-1988

Cane River Baptism

Oil on paperboard

19 in x 23 7/8 in

Circa 1950-1956

Label:

“I paint the history of my people.”

At once visual storyteller and vernacular documentarian, Clementine Hunter used her art to illuminate the complex racial and religious diversity of Louisiana. Inspired to pick up a paintbrush in her fifties, Hunter repeatedly transcribed river baptisms, the sacramental transition from sin to salvation. In depicting this liminal space, Hunter alludes to the symbolic connection between African American emancipation and the biblical flight toward freedom through the passage of water. In this example, Hunter compresses time and space, organizing the ceremonial procession into three horizontal sequences with each figure or object firmly resting on a ground line.

As Published In:

Central to Their Lives: Southern Women Artists in the Johnson Collection, 2018

As Exhibited In:

Edges of Ailey, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, September 25, 2024–February 9, 2025

Imaginary Landscapes: Stories from the American South, The Bascomb: A Center for the Visual Arts, Highlands, NC, May 14–August 27, 2022

Central to Their Lives: Southern Women Artists in the Johnson Collection, Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA, June 30–October 23, 2018, Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS, November 16, 2018–January 20, 2019, Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV, March 2–June 30, 2019, Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, TN, July 28–October 13, 2019, Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC, January 1–August 9, 2020, Wofford College, Spartanburg, SC, September 7–December 18, 2020, Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA, February 6–July 18, 2021

Southern Roots: Selections of Self-Taught Art from the Johnson Collection, TJC Gallery, Spartanburg, SC, November 17, 2016–March 3, 2017

The Elemental South: Visions of the Southern Landscape, TJC Gallery, Spartanburg, SC, December 4, 2014–February 26, 2015

Beyond the Harlem Renaissance, TJC Gallery, Spartanburg, SC, February 20–April 2, 2014

Religious Art of the American South: Sacred Spaces and Gathering Places, TJC Gallery, Spartanburg, SC, December 5, 2013–January 30, 2014

Life is But a Dream: Explorations of Surreality in Southern Art, TJC Gallery, Spartanburg, SC, September 19–November 27, 2013

Walkers with the Dawn: A Century of African-American Art in the South, TJC Gallery, Spartanburg, SC, May 13–July 21, 2011

Other Artworks by This Artist

Artist's Full Bio