February 2 – May 25, 2025
Local artist Robert Graham Carter has gained national attention for his iconic figurative style. Organized in conversation with the artist, Robert Graham Carter: The Art of Reflection presents selected work from his six-decade-long career. Carter’s art invites reflection, invoking feelings and memories in the viewer, and encouraging moments of conversation. This exhibition explores the idea of “reflection” in Carter’s work through three major themes: childhood, spirituality, and societal issues. It addresses the ways Carter’s figurative style evokes personal responses, recalls formative experiences, and mirrors reality in thoughtprovoking ways.
Over the last six decades, Long Island based artist Robert Graham Carter (b. 1938) has been exploring our shared humanity through visual storytelling. Sketched on paper, monumentalized in large-scale paintings, and constructed into high relief sculptural forms, Carter’s compositions portray imagined characters inspired by real people, drawn from his formative experiences growing up in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid-twentieth century. The works presented in Robert Graham Carter: The Art of Reflection, carefully chosen with the artist, focus on three central ideas: children and childhood; spirituality and the role of the Black church; and social inequities. Ranging from whimsical to critical, these figurative narratives address the Black American experience. Yet Carter’s masterful storytelling creates compelling connections for a wide audience.
A major through line of Carter’s longstanding studio practice has been the palpable relatability of his subjects. Consider the work in The Heckscher Museum’s permanent collection, Mama Taught Me Piano and Much More (2007) (fig. 1). Carter’s title quickly establishes a tone of familiarity. He gives the adult figure a name, thus defining the relationship portrayed in the intimate space. This relatability encourages visitors to recall their own childhood memories or everyday familial moments. At five feet tall and four feet wide, this work is massive, visually underscoring the dignity Carter finds in this multigenerational moment. By creating an ordinary scene at a scale historically reserved for courtly portraits or altarpieces, the artist equates this moment to something of high importance. To underscore this point, the exhibition brings Mama Taught Me Piano and Much More into dialogue with Carter’s large-scale works portraying religious subjects, such as If Der Be Angels Then Some Must Look Like Me (c. 2000s) (fig. 2) and Prodigal Son (2013).
Carter depicts spirituality by highlighting the divine beauty of the everyday, including everyday people engaged in the religious practices of the Black church. Portraits of church ladies appear alongside biblical figures and a wide representation of angels throughout his practice. His sensitivity to detail for each figure is extraordinary, demonstrating his interest in creating immediate familiarity between his subjects and the viewer. These figures might remind you of someone you know; they are not general characters or symbols.
While often employing humor and charm in his work, Carter’s approach to portraying the human condition is, at other times, anything but endearing. His wit unapologetically portrays, in his words, “social experiences, political experiences, economic experiences. Almost whatever you’re going through personally, what the community is going through, find their reflection in the work”.1 This is best exemplified in Untitled (Two Young Teens With Empty Chat Bubbles) (c. 1970s) (fig. 3). Carter’s artistic decision to leave the speech bubbles blank above two children—one white and one African American— creates tension. Are they speaking to, or at, each other? Do we imagine this scene as occurring during the artist’s upbringing in Kentucky in the Jim Crow era or during our own contemporary moment on Long Island? Works like this invite conversations, reflections, and projections through a simple, evocative design choice. Once again, the artist creates compositions that remain stubbornly open-ended, in turn weighing questions of universality and individuality, as well as objective versus subjective.
In conducting research for this exhibition, critical care was given to the artist’s sketchbooks and archive, including audio materials. One record, “When Sister Julie Prays,” exemplifies some of the choir music Carter fondly remembered when creating the Sister Julie figure that appears repeatedly in his oeuvre. His practice of taking inspiration from music dates back to his sketches from the early 1950s, a time when, as a
young man, he listened to bebop with his contemporaries in Louisville, many of whom are now well known in the field of art history. Carter grew up in Beecher Terrace, a public housing complex in Downtown Louisville inhabited primarily by middleclass Black families. His family lived next to the family of beat poet, surrealist, and musician Ted Joans (1928–2003). Carter’s formative years as an artist were informed by Joans, along with visual artists including Sam Gilliam (1933–2022), Bob Thompson (1936–1966), and Kenneth Victor Young (1933–2017).
Carter’s upbringing in Louisville proved pivotal to his artistic career. Encouraged from an early age by his mother, Carter was first recognized for his visual storytelling in 1955, when, as a teenager, he was awarded a Scholastic Art & Writing Award. This was soon followed by a prestigious art scholarship from the Hite Art Department at the University of Louisville.2 In 1960, during his undergraduate studies, Carter’s art was included in the historically significant Annual Atlanta University exhibition.3 He went on to earn his MFA from Pratt Institute of Fine Arts in New York City in 1966 and moved to Long Island two years later. He taught in the art department at Nassau Community College for over fifty years. Carter’s work is included in significant public and private collections, including The Heckscher Museum of Art, Petrucci Family Foundation Collection, University of Louisville, Speed Art Museum, Yale Law School, and the African American Museum and Center for Applied Art, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts.
Sarah Battle
Guest Curator, The Heckscher Museum of Art Research Curator, Speed Art Museum
TRIBUTES
The following statements from those who know Carter attest to his personal and professional commitment to making and teaching art.
In 1961, ten young Louisville artists had plans for preaching the gospel of art and had ambitions of creating their own first exhibition of artworks. They called themselves “Gallery Enterprises.” The group included Sam Gilliam, Robert Carter, Kenneth Young, Dr. Robert Douglas, Fred Bond, and G. Caliman Coxe. Out of these ten artists came a young artist of note by the name of Robert Carter. We knew him as Bob. He was a graduate of Central High School’s class of 1955 and the University of Louisville, earning a BS degree and then an MFA from Pratt Institute in New York. It was only after I became a member of the Louisville Art Workshop (LAW) that I met Bob, who, with Ed Hamilton, William Duffy, Mervin Aubespin, and Anna Huddleston, was a part of the LAW. I also knew his dad, the late Robert Carter. His father was responsible for me getting my very first public sculpture commission in 1974, the bust of J.O. Blanton located in the J.O. Blanton high rise apartments for the elderly. Bob’s works always fascinated me because of the way he could draw, and his color palette was alive. He was able to come off the canvas into three dimensions. It was a new way of painting and thinking. This is the legacy of artists that grew out of the Bluegrass State and are recognized as some of our best and finest artists.
Ed Hamilton
Sculptor, Former Director and Member of the Louisville Art Workshop
Robert Carter is a distinguished Professor Emeritus of art at Nassau Community College, The State University of New York, where he taught drawing, painting, and design for many years. He was a sought-after lecturer and demonstrator in numerous public schools, universities, and private art organizations. Those are the reasons his colleagues at Nassau Community College have held him in professional esteem. But Carter was never in danger of confusing his resume with the whole Robert Carter. Reputation is what others may think about you, but what is far more important is character: what you think about yourself. Robert Carter is intelligent, creative, humorous, respectful, ambitious, persistent, and disciplined. Teachers in the art department are retained and promoted based on the quality of their teaching and their creative studio output. Throughout his teaching career, he had a passion for his craft, loving what he did and desiring to do it no matter what. This earned him the admiration of both students and colleagues. Consequently, he achieved the highest academic title of Professor. Whether teaching art courses within the college or in community outreach programs, Bob’s expertise as a skilled artist, combined with his entertaining humor, made him very effective and a fun teacher.
John Fink Artist and Professor Emeritus, Nassau Community College
“Mr. Cateeair!” That’s how I would greet Bob, and he would respond with “Mr. Goodday,” and I knew I had a friend. We kept that ritual up every time we saw each other. Bob has a great sense of humor along with a remarkable skill set. When I say skill set, I mean the application of what we know. It is the foundation of any creative developmental structure, and it has to begin with a solid foundation which is repeated over and over. It is an exercise. Bob recognizes that skill and applies it effortlessly with precise, imaginative fluidity. Bob knows that he can draw and paint. He’s very gifted. He can arrange and design a piece of work in a very interesting way on any material: paper, canvas, or even slabs of wood. He is an exceptional artist who can rival any of today’s masters.
Bob is a natural teacher, making it easy to feel comfortable around him. I never felt I had to struggle or feel forced to have a conversation with him. We spoke about sports, politics, and even food and family. He was particularly proud of his wife and her work with jewelry. And by the way, her work was outstanding. Bob spoke highly of his two daughters as if he made them all by himself. He loves his family. I am so glad to be asked to write about Bob, who I consider to be a friend, colleague and a blessing to all of us. Bob, you are leaving a visual roadmap for success. May the ancestors continue to guide you on your journey. Take good care of yourself good buddy.
Paul Goodnight Artist
We are honored that The Heckscher Museum of Art is the first stop on our father’s epic traveling exhibition. We hold this museum very dear, having grown up in Huntington and visiting many times as children. Sharing our dad’s talent here in our hometown is important both to his family and the breadth of his legacy. Our dad’s innate mastery, creating prolific figures from imagination sans imagery, is unparalleled. His astute understanding of and sensitivity to the human condition allows everyone to instinctively feel something when viewing his work. That is his gift. Through his extraordinary art, common ground and connection are realized.
Heather Carter and Holly Carter
Daughters
of the artist
ARTIST STATEMENT
Many years ago, a woman was found crying as she viewed one of my paintings at an exhibition in Dallas. When I had the chance to meet her, I asked what was wrong. “I don’t know, the artwork just took me back,” she responded. Of course I had no intention of bringing tears, but I was so moved that I had done something that fostered such a profound response.
Different projects have been initiated with different goals. For instance, the Children Series was grown from a warm, nostalgic energy for the past. Proud Queen (cover image) speaks to identity and family. Our country’s sociological profile has sparked styles, traditions, or habits unique to various ethnic groups. Country club conversation and dancing was not available to most people of color historically, but thanks to the wait-for-your-turn system in the barbershop, dialogue occurred. Joe Lewis, Jackie Robinson, or the girl next door might have been the topic of the day, and through those conversations a friendly climate was born. The painting Barbershop (fig. 4) is about that amiable atmosphere.
It takes more than one piece of art to show the depth and range of an artist’s work. I’m indeed very grateful to The Heckscher Museum of Art for providing me an opportunity to present the full scope of my work. Thanks to Sarah Battle for bringing such expertise and enthusiasm to the development of this exhibition and to my family, especially my daughters Heather and Holly Carter, for so much spiritual and physical support.
CURATORIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This exhibition celebrates the deep connections between Robert Graham Carter, the Long Island community, and The Heckscher Museum of Art. In 1973, at age thirty-four, Carter became the first African American artist to present a solo exhibition at the Museum. At the time, he was part of the “Huntington Group,” a loose coalition of seventeen artists who held open studios and otherwise collaborated to raise the profile of local contemporary artists. In 2000, the Museum exhibited his work alongside that of his wife in Forged from Life: Expressions of a Shared Heritage by Bob and Panchita Carter. The show featured Robert’s Proud Queen (cover image) and some of his drawings with twenty-five examples of Panchita’s metalwork jewelry. In 2021, as the Museum marked its centennial, we purchased Mama Taught Me Piano and Much More (2007) (fig. 1) for the collection and debuted it in The Heckscher Museum Celebrates 100: Tracing History, Inspiring the Future. Depicting the interaction between a grandmother and grandchild, the work speaks to the transmission of love, art, knowledge, and history. Its themes of learning, family, and service echo Carter’s role in our community, which the Museum recognized by honoring him at the 2023 Celebrate Achievement Benefit. We look forward to continuing to steward Carter’s legacy as part of our mission to embrace art that broadens our understanding of the past and creates diverse possibilities for our future.
Karli Wurzelbacher Chief Curator, The Heckscher Museum of Art
Working with the artist on this exhibition and through my ongoing oral history project on his formative years as an artist in Louisville has been a privilege, and I am sincerely appreciative of the artist’s time, wit, and collaboration. Robert Graham Carter’s art and social network have not been properly addressed in the field of art history, and I hope this exhibition encourages curiosity in the form of additional scholarship and wider public recognition in years to come. I give sincere thanks not only to the artist for his collaboration on this presentation, but also to his daughters, Holly and Heather Carter, for being instrumental in transforming the idea into reality. Thank you, Camille Pratt, for your research support, artistic expertise, and collaboration on this work. Intentionally scheduled to take place during a larger curatorial initiative honoring Louisville’s Black Avant Garde 1950–1980, Robert Graham Carter: The Art of Reflection explores Carter’s stylistic evolution, which will be celebrated in a group show at his childhood hometown art museum in 2027, co-organized with Dr. fari nzinga of the Speed Art Museum.
Sarah Battle
Guest Curator, The Heckscher Museum of Art Research Curator, Speed Art Museum
1. Robert Carter quoted in Nadine Matthews, “‘Black Art Legends’ event honors artist Robert Carter,” New York Amsterdam News, June 25, 2015, https:// amsterdamnews.com/news/2015/06/25/black-art-legends-event-honors-artist-robert-carte/.
2. Oral History Interview with Robert Carter (2021), Painting a Legacy: Louisville’s African American artistic community between the 1950s and 1970s, Oral History Center, University of Louisville.
3. Atlanta University Nineteenth Annual Exhibition of Painting, Sculpture, Prints by Negro Artists (Atlanta: Art Gallery, Trevor Arnett Library, 1960), https://radar.auctr.edu/islandora/object/auc.146%3A0099.
COVER IMAGE: Proud Queen, Tribute To My Wife, 1995 [detail] Wood and acrylic, 87-3/4 x 42 in. Robert Graham Carter Family Collection.
SPONSORS
Andrea B. & Peter D. Klein
Laura Shallat Benson
William Blair
The Heckscher Museum of Art is grateful to The Town of Huntington and the Town of Huntington Board of Trustees and Suffolk County Department of Economic Development & Planning for their generous support of the arts. ASL, Braille, and Spanish language translation made possible by a generous grant from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.