Henry "Mike" Bannarn (1910-1965)

BLACK ART AUCTION June 4, 2022 at 12pm EST

henry “mike” bannarn

HENRY “MIKE” BANNARN (1910-1965) Lot 15 Colt, c. 1940-50 carved stone 12-1/2 x 23 x 7 inches signed $20,000-40,000

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Henry W. Bannarn, ca. 1937. Federal Art Project, Photographic Division collection, circa 1920-1965. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

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Henry Bannarn, who preferred to go by the nickname, Mike, was an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance art scene, especially as a sculptor. He also mentored artists who went on to become more well known than himself.

Those would include Jacob Lawrence, Norman Lewis and Romare Bearden.

I rented a space from Mike and learned a great deal just by being around him. He had a lot of experience. Having gone through a regular formal art education program in Minnesota, Bannarn knew about printmaking, sculpture, and various other media.

—Jacob Lawrence, Lewis, Samella.

“Jacob Lawrence”, Black Art: an International Quarterly. 1982.

Bannarn was born in Wetuma, Oklahoma on July 10, 1910. When he was still a child, his family moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he eventually discovered his talent for art.

He studied at the Minneapolis School of Art, now known as the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. He left Minneapolis for Harlem, NY, early

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1930s, and continued his studies at the Art Student’s League with master stone carver, Ahron Ben-Shmuel, and the Beaux Arts Institute of Design. In Minneapolis, his work had attracted the attention of James Ford Bell, the president of General Mills, who awarded him a four year scholarship to the school of his choice. Bannarn had chosen the Beaux Arts.

In Harlem, he met fellow artists Augusta Savage, Charles Alston, Palmer Hayden, Bob Blackburn, and James Wells.

He began teaching at The Harlem Art Workshop around 1933, which was under the direction of the Works Progress Administration. The level of interest from young artists was very high, and necessitated several moves to larger facilities to accommodate the students. In 1934, Charles Alston and Bannarn moved to spacious quarters at 306 West 141st Street. The 306 as it became known, was the center of activity for art and culture in Harlem during the 1930s. In addition to visual artists, it was regularly visited by the likes of Richard Wright, Claude McKay and Alain Locke.

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Henry Bannarn, preparing for National Art Week, 1940 Minnesota Historical Society, N1.1 p18 (Locator Number), YR1943.7091 (Accession Number), 12733 (Negative Number)

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In 1936, Bannarn received a commission from Howard University to sculpt a bust of Frederick Douglass in black marble, although it is unclear if the project came to fruition. In 1937, the Harlem Community Art Center was established and Augusta Savage served as its first director. The art center was a WPA-sponsored project from 19371942, and Bannarn taught there until 1940.

In 1938, Howard University’s Theta Chapter of Phi Delta Kappa Sorority commissioned Bannarn to sculpt a portrait of arctic explorer, Matthew Henson. Henson was the first African American member of the Explorers Club and accompanied Robert Peary on seven voyages over 23 years. He was best known for the expedition of 1908-1909, when their party believed to have reached the geographic North Pole (Henson was purportedly the first person to reach the pole). Bannarn’s depiction of him still remains on exhibit in the Howard University Gallery of Art Library. International Business Machines (IBM) purchased a carved stone sculpture, “John Brown” for its

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educational exhibit on African American history. The Minneapolis Institute of Art purchased a sculpture titled, “The Smoker”.

James A. Porter wrote of Bannarn, “(his) work unites passion and massive strength…Henry Bannarn… is one of the few Negro sculptors whose mastery the material entitles them to take liberties with it. Bannarn’s finest work appeals to those of the most discriminating taste in the art world; and whether it be such a lowly theme as “John Brown”, the boundless strength of the primitive wells up in the work…whatever crudity there is in his forms strikes one …as a logical concomitant of the entire conception.”

Modern Negro Art, 141 Bannarn returned to Minnesota in 1940.

He liked to work outside when possible, finding materials such as wood from his backyard and stone from a nearby quarry for his sculptures.

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Midwife (Breath of Life), c. 1940 mahogany or walnut, 16 3/4 × 8 3/16 × 5 inches, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Katharine T. and Merrill G. Beede 1929 Fund and the Florence and Lansing Porter Moore 1937 Fund © The Estate of Henry Bannarn

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” bannarn Bannarn exhibited and won first prize at the Minneapolis Institute of Art for a limestone sculpture titled, Woman Scrubbing. The same year he showed that sculpture at a solo exhibition at the Harriet Hanley Gallery: Harriet Hanley Presents Henry W. Bannarn , Oct 7-19, 1940, then in 1955, he exhibited it at the Atlanta Annuals as Daywork. The work was awarded the purchase prize and it is part of Atlanta University Art Galleries’ permanent collection.

Francis Freeman, of the Minneapolis Tribune, reviewing the Harriet Hanley Gallery exhibit, compared Bannarn’s work to two of America’s leading modernist sculptors, Like William Zorach and Jose de Creeft, he attacks the stone directly with his chisel, believing surer sculptural effect results and the very resistance of the stone itself preserves the ‘feel’ of the material used.” Tina Dunkley also points out that Zorach (also) “drew heavily upon the aesthetics of African art.

Bannarn, inducted into the U.S. Army around 1940, first stationed at Lake Plauche, LA, and later at Charleston Port of Embarkation, South Carolina, created a series of paintings for the Army’s Special Services Division, and designed the first bond poster using an African American soldier. While in Louisiana, he met his wife, Mayola Moise in New Orleans. Mayola, also artistically inclined, had a successful career as a “heavy oil” color artist, coloring old photographs for the American Photo Corporation and other companies.

In 1949, he returned to New York and resumed his studio practice. Henry Wilmer Bannarn died in Brooklyn, in 1965. e

To Conserve a Legacy, American Art from Historically Black Colleges and Universities, 174.

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