GRACE VISITS: JOHANNE BRYANT-REID 11/29/16

Johanne Bryant-Reid in front of Roy Crosse Painting

Johanne Bryant-Reid is passionate about the arts and about being a collector of art. She is - a woman whose lucid, dark eyes sparkle with delight, and her resonant voice magnifies with intensity as we tour her art collection,  which includes paintings, prints, and drawings by Elizabeth Catlett, Roy Crosse, Jacob Lawrence, Carole Byard, Charles White, Norman Lewis, Charles Alston, Thornton Dial and Romare Bearden, among others. We occasionally pause for Johanne to share stories about specific works.  Humor and personal discovery are intermixed as she tells how she unearthed these artworks and how she became so enamored with particular artists that their relationships developed into lifelong friendships. For Johanne, art is not purchased to decorate a home. Art becomes, to quote Wassily Kandinsky, “an inner necessity.”  Artists need people like Johanne to complete and expand the life of their inventions:  a conversation and collaboration intrinsic to the cycle of creation.

 

Johanne Bryant-Reid was a First Vice President of Merrill  Lynch, directing their human resources department at a time when the company was looking to diversify and be more inclusive in their hiring practices. Through Merrill Lynch, she supported artists by setting up art exhibits, and exposing her colleagues to a range of African-American, Hispanic, and women artists. Today, she is the co-director of The Romare Bearden Foundation. She’s served on the boards of institutions such as the National Council of Negro Women, the National Association Equal Opportunity Higher Education, Manhattan Community College, and Artists Space.

In the early 1980s, the trajectory of  Johanne's life changed when a friend invited her to visit the artist, Romare Bearden in his  studio in the (then) “industrial wilderness” of Long Island City. Bearden was generous with his time and spent an entire afternoon with them. Johanne  described this pivotal experience: “…he was the first one to open my eyes to art…there is nothing like being in a Romare Bearden studio while he is working on a piece, and explaining it to you…” The artist’s hospitality was also peppered with a directness that made Johanne re-evaluate her priorities. She was wearing what she characterized as “fancy-dancy” shoes, and turning to her he asked: “ Do you collect? In life, you need to do something besides buying shoes…” Johanne interpreted this to mean she should invest in objects that have real value.

Johanne Bryant-Reid was born and raised in a coal mining community in West Virginia called  “Number 9” by its inhabitants - the official name was Consolidated Coal Company #9,  also known as Farmington, West Virginia. At the time, towns were referred to by the coal company number - an indication of the overwhelming influence that coal manufacturing wielded in the area. Tragically, her father Leslie David Bryant was killed in a coal mining accident when she was thirteen years old. For Johanne, that loss was akin to “taking the heart out of a family with four kids… walking through life without a father figure…” Yet his memory and powerful presence had a striking influence on Johanne’s own choices. Her father was the first black man, working in a coal mine to become treasurer of the union. It demonstrated his call to civic involvement, which Bryant-Reid has also committed to throughout the course of her life. Interested in electronics and as a  consummate craftsman he built storage units, swinging shelves, furniture, and constructed his own radio - instilling in his daughter an eye for the aesthetic elegance of handmade, custom-built objects. The familial influence also extended to her mother Jesse Lee (Scruggs) Bryant who was an accomplished cook and caterer. 

In the late 1960s, during America’s civil rights era, a turbulent time of change, Johanne attended West Virginia University where her social consciousness and imagination expanded. An avid reader, she became keenly aware of the absence of African-American Literature and Black History courses in the University’s curriculum. She also discovered the power of protest and joined a group of students in targeting the president of the University, holding him in his office, until all the core programming demands were met. The realization that a voice in concert with others’ can precipitate change was revelatory. Moving to New York City in the late 1970s to work for Merrill Lynch, Johanne employed her organizing skills by using her spare time to volunteer at a women’s center, helping to raise money for “battered women” through the sale of art by artists including Nanette Carter, Emma Amos, and  Carole Byard. The idea here was “women helping women” -- a potent catalyst.

 

Heeding Romare Bearden’s advice from years ago, Johanne purchased art, filling her elegant home with a distinctive taste: a totemic sculpture by Roy Crosse residing on a corner wall exuding a magical presence, which is difficult to ignore;  an amalgam of contemporary materials and a bewitching past; a drawing by Bearden himself,  fresh and vibrant with a handwritten inscription melding the specific with the universal. And, a Charles Alston drawing of a seated young boy conveying the awkwardness of youth - fingers intertwined, fidgeting with restless energy.Johanne collected many phases of Norman Lewis’ work - from an early realistic watercolor, and an ink nude study, to an abstraction conveying the movement of time rushing by.

Johanne  recalled that when she attended high school, she “…didn’t even know there were any African American writers.” This disturbing remembrance was etched into her sensibility and generated a resolve to make African American books and art available to larger audiences. Eventually wedding her love of prose and poetry with art, she organized a Merrill Lynch event for John Biggers’ lithographic illustrations and Maya Angelou's poem "Our Grandmothers” published in book form by The Limited Editions Club in 1994. 

http://blackartinamerica.com/profiles/blogs/in-the-spirit-the-connection-of-john-biggers-and-maya-angelou

As I was leaving, Johanne generously gave me a copy of the  stunning book, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” and proudly shared  that she owns every Elizabeth Catlett linocut print illustrating James Weldon Johnson’s iconic song, “Lift Every Voice And Sing,” regarded as the African American “National Anthem.”

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/james-weldon-johnson/lift-every-voice-and-sing/

Johanne Bryant-Reid is an extraordinary woman who has devoted her life to the arts, knowing with certainty that it is a glorious path to enriching one’s being. 

“All these artists had a profound effect on me and changed my life,” she says. “Taking nothing and creating something is a phenomenal thing.” 

Roy Crosse, Home Protector, 58"x6"x2 1/2", wood, metal gold plate, 1992

Jacob Lawrence print from John Brown Series, 1970

Charles Alston, Untitled, gouache, charcoal, pen and ink on paper, 24"x19", 1970

Norman Lewis Untitled (Doll), watercolor, 17"x12", early 1940

Norman Lewis, Untitled, ink and watercolor on paper, 19"x24", early 1940

John Biggers, Four Seasons, print, 24"x34", 1990

Johanne Bryant-Reid in front of  Elizabeth Catlett linotype prints