Property from the Collection of Robert and Faye Davidson
Testifying to a pioneering vision, Property from the Collection of Robert and Faye Davidson brings together exceptional works from many of the most influential Black artists working in the twentieth century. Distinguished entrepreneur Robert “Bob” C. Davidson Jr. and his wife, Faye, have built what is widely regarded as one of the nation’s finest collections of African American art.
Spanning from the nineteenth century through the modern and postwar eras, the Davidsons’ collection reflects a discerning eye for excellence, each work representing the pinnacle of its creator’s artistic achievement. Guided by a deep commitment to cultural preservation and artistic equity, the couple set out to assemble a museum-quality collection at a time when Black artists were largely absent from the walls of major public institutions.
Today, the formal and conceptual breadth of their collection stands unparalleled, even in comparison to leading museum holdings. Beyond their roles as collectors, the Davidsons have profoundly influenced the direction of institutional collecting. Robert Davidson currently serves as Board Chair of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, where he has been a board member since 2016 and chaired the museum’s collections committee from 2021 to 2023. He is also a member of the Board of Governors at The Huntington; serves on the Advisory Council for the Arts at Cedars-Sinai; and holds the titles of Chairman Emeritus of both the Art Center College of Design and the Board at Morehouse College.
Together, Faye and Robert Davidson have not only shaped one of the most distinguished private collections of African American art but have also helped redefine the cultural and institutional landscape to ensure these artists receive the recognition they have long deserved.
Charles White’s important early painting Preacher (Reverend Man) leads the collection. Painted in 1940, when the artist was just twenty-one years old, the highly accomplished painting exemplifies his commitment to portraying the history of the Black community. Painted at a pivotal moment in the artist’s career, as he was first receiving national exposure after being featured in the influential Opportunity journal and while he was completing his masterpiece mural Five Great American Negros, the work is an outstanding example demonstrating the artist’s masterful draftsmanship in the prized medium of tempera. Preacher (Reverand Man) was included in the artist’s recent retrospective which toured to the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, emphasizing the importance of the work to understanding White’s artistic journey.
White befriended another Black artist, Jacob Lawrence, after moving to New York to conduct research at the Schomburg Center in Harlem. The two artists were both included in the seminal 1941 exhibition American Negro Art: 19th and 20th Centuries. Lawrence takes up the subject of Black workers in his magisterial The Carpenters. Made soon after the artist’s completion of military service during World War II, the work exemplifies Lawrence’s signature Cubist style, compressing his figures within a compact pictorial space as light and dark tones modulate across the reduced color palette. The work is one of the earliest examples of Lawrence's famed Builders theme, a subject also represented in the collection of The White House and one to which Lawrence would return throughout the rest of his career.
Romare Bearden, who was also exhibited in American Negro Art, was another great depicter of African American life. Bearden became an acquaintance of White and Lawrence, taking classes with the latter at the Harlem Arts Workshop. His Train Whistle Blues: II is an important early collage, executed as the artist was co-founding Spiral art group, an influential forum for Harlem artists advancing civil liberties. Made with an innovative technique inspired by the improvisational and rhythmic elements of jazz, the present collage was used as the source image for Train Whistle Blues No. 1, an enlarged photostat of the composition now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Bearden’s first exhibition of his collages in 1964 proved immensely successful, establishing the artist as a leading contemporary artist.
Fittingly, Davidson’s collection culminates with Beaford Delaney’s singularly expressive painting The Sage Black. Described by Romare Bearden as “a legendary figure,” Delaney was selected for the Studio Museum in Harlem’s first “Black Master” exhibition in 1978. Delaney was as passionate about jazz as Bearden, considering it as sacred as gospel music. This portrait of one of the artist’s oldest and most treasured friends is a culmination of the artist’s incredible artistic journey, conveying his incredible attention to light and profound use of color with his sensual depiction of motion. At the juncture between abstraction and figuration, Delaney fuses the influence of the modern tradition with his immersion in the French avant-garde. Baldwin had first met Delaney as a teenager, immediately recognizing the artist as his “spiritual father.” Delaney in turn described Baldwin as the “witness of the crucial moments in my work.” The Sage Black encapsulates this pivotal decades-long friendship, expressing the monumentality of Baldwin’s intellect and creative prowess while portraying an intimate view into the writer’s psyche.
The collection of Robert and Faye Davidson provides a fascinating survey of the development and interrelationships between some of the most influential and renowned Black artists working in the twentieth century. With great foresight and sharp eyes, the Davidsons built their museum-quality collection prior to many institutions now focused on collecting African American artists. The works offered here inspire deep reflection and spark numerous dialogues and connections, creating important insights into American social and artistic histories.