Joe Minter, And He Hung His Head and Died, 1999, welded found metal, 243.8 x 194.3 x 87.6cm, Souls Grown Deep Foundation © ARS, NY and DACS, London 2022 [Stephen Pitkin/Pitkin Studio]

A SHORT drone film of artist Joe Minter’s African Village in America reveals his magical creation, an outdoor art emporium that resembles a sculpture scrapyard that includes a number of Stars and Stripes fluttering in the breeze.

It was produced by the geography department of the University of Atlanta (see africanvillage.ua.edu) and features in a new show at the Royal Academy in Piccadilly, Souls Grown Deep like the Rivers.*

The 79-year-old Minton’s “village” is on the edge of Birmingham, Alabama, and features an array of his sculptures mainly from scrap and found materials.

Also to be seen in the new RA exhibition is his impressive And He Hung His Head and Died, from 1999, a Calvary scene with industrial shelving brackets and rust doubling for the blood.

The RA describes the show as presenting “unique African American artistic traditions and methods of visual storytelling”.

Martha Jane Pettway, Housetop – nine-block Half- Log Cabin variation, c1945, corduroy, 182.9 x 182.9cm, Souls Grown Deep Foundation© Estate of Martha Jane Pettway/ ARS, NY and DACS, London 2022 [Stephen Pitkin/Pitkin Studio]

And this runs the gamut of experiences from sex, love and death to slavery, segregation, racism, exploitation, the civil rights struggle and more.

It includes some 64 works by 34 artists from the mid-20th century to today, works in various media, mainly drawn from the collection of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation in Atlanta, Georgia, which was formed by William Arnett (1939-2020) who also supported many of the artists.

The name is inspired by the last line of the 1921 Langston Hughes poem, The Negro Speaks of Rivers: “My soul has grown deep like the rivers”. Today the foundation seeks to place works worldwide and return proceeds “to the communities of origin”.

The “yard shows” tradition of site-specific installations – Minter’s, begun in 1989, being one of the last great examples standing, say the curators – is a core theme.

Charlie Lucas (b 1951) built a sculpture garden, with large scale works on his Alabama farm. Shown here is his Three Way Bicycle, 1985, from scrap mechanical bits and wheels pointing in different directions, made shortly after he suffered serious injury and had new choices to make on how his life was to proceed.

The art here is locally rooted in communities, whether from Atlanta or Memphis, South Carolina or the Mississippi delta.

Joe Light, Blue River Mountain, 1988, enamel on wood, 81.3 x 121.9cm, Souls Grown Deep Foundation, Atlanta. © ARS, NY and DACS, London 2022 [Stephen Pitkin/Pitkin Studio]

There are striking examples of the use of scrap wood and branches for carvings, sculptures and assemblages.

One of the “isolated” areas around which a remarkable tradition has grown is that of the Gee’s Bend (aka the village of Boykin), Alabama, and its women quiltmakers.

“Conceived out of necessity, these vivid, multi-layered textile works are now viewed as an important chapter of modern art in America”, say the curators.

They display a number here, and from Rehoboth and Alberta, nearby, dating from the 1930s
to 2021, among them work by Martha Jane Pettway (1898-2003), Rachel Carey George (1908-2011), and Flora Moore (b 1951).

Other highlights – all three from 1988 – include Ralph Griffin’s soaring bird sculpture of “found” wood, nailed and painted, Eagle; Joe Light’s, Blue River Mountain, enamel on wood; and Atlanta, a townscape by Jimmy Lee Sudduth (1910-2007), an artist who left his rural Alabama and travelled to some of the big American cities and would use not only paint but mud, berry juice, grass stains, even coffee grounds and other “pigments”!

* Souls Grown Deep like the Rivers: Black Artists from the American South, is at the Royal Academy, The Gabrielle Jungels-Winkler Galleries, from March 17 until June 18. Tickets can be booked in advance online (royalacademy.org.uk) or over the phone (020 7300 8090).

Painted spaces

Peter Doig, Alpinist, 2022, pigment on linen, 295 x 195cm, private collection, © Peter Doig, all rights reserved, DACS 2023

ETCHINGS by Edinburgh-born Peter Doig, currently to be seen in the drawings gallery at the Courtauld, honour his friend, the poet Derek Walcott (1930-2017), but also Zermatt street scenes!

Upstairs can be seen his monumental painting, Alpinist.

A lifelong skier Doig, who lived in Trinidad and “grew up” in Canada, based this work on an old postcard, dressed his subject as a harlequin, introduced the crossed skis religious reference, and added the Matterhorn. Started in Trinidad, the well-travelled Doig also worked on it during several months spent in the Swiss Alpine town. It was completed in London.

Peter Doig at the Courtauld, the first show by a living artist there since its reopening, offers fine examples of his creative paintings, ranging from a 2015 self-portrait in his studio in Trinidad – where he settled in 2002 – to bathers, musicians, fishermen, even his daughter in a hammock.

A birthday card Doig made for his son was inspiration for a first painting since his return to London, his current base.

Canal, 2023, references the Regent’s Canal, but is much more.

As he has said of his works, “I never try to create real spaces – only painted spaces. That’s all I am interested in.

“That may be why there is never really any specific time or place in my paintings.”

• The Morgan Stanley Exhibition, Peter Doig, and Peter Doig: Etchings for Derek Walcott are at the Courtauld Gallery, Strand, WC2R 0RN until May 29. Details: https://courtauld.ac.uk