by: ShirleyKinsey
The Norton Museum of Art will present an exhibition drawn from the artistic and historical treasures collected by Bernard and Shirley Kinsey of Los Angeles, California. The exhibition, “In The Hands Of African American Collectors: The Personal Treasures of Bernard and Shirley Kinsey,”includes some 90 paintings, sculptures, prints, books, documents, manuscripts and vintage photographs the couple has loaned to the Norton Museum from their personal collection. This is the first time that some of these rare artifacts and documents have been made available for public viewing. The exhibition will open on April 19, 2008 and continue through July 20, 2008, at the Museum, which is located at 1451 S. Olive Avenue in West Palm Beach.
Kinsey, the former Xerox Vice President who became Co-Chairman of RLA (Rebuild Los Angeles) in Los Angeles in 1992, and his wife have been collecting for more than 35 years. They started collecting as a way to savor and share their travels, but their art soon became a repository for African American intellectual, historic and artistic works. A vast array of art, artifacts and historical documents fill their home and reinforce the Kinsey’s philosophy that tangible objects are evidence of history. “Shirley and I have a thing. I buy the dead artists, she buys the living artists,” Kinsey says. “Because I’m looking at the historical part of the thing and she’s looking at what she likes and to support emerging artists.”
Included in the exhibition are outstanding works of art by leading African American artists that depict the Transatlantic Slave Trade, American Slavery, Civil War and Reconstruction, Nineteenth Century Landscapes, the Harlem Renaissance, The Next Generation and Post Modernism, as well as historical documents and books. The exhibition originated at the California African American Museum (CAAM) in Los Angeles and is designed to bring attention to the diverse aesthetic interests and collections held by African Americans.
Both Kinsey’s are native Floridians who met while they were attending Florida A&M University. Shirley was arrested for her participation in a protest and both were active in marches and sit-ins. They have been married for 40 years and have a son, Khalil. When Bernard Kinsey left Xerox in 1991 after 20 years, the Xerox Black Employee Organization commissioned a portrait of the Kinseys’ son by Artis Lane as a retirement gift. (Lane is a painter, sculptor and printmaker known for her portrait of Rosa Parks commissioned by the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery). There is also an Artis Lane portrait of Bernard and Shirley Kinsey commissioned as a gift by several of their friends.
The collection includes important historical documents as well as artistic works. “Art is precious, but historical documents are rare,” says Bernard Kinsey. Their collection isn’t only African American, but mostly. It contains paintings and sculpture by artists such as Ernie Barnes, Artis Lane, Richard Mayhew, John Biggers, Elizabeth Catlett, Robert Scott Duncanson, Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Henry Tanner, Jonathan Green, Phoebe Beasley, Sam Gilliam and others. Books including an 1632 edition of the extremely rare Leo Africanus, September 1773 publication of poems by Phillis Wheatley; rare tintypes and even letters like one from Malcolm X to Alex Haley and some from the distant and not-so-distant past. Kinsey’s motivation to collect comes from a simple question to learn who we are and where we came from. And to explore his people’s history in the United States history that the couple actively participated in during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.
As the Kinsey’s evolved as collectors, they began to identify and collect the work of artists who make up and define African American art and culture. Moreover, they collect documents that illuminate historical moments. They see themselves as caretakers of their collection, their ownership temporary. They say, Bernard Kinsey continues, “We are really more keepers of this art and historical documents, rather than owners, because frankly, no one can really own this in a sense.”
The Kinseys are at a stage in life where they can afford to indulge their passions—one even greater than collecting: sharing. Together they have raised more than $22 million for community based organizations, churches and scholarships for historically Black colleges.
Bernard Kinsey currently serves as president of KBK Enterprises, a management consulting firm. He is a recognized expert and leader in the field of urban revitalization and economic development and has counseled the governments of South Africa, Germany, England, and France.
“In The Hands of African American Collectors: The Personal Treasures of Bernard and Shirley Kinsey” was organized by the California African American Museum. This exhibition and its associated catalogue were made possible by funding from the State of California and Friends, The Foundation of the California African American Museum and lead sponsors Northern Trust and Toyota Motor Sales. The Palm Beach presentation of the exhibit is funded in part by Northern Trust, Melvin and Claire Levine and Starbucks Coffee Company.
Saturday, April 19 is FAMU Alumni Day at the Norton Museum of Art and all Florida A&M University alumni have been invited to attend. A conversation with Bernard and Shirley Kinsey is scheduled for 3 p.m. with a tour of the exhibition at 4 p.m. and a private reception for FAMU Alumni at 5 p.m.
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