folkartwork

HORACE PIPPIN Holy Mountain III (1945) // Oil on canvas; 25 1/4 × 30 1/4 in. (64.6 × 76.8 cm)

“In The Holy Mountain III, the tiny brown figure hanging in the trees refers to the ongoing scourge of lynching in the racially segregated southern United States. He inscribes on each a date significant from WWII. The Holy Mountain III is marked “Aug 9, 1945”, the day the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan.

Pippin painted several religious subjects, which align with his roles as a Sunday school teacher and member of a church choir in West Chester. Many, including his celebrated Holy Mountain series, depict Bible verses.

The three paintings of his Holy Mountain series are reminiscent of the bucolic Peaceable Kingdom paintings of Quaker artist Edward Hicks that depict predators and prey together. He includes in the backgrounds elements from his own time—soldiers, graveyards, war planes, and bombs—that are at odds with the peace depicted in the foreground.” — Smithsonian American Art Museum

via Smithsonian American Art Museum

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See more works by Horace Pippin.