BLACK ARTIST/SOUTH

We are incredibly grateful to the archives for sending this to us. Truly, thank you.

This catalogue, Black Artists/South (1979), is now another important addition to the growing Brown Renfro archives and collection.

Within these pages, Professor Leon Renfro is documented among a powerful group of artists, including Dr. John Biggers, Romare Bearden, and even George Washington Carver, placing his work within a broader cultural and historical conversation of Black artistry and excellence.

What stands out most is how his work was described:

His pieces carry “a painting precision of drawing,” with iconography that is both space age and ethnic. His figures, often robotic in form, draw from African sculpture in both posture and proportion.

And this line…

“This is one of the most unusual works in the exhibition… a favorite with engineer viewers, but projects much more than technical illustration.”

That matters.

Because it tells us that even then, his work was recognized as something beyond technical skill. It was conceptual. Cultural. Forward-thinking.

Afrofuturism before it had a name.

And now, this moment comes full circle.

The original piece referenced in this catalogue is now part of the Brown Renfro Collection.

Not just documented.

Held. Preserved. Carried forward.

www.BrownRenfro.com

We don’t just hang the art.

We carry it on.