Represented by BlackCommentator.com
              
              For purchasing details please contact 
              
              Larry Richardson at [email protected]
              Acrylic on Canvas.
              Price: $ 6,000 USD
               51" x 39" Framed in antique 
                gold
              There are no reproductions
            
             
              Artist Statement
              Since I returned to painting in 1995 
                I have wanted to express the beauty in our African heritage. To 
                show the diversity that the Diaspora gave us in various other 
                cultures in the world. I have tried to present our culture as 
                seen not only in the context of the pain and suffering inflicted 
                on us in the days of slavery but to bring forward those cultural 
                contributions, and legacies we left in Spain, France, Italy and 
                other places of the world. Truly, that is what the Diaspora was 
                about... the dispersion of culture.
              When looking at the many histories on art and researching 
                many of the famous old masters, our image is present even in medieval 
                times. Anti-Black racism in the modern sense was unknown in the 
                Middle Ages; Blacks were simply part of the human race.
              In the latter Middle Ages there were even black 
                saints and one of the Magi was accurately shown as black. Most 
                literature on Black American artists is approached as though it 
                was a form of expression separate from the so-called majority 
                culture. This critical isolation in terms of art comes from the 
                tradition of classifying people and their culture by race. I feel 
                the crucial issue is the quality of work and it’s relevance 
                to the society in which it was created.
              As an artist it is not my color that gives me the 
                inspiration or the capacity to produce a desired result, but the 
                ability to be sensitive to the various conditions of life that 
                face all mankind.
               My first showing of some of these paintings was 
                called “Lost Images Found Paintings from the Soul” 
                reinforcing the importance of our culture in various parts of 
                the world.
              Three shows followed after that. One expanded 
                on cultural isolation and the other specifically was to present 
                a new approach to Afro-American figurative art merging the contemporary 
                and the classical forms. 
               The objective of my vision is to heighten 
                the awareness of those who view figurative images in my art and 
                to stimulate one’s thought and imagination. The end result 
                is a series of paintings and drawings that form cultural links 
                between our past and our future.