Delita Martin was born in 1972 in Conroe, Texas, near Houston, and continues to live and work in nearby Huffman. She says, “Everybody in my family made art. We would paint, we would draw, we’re storytellers. I was whining because I wanted to go to art school, and I didn’t realize I grew up in an art school! Quilters, storytellers, writers. And this was something that we did every single day. We just woke up and did it.” 

She recalls that starting when she was five years old, her parents would introduce her to people and “always add that I was going to be an artist when I grew up, so it never really occurred to me to have a plan B or to consider that being an artist wasn’t a possibility.”  A major influence on her and her family was their friendship with John Biggers (1924-2021), a prominent artist in the Haarlem Renaissance.

Martin received a BFA in drawing in 2002 from Texas Southern University and an MFA in printmaking in 2009 from Purdue University. She opened her studio, the Black Box Press, in Houston in 2008. She served as a part-time faculty member at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock from 2008 until 2012, and she was promoted to full-time in 2013. Her work became nationally recognized in 2011 when she was chosen for the College of Liberal Arts Emerging Voice Award. In 2015, the International Review of African American Art referred to Martin as one of sixteen “African American Artists to Watch.”

“Black Bird” (2016)

From the beginning, Martin was clear about her work: “The pieces are about my discovery of who I am as a person, an artist and a woman and how all the components come together to make me who I am.” She deals with the exclusion of African American women in the past and in the present. Her works are mixed media that begin with her photographs of family and friends. The process can include acrylic paint, relief print, lithography, charcoal, hand stitching, and anything she decides to attach to complete the story.  

“Black Bird” (2016) (50’’x39’’) (Daughters of the Night series) is a photograph of herself, identifiable by the gold hoop earrings. “My ears were pierced when I was six months old with tiny gold hoops. The style of earring has become a symbol of inclusion in my work. Not only is it a circle, thus symbolizing the female, but it represents notions of totality, wholeness, the infinite, eternity, timelessness, and all cyclic movement.” Behind the figure are black circle shapes that enclose the blue and white honey comb patterns. Several different pattern pieces are cut in the shape of feathers provide the black bird’s garment. She stares out at the viewer, making eye contact and announcing her presence. No longer in the darkness, no longer invisible, she is present in today’s conversation.

“The Moon and Little Bird” (2018)

“The Moon and Little Bird” (2018) (79”x102”) (gelatin printing, collagraph printing, relief printing, decorative papers, hand-stitching, and liquid gold leaf on heavyweight papers) (Between Spirits and Sisters series) is influenced by Martin’s interest in the dual worlds, the physical and the spiritual. She refers to her sitters as spirit women. Her interest in her African origins led her to research the roles of African women. In Sierra Leon, West Africa, the women of the Sande society wear black helmet Sowei masks as shown on the woman at the right side of the work. The masks represent the ideal of ancestral beauty along with the elaborate braided hair styles. Rings around the neck represent the water through which women enter the physical world from the spirit world. Sande society, managed only by women, is responsible for enforcing the moral code. The mask is worn during initiations of young women into adulthood which involves their role in the community. 

Martin, wearing her gold hoop earrings, sits calmly opposite the mask wearer and looks directly at the viewer. Sande society women are the only women in Africa that wear masks. Men are excluded in this space. Martin explains that this space is private and secret where women can express and exchange ideas freely. She describes the use of large scale works as making a “connection on a more intimate level…labor intensive…large scale to be seen and felt.”  The question the work inspires is, “Are you the viewer or are you being viewed?” 

“The Soaring Hour” (2018)

In “The Soaring Hour” (2018) (71”x51”) (Between Spirits and Sisters series) Martin again places herself in a vibrant blue night setting. Blue is symbolic of spirituality in many cultures, including Christianity, for example, in the Virgin’s blue gown. Martin holds a Sande mask, a symbol of a woman’s dual existence in one body. She calls these images a “veil state, the state between waking life and the spirit life.” Flowers and vines surround her. The painting is meant to inspire women to reach for and to achieve new experiences and new heights. “Flying isn’t always about escape, it’s also about freedom,” says Martin.

“Guardian” (2019)

“Guardian” (2019) (44”x30”) is an image Martin chose for her book Shadows in the Garden (2019). “I grew up surrounded by gardens and all kinds of farm animals. I often reflect on getting up early in the morning to pick fruits and vegetables with my grandma, my mama, and other women in my family. The seeds of these experiences working with land, tilling the earth, and being engaged with the elements of my environment have bloomed into what you’re recognizing in my work with the integration of birds, plants, and flowers.” 

“Blue is the Color We See Before We Die” (2021)

“Blue is the Color We See Before We Die” (2021) (8’x6’) is a depiction of Yvette Smith, wearing the Sande mask, who was killed on the doorstep of her friend’s house in Texas on February 16, 2014, by Sheriff’s Deputy Daniel Willis. Her pose suggests she might be dancing. Her white dress is decorated with red poppies, where the fatal shots entered her body. Willis, in light blue, is removing his mask. His badge stands out against dark blue and black images of assault rifles on legs. The central figure composed of geometrical shapes is Smith’s neighbor Willis Thomas. The background consists of flowers and leaves on tall stems. 

“Blue is the Color We See Before We Die” was commissioned in 2021 by the Law Enforcement Accountability Project (LEAP), ARRAY, and Ava Vernay.  It was “dedicated to empowering activists as they pursue narrative change around the police abuse of Black people.” (LEAP)

The National Museum of Women in the Arts sponsored “Calling Down the Spirits,” an exhibit of Martin’s work in 2020. Her work was included in the 2022 Venice Biennale. Recent exhibitions include “Gathering of Bones” (Germany in 2022), “Sometimes My Blues Change Colors” (Massachusetts in 2024), and “What the Night Knew” (Texas in 2024). 

“Mythologies” (2024)

“Mythologies” (2024) (60”x80”) was included in the exhibit “What the Night Knew.” The two female figures are the principal element in this work. The gold circle earring, the black circles, the large flowers with seed pods, and the mixture of patterns are Martin’s signature images.

“I think what I’m most excited about is how Black Women, themselves are reframing how they see themselves and other Black Women when they view my work. One of the most political subjects to date is the Black female body. When you, as a Black Woman, can take ownership of your body image, present a narrative that you know to be true and present it to the world, it can be very powerful and impactful. My answer to the white gaze has been simply not to entertain it. I understand that in the art world certain levels of success require an unspoken validation from the white gaze. I have never felt I needed that type of validation. I have always subscribed to just making good art and being prepared to be a good steward of the success that it would bring.” (Delita Martin interview)

Note: Martin is represented by Galerie Myrtis in Baltimore.

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years. Since retiring to Chestertown with her husband Kurt in 2014, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL and the Institute of Adult Learning, Centreville. An artist, she sometimes exhibits work at River Arts. She also paints sets for the Garfield Theater in Chestertown.

Expressionist painter Edvard Munch (1863-1944) was born in Loten, Norway. He perhaps is best known for “The Scream” (1893), a painting that reveals his anxiety, alcoholism, and depression. He was weighed down by family members’ deaths when he was very young. Additional factors were his poor health and his father’s religious zeal and harsh discipline. As an expressionist he almost always chose emotion over realism.  Munch also painted many portraits and landscapes. He spent his life in Norway, with trips to Paris and Germany. 

“Winter in the Woods, Nordstrand” (1899)

This article on Munch’s lesser-known landscapes, winter settings in particular, explores a unique side of his work. By the time “Winter in the Woods, Nordstrand” (1899) (24”x 35”) (oil on cardboard) was painted, Munch had become known internationally. From 1899 through 1901, he painted several winter landscapes of the fjords at Nordstrand, south of Oslo. The setting of this piece is a dark spruce forest in the snow. No people are present, but footprints in the snow indicate that people recently had come this way. The heavy clumps of snow on the trees are fresh. The wind has not yet dislodged them. Munch used thick strokes of paint, but he let the tan cardboard show through in places. Like the Impressionists, whom he admired, he painted shadows in shades of blue. However, he also had a heavy hand with black. He was creating his personal style. 

The painting, often described as melancholy, is a close-up view of the forest, the sky not included in the scene. But the sun shines across the exposed ground and causes the snow to glow. Munch depicted nature as raw and powerful with his use of broad sweeping brushstrokes. He explained, “Painting picture by picture, I followed the impressions my eye took in at heightened moments. I painted only memories, adding nothing, no details that I did not see. Hence the simplicity of the paintings, their emptiness.”

“White Night” (1901)

In winter in Norway, “polar night,” the scientific term for the phenomena, occurs when the Sun remains below the horizon. The title of the painting, “White Night” (1901) (45’’x44”), actually refers to the same phenomenon that occurs during the summer. The whiteness of the snow prevents the winter polar night from becoming completely dark. Munch painted the dark silhouette of the trees in the foreground, the snow and tree shadows in the middle ground, a tan barn with a snow-covered roof, another stand of spruce trees, and the swirling waters of the fjord and coast in the distance. The sky is sunless, but not dark.  Munch’s use of black and cool blue colors produces the chill of the scene. Not at all depressing, the work is an expression of the beauty, power, and vast scope of nature’s many attitudes.

“Winter Landscape” (1901)

Munch painted numerous winter scenes, and like music, they are a theme and variations. “Winter Landscape” (1901) (32”x48”) focuses more on the field of white snow and the blue shadow cast by the spruce tree. Large red, brown, and black rocks stand out against the white snow. A row of shorter and taller trees in the distance also calls attention to the stars in the blue sky. Munch never tired of painting winter scenes

”New Snow” (1900-01)

“New Snow” (1900-01) (29’’x23’’) presents another view of a spruce forest. A wide road leads the viewer’s eye through the forest. It was well-used, but covered in fresh snow. Brown tree trunks are scattered through the forest and the spruce trees are painted fresh green. The stylized trees have just been covered by the stylized clumps of snow. Munch transformed the forest into something dreamlike, poetic, and timeless. 

Munch suffered a physical and mental breakdown sometime during the period of 1908 through 1909, and he checked himself into a private sanitarium. On recovering, he declared he had become a teetotaler and a vegetarian. He returned to the town of Kragero and settled in there. He wrote, “I am now working full time, I feel, it now seems as if I am at my artistic peak. Never has my work given me so much joy.”  He was honored in a Sonderbund exhibition in Copenhagen that included works by Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Picasso. Munch wrote, ”All the wildest things that have been painted in Europe are collected here–I am practically a pale classicist.”

Munch moved in 1916 to a country home in Ekely, near Oslo. The house, with a view of the city, sat on 11 acres that included an apple orchard. He built several studios. He lived a fairly isolated life and continued to paint landscapes. He nearly died during the 1919 Spanish flu epidemic.  During that time, he had several exhibitions in major European cities.

“Starry Night” (1922-24)

“Starry Night” (1922-24) (47”x39”) was one of the night sky series Munch painted from the top steps of his veranda. He often depicted himself as a lone shadow on the snow as he does here. Munch, the only figure in some of his paintings, is interpreted as loneliness and solitude which he preferred. He does include a view of the distant city. It is in the vastness of nature that human fragility, his own and humans in general, can be felt. There is a sense of life and time passing. 

In this later style, Munch used more varied and more vivid colors. The color red carries through the work: the red of the veranda in the foreground, the red in the bridge, the red house with the white windows in the middle ground, the pink sky created by the Sun’s position below the horizon, and the reds and pinks in the stars set in the dark blue heaven. He often depicted the constellations of Jupiter or the Pleiades that intensified his sense of the celestial world.

The expressionism of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” (1889) and Munch’s “Starry Night” often have been compared. Both works are considered masterpieces.

“Winter in Kragero” (1925-31)

Munch moved to Kragero in 1908 after his nervous breakdown. He found the light and environment stimulating. He began painting urban scenes in 1909. “Winter in Kragero” (1925-31) (54”x59”) is a depiction of the city from a distance. The large yellow building at the right of the canvas is set next to the snow-covered roof of a house, neither painted in detail. A tall tree and a very slim tree stand on the diagonal slope that leads to the city. Kragero’s buildings rise up the hillside, and behind them are mountains. Although he frequently included scenes of towns in his work, these later paintings place the town at a distance.   

The Nazis designated Munch’s work as “degenerate art” in 1937, seized 82 of his paintings, and sold them to raise money.  The paintings were taken from German museums and Jewish collections.  A lost and then found Munch work “Dance on the Beach” (1906) sold at auction in 2023 for $22 million. Munch painted until he died on January 23, 1944. He willed to the city of Oslo his artwork and his collection of texts: 1150 paintings, 17,800 prints, 4,500 watercolors and drawings, 13 sculptures, his notebooks, and the plays and poems that he had written. The writings were unavailable to the public until January 1, 2015.  Munch was a major catalyst in the development of the Expressionist style that continues to be of major significance in the progress of 20th and 21st Century art. 

“Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye…it also includes the inner pictures of the soul.” (Edvard Munch)

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years. Since retiring to Chestertown with her husband Kurt in 2014, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL and the Institute of Adult Learning, Centreville. An artist, she sometimes exhibits work at River Arts. She also paints sets for the Garfield Theater in Chestertown.