Spilling the Tea: The Kwanzaa Edition* - Day 4 - Ujamaa (Cooperative economics)

Hi everyone, Hilary’s wife Ara again. As promised, the takeover of her instagram account continues with my fourth pairing of works by Hilary Harkness with a Kwanzaa principle along with a few of my musings for you to sip on as I continue Spilling the Tea: The Kwanzaa Edition.

Day 4 - Ujamaa (Cooperative economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and
other businesses and to profit from them together.

Edith Gregor Halpert. Peggy Guggenheim. Mary Boone. Wendy Olsoff and Penny Pilkington. If Helen of Troy’s face launched a thousand ships, these art dealers have launched (peacefully in most cases) at least as many of the most influential artists of our time. Today, we see Hilary’s revisions to Peggy Guggenheim and her Art of This Century Gallery. Peggy’s a multi-tasking mother/wheeler dealer’s hard at work closing a deal while she finishes a stitch on her daughter Pegeen’s gown (yes, those are Meret Oppenheim gloves!) As the usual Harkness hi-jinks/kinks ensue, Jacob Lawrence oversees the hanging of his latest while Bill Traylor finishes another piece in the elevator (getting in on the ground floor?) There’s Lee Krasner, finishing up Jackson’s painting because he’s, well otherwise occupied. Ladies, you know how we do. Yep, she’s black in Harkness land (muses matter!) Now, a little side dish for your tea: Hilary grew up poring over Richard Scarry’s books trying to figure out how the world works and the resources (natural and otherwise) we choose to value. I see that influence in many of her cross-sections and earlier works such as Golden Gorge and Quarry Works. 2020 has laid bare a lot of how the world works and what we do all day. Frightening and fortifying. The pundits have made a lot of black women; about our power to save America - its democracy, economy and even its soul. It’s tiring work but there’s nothing to suggest that we won’t continue to persist. Don’t get too comfortable. We still need the other - I say other because we are also found in each of these groups - artists, dealers, collectors, critics, curators, art handlers and essential workers who keep us healthy, fed and safe. Join us in making the world work better and with more art!

Works featured: Experienced People Needed (2018), Golden Gorge (2007), Quarry Works (2008-09)

*This and the subsequent “Spilling the Tea” entries originally appeared as a series of Instagram posts.