Recollections of Grandad
Selected Stories and Paintings of
James Hiram Malone
Curated by Julia Malone
This is a page dedicated to the exhibition my daughter Julia curated entitled "Recollections of Grandad - Selected Stories and Paintings of James Hiram Malone" at the Detroit Children's Museum in 2023. It was a lot of work. She traveled to Atlanta to get some of the paintings, picked out the pieces, wrote a story about each one, negotiated the venue and designed the card. Huge thanks to Don Bogart for hosting the show at the wonderful Detroit Children's Museum!
From the Curators Statement:
Welcome!
Recollections of Grandad has been a passion project I’ve been working on sporadically for the last few years and I’m so excited with how it turned out. Several years ago, the Detroit Children’s Museum hosted a miniature exhibition of their collection of my Grandad’s work that he personally donated, and I’m honored to bring that full circle with today’s exhibition.
Recollections is supposed to serve as a vehicle for those previously unfamiliar to discover my Grandad’s work, and I sincerely hope that you get as much joy out of attending as I did in putting this together. Enjoy!
Julia Malone, Curator (age 15)
Special Thanks to:
Don Bogart, Detroit Children’s Museum Curator, and my family and friends!
Quilt of Unity
James Hiram Malone
1975
Oil on canvas
This piece has gone through many names since its creation in 1975. Originally, it was called International Quilters, but by the time of his retrospective in 2011, it was called Grandma Sewers. Just before his death, he made a social media post about this painting and titled it Quilt of Unity. I think it was one of the ones my Grandad was proudest of, as he made sure to display it whenever and wherever he could. Here is the caption on the post of this artwork: “Red, Yellow, Black, White- International Togetherness To Accomplish ONE Goal… The QUILT OF UNITY!” My Grandad was an advocate for racial justice and lived every day with the goal of achieving racial harmony and finally, winning the privilege of peace. One of the happiest moments of his life was when Barack Obama won the presidency, and I am forever grateful that he got to experience that.
Afro Garb
1972
Mixed media on canvas
Family was central to the way my Grandad viewed the world. However, with these two portraits juxtaposed, it becomes noticeable that he perceived family as many different things. Supposedly of the same three subjects, these two paintings, one abstract and one traditional, show how fluid the structure of a family is. Both created in the year my father, his first child, was born, my Granded seemingly had the concept of family on the mind.
Untitled
1990
Oil on canvas
Mary Lou
1969
Acrylic on board
My grandmother, Mary Lou Malone, says that Grandad painted this portrait when they first started dating. She was flattered and a little unsettled by the attention. They were married from 1969 to 1979 and had two sons in that time: Andrew, my father, in 1972, and Matthew, my uncle, in 1975. While the main theme of my Grandads work was family, rarely did he paint his own. This painting shows his skill in portraiture and artistic technique in a more intimate way than most of his other paintings and invites the viewer to question the setting of the painting and the relationship the subject has with the painter. It is impossible to tell a narrative of my grandfather without including my grandmother, so I felt that this painting was a necessary and proper aspect of this exhibition.
Advertising Comics
Date unknown
Ink on paper
From 1974 to 2006, my Grandad created comic strips in his local newspapers and was employed as a layout man for advertisements for his day job. He worked for Montgomery Wards, K-Mart, Crowleys, Farmer Jack and the Atlanta Journal Constitution.. Ralph’s Day, his daily comic strip was featured in the Spirit of Detroit and Detroit News newspapers during its heyday. It was also published in the International Salon of Cartoons.The last comic he drew, Malone's Atlanta, was a local favorite in his home town of Atlanta, Georgia.
Flirtin’ Vendor
1988
Oil on board
Personally, this is one of my favorite art pieces my Grandad ever did. The bright color scheme and the joyous movement experienced by both figures really just make the viewer happy. However, I discovered the best part of this painting very recently. My Grandad had a surprisingly extensive social media presence for someone in his 70s, and his Flickr was no exception. Under a photo he took of this piece, he captioned it "She buys his apples/ And buys his line/ 'Just for you, baby/ 'cause you so fine!" I stumbled upon this quatrain during my research for this show, and in the midst of bleak information like obituaries and slave ownership records, it made me laugh wholeheartedly. My grandad fancied himself a poet and while his skill otherwise was questionable, his rhymes were well-intentioned and often funny.
Self-portrait
Date unknown
Oil on board
My grandfather regarded himself as a lot of things-- the miniature biographies on all his social media accounts certainly speak to that. However, no matter the platform, the year, or the circumstance, he always believed he was an artist above all. He was always talking about art and considered it to be the passion of his life. Truly, being an artist was the center of his experience on this Earth, and I believe that his art reflects that.
Untitled
1967
Oil on board
Laughing Trees
2001
Oil on board
In the 1990s, my Grandad was living in his childhood home on a busy intersection in Atland. One day, a girl was hit by a car in front of his house. The girl survived the incident, but it made my grandad realize that he had to do something to make sure no one else would face the same fate. He began painting the trees on his property to make motorists slow down... And in the process, started a folk art installation called “Laughing Trees”. My grandad’s yard became a local tourist attraction and was used as a backdrop for photos and broadcasts. Grandad created a Laughing Trees nonprofit with the intention of converting his property into a playground for creative people. This painting captures the colorful chaos of Laughing Trees.
Dr. Charles Lewis
Gideons Jr. Portrait
1947
Oil on canvas
When my Grandad was 17, and a student at Booker T. Washington High School, he was assigned to paint a portrait. He chose to paint Dr. Charles L. Gideons, a principal at a different school. Like many of his classmates, he usually didn't have money to pay for lunch, but working on this portrait during his designated lunch time kept his mind off of hunger and didn't make him feel “other.” After he completed this portrait, his teacher asked if she could display it in her classroom. He agreed to what he thought would be a temporary exhibition, but had completely lost track of it by the time he returned from his first tour of duty in the army. While those around him considered it lost and gave up hope of ever retrieving it, my grandad persisted and eventually came to possess the painting once more in 1999. Finally, after 52 years, my grandad and his first painting were reunited.
Untitled
Undated
Oil on canvas
When my father and I unrolled this canvas, we gasped. Neither of us had ever seen this painting before and it was truly a surprise, in a way that few things are over a decade after my grandad’s death. In all honesty, it may be one of his best paintings ever-- the technique, the colors, and the symbols all make it a striking piece of visual artwork and truly one that resonates with the viewer. It's truly beautiful, and I hope that you all will see what I do in it.
Self-portrait profile
1955
Oil on board
My Grandfather didn't paint many portraits of himself, making this one all the more special. It's also one of the oldest surviving paintings from his entire collection-- making this one like a needle in a haystack to art collectors. Like his other self-portraits, this painting truly shows how my Grandad perceived himself-- the silhouette is similar to those of founding fathers on American coins, and my Grandfather thought of himself as nothing less. However, even as early on in his career as this was, he seemingly knew that he would never achieve the icon status these figures did. In fact, it wasn't until 2003 that the first Black person became featured on a circulating coin, and even then, it was the relatively non-controversial image of York, the slave from the voyage of Lewis and Clark. It's also federal US law that no living person may appear on a coin, so even if by some miracle my grandfather gets on a coin, this portrait will still have been the closest he got during his life.
Swing Low Baptist Church
1972
Acrylic on board
A favorite, Swing Low Baptist Church eloquently portrays church-going women in their Sunday best, conversing after services end. While my grandad's life itself was like a roller coaster, where few things stayed constant for very long, the church was always central to the communities my Grandad found himself in. The year he completed this painting, he was a member of the Detroit chapter of the Unitarian-Universalist Church, where my grandmother retains her membership. The UU Church shared many of my Grandad's hard-won beliefs that he retained throughout his life and career and was truly a place for his ideas and ideals to foster. However, in my opinion, the fictional Swing Low Baptist Church most closely resembles his childhood church: Antioch Baptist Church North. It was here he originally became spiritual and there he returned once he moved back to Atlanta in the 1980s.