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Robert Neal exhibited his own paintings at the same time. His work was included in two of the
most celebrated national exhibitions of African-American Fine Art - the 1939 Baltimore Museum
of Art’s
Contemporary Negro Art
, the first museum group exhibition of African-American artists, and
the 1940
Exhibition of the Art of the American Negro (1851-1940)
at the Tanner Galleries in Chicago,
the largest survey of African-American art at the time. Neal is also mentioned in two seminal art
histories - Alain Locke’s 1940
The Negro in Art:A Pictorial Record of The Negro Artist and of The Negro
Theme In Art,
and James A. Porter’s 1943
Modern Negro Art.
Robert Neal moved to Dayton, Ohio
in the 1940s - the inscription “Dayton, O.”, printed on the calendar, helps us date this painting.
Unfortunately, little is known about the later life or career of this talented artist. Heydt pp. 80, 132.
[10,000/15,000]