Reba Dickerson-Hill
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Reba Dickerson-Hill was a self-taught
Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
artist who painted in the ancient Japanese ink-and- brush technique called sumi-e. She was also a watercolorist and oil painter who primarily produced
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s and
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s.


Early life and education

Dickerson-Hill was born in West Philadelphia on February 18, 1918, to Evan Thomas Dickerson and Reba Henrietta Tyree Dickerson. One of six children, she started drawing when she was about 4 years old. Her father and an elementary school principal recognized her talent. As a youth, she spent some time sketching along
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near the
Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...
. She attended Overbook High School and enrolled at
Cheyney State Teachers College Cheyney University of Pennsylvania is a public historically black university in Cheyney, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1837 as the Institute for Colored Youth, it is the oldest of all historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs ...
. She graduated in 1940 with a Bachelor of Science degree in education. A 1940 article in the
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newspaper about Cheyney's graduates noted that she was an artist and planned to make it her career. She taught elementary grades in the
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starting around 1949. During the 1960s, she was an assistant professor of fine arts at Cheyney. She gave up teaching around 1966 to become a full-time artist.


Her career as painter

Dickerson-Hill worked in several mediums:
watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting metho ...
,
oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) and lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...
,
collage Collage (, from the , "to glue" or "to stick together") is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assembly of different forms, thus creating a new whole. (Compare with pasti ...
,
mixed media In visual art, mixed media describes work of art, artwork in which more than one Art medium, medium or material has been employed. Assemblages, collages, and sculpture are three common examples of art using different List of art media, media. M ...
,
pen and ink PEN may refer to: * (National Ecological Party), former name of the Brazilian political party Patriota (PATRI) * PEN International, a worldwide association of writers ** English PEN, the founding centre of PEN International ** PEN America, located ...
, ink and brush, sumi-e,
sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
,
calligraphy Calligraphy () is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instruments. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "the art of giving form to signs in an e ...
and acrylics.Press Release. "A memorial exhibition of the works of Reba Dickerson Hill and Ellen Powell Tiberino." Esther M. Klein Art Gallery, University City Science Center. Jan. 12-Feb. 23, 1996. She also produced prints. She was a self-taught artist, with no formal art-school degree. In Philadelphia, she learned painting techniques from
Claude Clark Claude Clark (November 11, 1915 – April 21, 2001) was an American Painting, painter, Printmaking, printmaker and art educator. Clark's subject matter was the diaspora of African American culture, including dance scenes, Street children, stree ...
(in the mid-1940s) and Paul Keene; printing from printmaker/painter/illustrator Jerome Kaplan; calligraphy from Marvin Bileck, and kinesthetic Chinese watercolor techniques from Ramon Fina, known for his expertise in the ancient tradition of Chinese brush painting. She first learned about Eastern art techniques from Fina when she studied at the
Barnes Foundation The Barnes Foundation is an art collection and educational institution promoting the appreciation of art and horticulture. Originally in Merion, the art collection moved in 2012 to a new building on Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, ...
around 1947. In 1959, she attended a presentation by Fina at the Plastic Club, a women’s art organization, in Philadelphia. Dickerson-Hill studied at
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, the
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, the University of the Arts/Philadelphia College of the Arts, Pendle Hill in Wallingford, PA, and the
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, England. In 1950, she was a member of Les Beau Arts, a group of African Americans in the arts, music and literature. Artist Benjamin Britt was also a member. In 1946, Dickerson-Hill was in a show to support young Black artists sponsored by the Henry O. Tanner Memorial Fund. The exhibit was held at the Wharton Centre, a social service agency in North Philadelphia that hosted a youth arts program and exhibits. The artworks were donated to various community organizations. Her painting “Still Life” went to St. Christopher's Hospital for Children and “Study No. 2” to the Crime Prevention Association. She participated in a series of exhibitions at Cheyney in 1956 as an alumna and in 1966 as a faculty member. The 1966 exhibit was the college's first Fine Arts Festival, and she was one of three faculty members represented. Among her entries were watercolors, according to an unidentified newspaper article that appeared to be a campus publication. The watercolors were “The Boatman,” “The Bay” and “What is Man.” Two of her oil paintings were also shown, “Metropolis” and “Nisi Dominus Frustra,” as well as a portrait of William P. Young, who was Pennsylvania's second Black cabinet member as secretary of Labor and Industry. Dickerson-Hill's oil painting “Study in Copper and Bronze” won first prize by popular vote in a 1969 art exhibit at the branch office of Liberty Federal Savings and Loan Association in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. She had exhibited at the bank before, in 1960, in a solo show of 45 paintings and drawings. She was also represented in three major exhibits of Black artists in 1969 and 1971. She was one of 100 artists from around the country in an exhibit sponsored by the
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and the Museum of the Philadelphia Civic Center in 1969. In 1971, she was featured in an Aesthetic Dynamics' exhibit organized by artist Percy Ricks in
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, which drew 75 artists from New York to Washington, DC. Also in 1971, she participated in the National Exhibition of Black Artists at the Smith-Mason Gallery in Washington, DC. In 1960, she also was featured at the Pyramid Club, a social organization of Black professional men that held an annual art exhibit starting in 1941. Others on hand were Howard N. Watson, Benjamin Britt, Robert Jefferson, Samuel J. Brown Jr. and
Dox Thrash Dox Thrash (1893–1965) was an African-American artist who was famed as a skilled draftsman, master printmaker, and painter and as the co-inventor of the Carborundum printmaking process.Donnelly, Michell"The Art of Dox Thrash" The Encyclopedia of ...
. She was a member of the Philadelphia Watercolor Club (where she was board member and life member) and the Philadelphia Print Club. Among her exhibitions: the Philadelphia Art Teachers Association,
Woodmere Art Museum Woodmere Art Museum, located in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has a collection of paintings, prints, sculpture and photographs focusing on artists from the Delaware Valley and includes works by Thomas Pollock Anshutz, ...
, the Philadelphia Urban League Guild, October Gallery, Allens Lane Art Center and the University of the Arts. Her foreign exhibits were in South America, Europe and the Bahamas. Sidney Rothman's The Gallery in Barnegat Light, NJ, exhibited and sold her works. She received a
National Design Award The American National Design Awards, founded in 2000, are various awards funded and bestowed by the Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. There are seven official design categories, and three additional awards when applicable. Any supplement ...
and in 1980, the
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watercolor prize. She served as a judge at several art exhibitions, conducted workshops on sumi-e and served on several exhibition-planning committees.


Mastering the Japanese art of sumi-e

Dickerson-Hill learned sumi-e painting from Fina while at the Barnes. Her sumi-e painting “The Philosopher” was the cover image of the Sumi-e Society of America's quarterly in 1984. She did not go to
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
until 1986, where she spent 19 days in
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,
Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...
and
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. A year later, she arrived in Exeter, England, for a sumi-e workshop conducted by the foremost master of Zen arts Shozo Sato. Sumi-e originated in
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and made its way to Japan. The process is very focused and precise, with its own ritual, she explained to a newspaper writer. It required clearing of the mind, using the traditional tools (special ink, bowl, animal-hair brush and rice paper ) and adhering to the process, including no altering of lines on paper after they have been painted. On some of her sumi-e paintings, Dickerson-Hill stamped her name in
Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
. She had the stamps specially made: One is her name and the other means "woman who loves art and beauty," she told a Philadelphia Tribune newspaper writer during an October Gallery Art Expo in 1988. She often attended the annual art expos held by the gallery. In 1992, the Sumi-e Society of America honored her for the painting “Into the Light,” awarded during its 27th annual competition and exhibition in
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. Some years before, she had won the society's purchase award for the painting “The Mountain.” She was a member of the society. She is listed in the Japanese encyclopedia of sumi-e artists and
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, 1992-1993 edition.


Her death and posthumous exhibits

Dickerson-Hill died on Jan. 17, 1994. In 1996, the Esther M. Klein Gallery at the
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in Philadelphia held a “homecoming” show in memory of Dickerson-Hill and Ellen Powell Tiberino (who had died in 1992), both described as internationally known female artists. The exhibit included ceramic-tile artwork of African people and North American flora that Dickerson-Hill had finished shortly before she died. In 2001,
Cheyney University Cheyney University of Pennsylvania is a public historically black university in Cheyney, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1837 as the Institute for Colored Youth, it is the oldest of all historically black colleges and universities (HBCU ...
mounted an exhibit of 100 of her paintings in an exhibit titled “Landscapes of the Heart.” In 2015, the
Woodmere Art Museum Woodmere Art Museum, located in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has a collection of paintings, prints, sculpture and photographs focusing on artists from the Delaware Valley and includes works by Thomas Pollock Anshutz, ...
included her work in a group show titled “ We Speak: Black Artists in Philadelphia, 1920s-1970s.” In 2021, the
Delaware Art Museum The Delaware Art Museum is an art museum located on the Kentmere Parkway in Wilmington, Delaware, which holds a collection of more than 12,000 objects. The museum was founded in 1912 as the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts in honor of the arti ...
featured her work in a re-creation of Percy Ricks’ 1971 Aesthetic Dynamics show.


Selected collections

According to the Reba Dickerson-Hill website, her works are in the following collections, among others:
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, Philadelphia;
Atlanta University Clark Atlanta University (CAU or Clark Atlanta) is a private, Methodist, historically black research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded on September19, 1865, as Atlanta University, it was the first HBCU in the Southe ...
;
Cheyney University Cheyney University of Pennsylvania is a public historically black university in Cheyney, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1837 as the Institute for Colored Youth, it is the oldest of all historically black colleges and universities (HBCU ...
; American Frame Corp.;
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and private individuals. The
Free Library of Philadelphia The Free Library of Philadelphia is the public library system that serves the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is the 16th-largest public library system in the United States. The Free Library of Philadelphia is a non-Mayoral agency of the ...
has two of her prints, including "The Philosopher."


Selected exhibitions

*Philadelphia Urban League Guild, 1960 *Philadelphia Art Teachers Association, 1960 *Crossroads Gallery, National Bank of Chester County, 1966 *Southwest-Belmont YWCA, Philadelphia, 1967 * YWCA of Germantown, 1969 *Smith-Mason Gallery, 1971 *Continental Bank, Chestnut Hill-Philadelphia, 1981 *DeShong Museum, Widener University, 1981 *Black, Hispanic, Native American Arts Festival, Pittsburgh, 1981 *
Cheyney University Cheyney University of Pennsylvania is a public historically black university in Cheyney, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1837 as the Institute for Colored Youth, it is the oldest of all historically black colleges and universities (HBCU ...
, 1982, 2001 *Bell Atlantic Building, Philadelphia, 1984 *
Salmagundi Club The Salmagundi Club, sometimes referred to as the Salmagundi Art Club, is a fine arts center founded in 1871 in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan, New York City. Since 1917, it has been located at 47 Fifth Avenue. , its membership rost ...
, New York, 1984 *Allens Lane Art Center, 1984 * Peirce Junior College, 1986 *
Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...
, 1986 *October Gallery, 1986, 1987 *Crockett Atelier art space, 1988 *
Gloucester County College Rowan College of South Jersey (RCSJ) is a public university, public community college with two campuses in the South Jersey region of New Jersey. The first, Gloucester Main Campus, is in Sewell, New Jersey, Sewell. The second, Cumberland Branc ...
, 1990 * University of the Arts, 1991 *De Virgilis Designs, 1992 *
Free Library of Philadelphia The Free Library of Philadelphia is the public library system that serves the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is the 16th-largest public library system in the United States. The Free Library of Philadelphia is a non-Mayoral agency of the ...
, 1992 *The Gallery, Sidney Rothman, 1992


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dickerson-Hill, Reba 1918 births 1994 deaths Artists from Philadelphia 20th-century American women painters 20th-century American painters American watercolorists American women watercolorists Painters from Pennsylvania