In Conversation | “Silks” by Laura Wheeler Waring

Come listen to an intriguing art detective story.

Included in the exhibition at the ACP in celebration of the semiquincentennial is a painting by Laura Wheeler Waring, an African American artist whose portraits of Black Americans are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Museum, that has been hidden in an attic for 110 years.

It was given by Waring to the mother of Dr. Lynn Starr who recently found it when she went through her deceased mother’s belongings. Judith K. Brodsky and Rhinold Ponder, the curators of the exhibition very much wanted to include a painting by Waring. Most of her work is on permanent display in major museums, and for many months, despite their queries, they could not find one for the exhibition. But they persisted and continued their research hoping to find a loanable piece. They eventually found a blog by art historian Valerie Harris about a lost painting by Waring. Harris had located it in Philadelphia, and thanks to Harris, Ponder and Brodsky were able to contact Dr. Starr who agreed to loan the painting but said it needed restoration. At that point, they brought it to the Conservation Center in Philadelphia. Once they saw the painting, they realized that it was one of only a few paintings from her early period, last on public view in 1916.

On October 1, Dr. Starr, scholar Valerie Harris, and a conservator from the Conservation Center will hold a conversation moderated by Brodsky and Ponder in the Taplin Gallery where the painting will be on view. The audience will see the actual painting whose story of discovery is being told. Harris will talk about Waring’s place in American art history, Starr will explain how her mother came to know Waring and own the painting, and the conservator will talk about how good conservation and restoration takes place.
The Arts Council of Princeton is thrilled to be the first to show this painting in over 100 years!