As Black History Month Draws to Close, New Work by Courtney Jolliff Celebrates Hyde Park

Leap Year has provided one extra day for Black History Month this year and, as the celebratory period draws to a close, Chicago-based artist Courtney Jolliff is sharing a new work that expresses his experience of Hyde Park as a welcoming locale for Black artists.

The artwork is entitled “A Shameful Past, a Hopeful Future,” and Jolliff describes it as “a very honest piece.” The medium is acrylic paint and found objects on canvas.

“Normally my work is just proud, beautiful, very upfront but I’ve been working on pieces that are a little more uncomfortable,” he says, recognizing the intensity of racism’s legacy and present in Chicago.

The piece captures the history of segregation in Hyde Park, visually capturing a time when Blacks were highly restricted in terms of where they could live and even move around in Hyde Park. 

The work depicts on the left scenes of the American history of segregation. In the lower left is a drawing of Black children trying to go to school but needing police protection. The work also shows a scene from a Black church, a place of sanctuary, yet outside are vicious dogs. There is also a depiction of Fun Town being closed to children of color.

The center of the work begins the transition from the past (left) to the future (right), specifically capturing the experience of the Black artist. A found-object postcard from New York declares that people do not see the artists of color all around them.

But Jolliff also depicts his own experience of being accepted and supported as a Black artist in Hyde Park, Chicago.

“You see a kid with a fro representing the present day,” Jolliff explains, “and he’s shouting, ‘Attention Black artists – come, we are safe here – they pay us – come.’”

The words “Hyde Park Herald” at the top pay homage to the local newspaper but also provide a play on the word “herald,” as the piece calls to other artists to listen.

Jolliff views Promontory Point in Hyde Park, where he sometimes sells his art, as specifically representative of the shared community’s future: “We all come from pain and have a future to look forward to as we share this beautiful Point. The Point is like the present that gives us hope for the future.”

The Point, he says, reaches out from Hyde Park physically to be a kind of pointing to the future.

“Hyde Park really is for me a heartbeat,” Jolliff explains, “because of the Point and the people.”

The work “A Shameful Past, a Hopeful Future” is part of a new series Jolliff is creating specifically for an upcoming show at the Point, to be called “To the Point.” Sign up for this free newsletter to receive updates on the “To the Point” and other public showings of Jolliff’s art.