The Sound of Silence

Abstract

Horace Pippin, apparently, used light very differently from most artists. While others usually start with a white canvas and then gradually fill it with color and shade, Pippin started by coating his canvas with black paint and then added lighter colors on top. This gave his paintings a heavily layered texture, providing a sense (intended or otherwise) that there was something lying beneath the surface image. For an artist who, among other things, wanted to reveal the hypocrisies underlying American propaganda in the World Wars (fighting against intolerance abroad, condoning lynching at home), this approach may have seemed most fitting.