February 19, 2022

Charles McGee was a trailblazing Detroit artist and educator. He moved from rural South Carolina to Detroit, where he attended elementary school for the first time at age 10. At that time, he could only write an “X” to sign to his name, leading McGee to realize that his family did not possess the same privileges as those around him. Instead of allowing this incident to discourage him, it motivated his artmaking. Moreover, it allowed him to see that he was better than that “X”. McGee also felt inspired by city life in Detroit, which was very much a departure from his former surroundings in South Carolina. Even as an adult, he remembered seeing the bright lights and listening to the city sounds for the first time.

McGee went on to receive his BFA from the Society of Arts and Crafts (now the College for Creative Studies), under the GI Bill between 1947 and 1957. His most notable student works were his charcoal drawings of Black urban life. In 1968, he moved to Barcelona to study, which changed his approach to art: he focused on formal elements like line, shape, form, color, and texture as opposed to subject matter. He created work in a variety of mediums, including painting, drawing, sculpture, and assemblage. McGee returned to Detroit in 1969, where he organized the “Seven Black Artists”: the first all-Black group show at the Detroit Artists Market. That same year, he founded the Charles McGee School of Art and Gallery 7: “a pioneering cooperative space in Detroit that championed both white and Black artists.” The Charles McGee School of Art closed in 1974, but his career as an educator did not stop there. McGee taught at Eastern Michigan University from 1969-1987, and he taught once a week at the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center when he was in his mid-80s.

His work has been shown throughout the United States, including group shows of contemporary Black artists in New York at the Brooklyn Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art. McGee’s art has also been featured in touring exhibitions of the Smithsonian and Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. Moreover, his work reached more audiences after he turned 70. McGee made about a dozen commissions for universities, hospitals, and government buildings in Detroit, East Lansing, Flint, and Mount Pleasant, among many other cities. Several of his works are featured at Detroit museums and throughout the city. The Detroit Institute of Arts displays works such as Urban Extract II (1979), Noah’s Ark: Genesis (1984), and Patches of Time VII (2000). When one steps foot at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, they are greeted by McGee’s abstract sculpture United We Stand (2016). His art is also a cultural landmark in downtown Detroit; the 118 by 50-foot mural Unity (2017) is located on 28 W. Grand River Ave. in Detroit’s Capitol Park. McGee has received several awards, most notably the 2008 Kresge Eminent Artist Award. He continued to create work in his 90s: a testament to his passion for creating art.

In his 2019 letterpress print for the North Rosedale Park Civic Association, McGee employs black and white abstracted lines, forms, shapes, and patterns that resemble those of United We Stand and Unity. It is another example of how McGee shifted away from the naturalistic style he possessed as a student and towards abstraction. The North Rosedale Park Civic Association (NRPCA) “is a 501C3 nonprofit member organization that promotes the interests and welfare of North Rosedale Park residents, maintains park facilities for community use, advocated for necessary neighborhood improvements and enforces building restrictions and ordinances within North Rosedale.” McGee chose to compose this design to draw more attention to NRPCA. Such an organization exemplifies community and the sense of togetherness that McGee strived to convey in his work by utilizing diverse forms that appear to dance together. This letterpress print is not necessarily an abstract image, as one can recognize the image of a horse and a human figure at the center of the composition. However, these forms have been abstracted. The body of the horse, along with the clothing and head piece of the figure are filled with a plethora of patterns and lines: from strips to curves to circles, all varying in size and thickness. These patterns are so intricate that it can be difficult to identify the human figure at first glance. Once again, this shows how McGee favored abstraction over naturalistic subject matter. There are also a variety of shapes and forms surrounding the recognizable figures that extend towards the corners of the space. This abstracted style may be attributed to McGee’s studies in Barcelona in 1968. Although this image is black and white, the movement of the forms and rich use of patterns emulates an effect that resembles that of vibrant colors.

Written by Angela Athnasios

Sources: Mark Stryker, "Charles McGee, leading light of Detroit art, dies at 96," Detroit Free Press.

Michelle Perron, "Charles McGee: 2008 Eminent Artist," Kresge Arts in Detroit.

Nick Sousanis, "The art of seeing art," Metro Times.

"North Rosedale Park Civic Association," nrpca.org.

Mark Stryker, "New sculpture in Detroit shows 'power of togetherness,'" Detroit Free Press.

Ryan Patrick Hooper, "New 11-story Detroit mural will be work of artist Charles McGee, 92," Detroit Free Press.

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