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Black
Paris Tour Guide Only African-American In Obama-Themed Art Show
In Paris
Julia Browne with group behind the Louvre
museum
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USS Obama by Ealy Mays
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Paris, France
(BlackNews.com) - Expatriate painter Ealy Mays, who is also
a guide for Walking The Spirit Tours of Black Paris, is the
sole African-American artist featured in the wildly successful
Obama in Paris exhibition.
“I was astonished
more than anything that there was no representation by African-Americans
beside myself,” comments Texas-born Mays. “The gallery owner
is missing the point.” While Paris' African-American community
numbers upwards to one thousand, less than a handful survive
as full-time artists.
The exhibition
began as a fundraiser for the presidential candidate on October
6th at Dorothy’s Gallery in the trendy Bastille district.
Due to its popularity, and Obama's win, an extended exhibition
continues until January 26, 2009.
30 French
and American artists were given less than a month to create
pieces that illustrate the theme of Obama as the new hope for
a united world. Calling himself a political artist, Mays bucked
the more Utopian vision of his peers. Instead, he submitted
paintings that reflect his trademark satirical and decidedly
Black American perspective.
One piece,
USS Obama, shows a submarine subtitled Run Silent, Run Deep.
Another, The Big Boy Vote, serves up the apple-cheeked restaurant
character Big Boy offering up a burger while his thought bubble
focuses on Obama. Mays feels that Michelle Obama will have
a major influence at the White House and created a series
on the incoming first lady, one of which is entitled No More
Mammies in the White House.
Some
of Mays' more controversial pieces were refused by Dorothy's
Gallery but he intends to exhibit them on January 19, 2009
at the Highlander Bar on the cobblestoned rue Nevers in the
Latin Quarter. The cosy bar is a regular meeting spot with
fellow African-Americans, including Democrats Abroad representative
Zachary Miller and best-selling novelist Jake Lamar.
The Obama
victory has created in Paris a sharp interest in the resident
African-Americans. Although a world renown artist, Mays finds
himself sought after now by gallery owners in the traditional
Rue de Seine arts district. It was in these same streets just
behind the world's most famous museum, the Louvre, that Mays'
artistic predecessors - Henry O'Tanner, Beauford Delaney,
Ed Clark and numerous young painters - eked out a living over
the past century.
Eager
to pay his respects to the rich African-American history in
Paris, Mays has found another truly unique way to share African-American
culture in the City of Lights. Since 2007 he has been a guide
for Walking The Spirit Tours of Black Paris. A 13-year resident,
he is proud to lead visitors and locals past the homes and
haunts of expatriate artists, writers Richard Wright, James
Baldwin, entertainers Josephine Baker, Bricktop, Bud Powell,
and Sidney Bechet and many more. “We are the expression of
African-American culture in Paris and the tours are an exercise
in getting to the nitty gritty of where things are.”
Ironically,
Mays first came to Paris on a Black tour with the Jack and
Jill club of America in 1971. His 30-year career as a painter
started at the age of 8, and he has undertaken several lengthy
art residences in Mexico and Berkeley, CA, as well as at the
prestigious, cutting-edge City of Arts in Paris.
Walking
The Spirit Tours are the oldest existing black history tours
of Paris and were created in 1994 by CEO and Guide Julia Browne.
The exciting walking and bus tours transport participants
through an inspiring and indepth discovery of 200 years of
groundbreaking achievement in Paris and France.
The Barack
Obama President, United World exhibition runs until January
26, at Dorothy's Gallery, 27 rue Keller, 75011 Paris. www.dorothysgallery.com
For Further Information on Walking The Spirit Tours, Contact:
Julia Browne
Email: info@walkingthespirit.com
Web: www.walkingthespirit.com
Tel: 519-497-0933
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