Artis Lane' -
Detroit's internationally
renown artist
Lan wa born Artis
in orth 'Buxton, a
in Southern Ontario,
a descend nt of B1 c
refu ees who e aped from
slavery by traveling the Under­
ground R ilroad out of the
nited State .
Today rti Lan' friend
and patron include Sidney
Poitier, late Cary Grant best
fri nd Diahann Caroll, ile
Governor George Rom­
Quincy Jones Frank
inatr and Henry Ki inger.
Ye, not everyone h been
ple d by Lane' penchant
for depictin much more than
just the standard reali ic and
often simple-minded view of
human e perience.
An episode of Tony Brown's
Bl c journal, The Tear on the
F ce of America' , reveals that
one of Lane' twelve, po ter­
size painting commemorating
the Statue of Liberty's lOOth
birthday titled ' Tear", w
rejected by the right ing
conservative commissioners.
"The Tear" depict a very
re istic Statue of Liberty
dr ped in an American flag and
towerin over a tron, though
disillusioned Blae boy. Sym­
bolic of Black American pain
and suffering, th youth wears
a tear on his face.
The comrms 0 ners a ed
Lane to remove th tear before
arm, renghth, d lov
they would distribute th paint­
ing. Th tear remain untouch­
ed and the po er undi ributed.
Artis Lane, began painting
and sculpting at very early
ge. t fifteen she wa the
winner of the Dominion of
Can da ward for portraiture,
� 110 ed by a four year holar­
ship to udy fine art at Uni­
versity of Toronto here she
on the Okeefe fellowship
ward for creative paintin.
fter a long ruggle Artis a
long time resident of Detr it
then tudied at Cranbrooke
Art Academy in Bloomfield
Hill Michigan.
Artis Lane m t Di ann
Caroll ho was performing in
Detroit, and who told her she
ought to go to ew Yor .
She invited Artis to stay with
her, should she decide to m e
the move. Artis was at home
in ew York City. Thanks to
friends like Diahann Caroll,
Sidney Poitier, Miles Davis,
Cicily Tyson, and Verily or­
rison, a dress designer from
Toronto, she made excellent I
connections to people who
wanted their portraits painted.
oving to California, changed
Arti Lane's arti tic palette.
She became very free and color­
ful with her painting. Thi led
to a ries of new commissions.
One of them, the late Cary
Grant, warned her not to devo e
rei tio
,
ICHIGAN CITIZEN APRIL 5 - 11, 1987
5
DETROITER ARTIS L E in her Sant Monica, California dio. In the b ground' th po er
e Tear", rejected by the Statue of Liberty commi 'on fo it symbolic portrayal of Bl America'
pain.
all her time to portrait painting,
recognizing her fine art talent.
Artis' love for metaphysics
and the idea of generic man
corresponds with her love of the
human figure which she trans­
forms from a realistic point
of vie to an abstracted, ex­
pressionistic but very affirma­
tive statement of being. Her
current sculpture and mixed­
media paintings and drawings,
are universal studies in motion
and gesture that express the
thought and energy behind the
movement as well as the phy-
'cal movement itself. This
inn r energy is just as apparent
in the quiet stillne s of her
stati figures,
Artis Lane tate,' I trive
to express the e n e of man
not merely the physical like­
ness. '
Artis Lane can be ntacted
at 1512 Second Street Santa
onica California 90401 for
information regarding current.
and future exhibition .
The speed and grace of Olympic Runner by Art' Lan .