Aminah Robinson's Presidential Suite, 2016

Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson, Boiling hot sun, watercolor on paper, study. Photo courtesy of Hammond Harkins Galleries

“Hot Boiling Sun falling on me,” is what Aminah Robinson wrote in this watercolor study for a much larger work, Hot Hot Sun. Much of what characterizes Robinson's enduring hold on us is condensed in this single sheet.


Look at this woman's right arm, how it travels between muscular and slim to end in the huge, muscular hand. Notice not only the expression of concentration and restraint on her face, so succinctly laid out with unhesitating brushstrokes, but the shape of her body – the swaying, twisting breasts, the expanse of hips and legs that visually and literally balance the cotton vase in his shoulders sloping. The position of the figure on the paper is crooked, emphasizing the feeling of slowness, falling; of a moment between stumbling and getting up. The twisted body does not determine the direction: it is that implacable face that will.


None of the condensed effect of this single study is lost when Robinson transfers and multiplies it in his magnificent, rich, multi-panel painting, Hot Hot Sun.

Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson, Hot Hot Sun. Mixed media and collage on paper. Courtesy of Hammond Harkins Galleries. Detail of the left panel, below

“Hot Boilin' Sun Comin' Over Me from Sun-Up to Sun-Down Slaves Picked Cotton,” is Robinson's inscription. In this complex composition of women and children in the cotton fields, the contortions and twists of the study's unique body are dispersed throughout the body, rhythmic panel. Pain and effort are incorporated by group in which each individual is (literally) intertwined with its neighbor. Any currents here are the currents of community, shared work, and brotherhood. Advertisements Nor are these slaves actually depicted under the boiling hot sun. Rather, they do not stand but float angelically against a clear blue sky in which they seem to pick not literal cotton but soft drops of cloud. These women have crossed the Jordan, but remain in community with one another through a river of shared relationship represented by the graceful, fluid composition of the entire work. Both works, on display through October 9 at the Hammond Harkins Galleries in Columbus, are among a vast display of Robinson's dazzling oeuvre, Presidential suite, a vast oeuvre made up of many pieces – his exclusive RaGonNon fabric collages, watercolors, paintings and writings.

Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson, President Barak Hussein Obama from Presidential suite. RaGonNon: mixed media: fabric embroidery, buttons, music boxes.

This RaGonNon, Book of Revelations (with the theme “President Barak Hussein Obama” inscribed on the top panel) is the centerpiece of the Hammond Harkins exhibition: There is more at the Columbus Museum of Art. Any work in the gallery, in any medium, is an outgrowth of this magnificent tree.


In it Presidential suite, Robinson finds a perfect home for the passions unfailingly embodied in his tremendous body of work: justice, community, and hope that knowledge of the past can inform a better future. For her, President Obama presented the best hope for a future in which the achievements of African Americans could shine through the narrative of slavery and repression, fertilizing the ground for more and more to come.


Central to Robinson's life of work and thought is that deep historical knowledge must inform the ongoing search for a better world; without knowing history, there is a lack of models, customs and power. This central theme has been reported here in various reviews of his work (see March 8, 2015; May 3, 2012; August 24, 1011.) The election of President Obama was not just a political event, but a climax in the history of Afro-American history and culture. Americans. The brilliant story that she recorded with so much loving passion throughout her career could now be reaffirmed under a government led by a new example. The point of Presidential suite it is about past and present united by a fair future.

Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson, Hope is remembering in Presidential suite. Mixed media on handmade paper. Image courtesy of Hammond Harkins Gallery. Detail below. With the same fluid movement and interconnection of figures as in his scene of slaves translated to heaven, Robinson connects Past, Present and Future in a wave of intersecting humans, forging a chain of hope. Advertisements Note the arm and hand gestures here and elsewhere. Hot Hot Sun. The digging gestures in Hope is remembering they are calculated intergenerational transfers; hands don't bend like cotton pickers. They reach out, even if the final (future) gesture is the fall of—cotton. Throughout the Suite, I think Robinson uses cotton as a symbol that changes over time. Once an object of forced labor, it becomes part of cultural continuity, softened and imbued with meaning by the imposition of millions of women. However lowly it may be, slaves and their ancestors created beauty and meaning even in the depths of the most terrifying experience. Hot sun It is Hope is remembering These are works that alone would dominate any gallery. In this show, they are among several pieces that detail the universal messages that Robinson worked into his vision of President Obama's election and years in office. (In fact, she worked on it until her death; a needle and thread remain hanging on a panel. I doubt, however, that Robinson would “complete” anything as long as there was history to investigate and tell, and a future to hold out hope for.) Robinson dedicates to Presidential suite to family and community, two threads she saw embodied in Barak Obama and his presidency. In this RagOnNon panel, she brings these ideas together in the most natural way, celebrating the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Obama on the same day as the equally happy occasion of family pet Bo's birthday. In the panel above this greeting, the entire Obama family is pictured enjoying a stroll in the White House Rose Garden, happily painted in full bloom of red and pink flowers. Pet dog Bo is indeed a member of the family and at the end of his leash – represented by a festive and patriotic ribbon – pulls the colorful family forward. Also note that their feet are made of cotton. Throughout its enormous Book of Revelations, Family and Community Suite, Robinson presses intimate and international together, history with the present day. The history of slavery is literally embedded in the history of the White House, as Michelle Obama noted, and scenes from Robinson's great work illustrate this. Suffering and everyday joys are part of the same fabric. Represented by the drawing in the left panel, we see slaves making bricks to construct the building, their brothers chained above the title panel. They are part of the African-American family that lives in the House now, in a better life with a Rose Garden. Finally, Robinson moves in the movement so characteristic of his inner and manifest vision, moving forward into the world. The strip of vignettes at the bottom of the RagOnNon links the First Family to the Chileans buried alive in a mine while the world watched and prayed for their rescue. “Providencia Street” is one of several panels dedicated to relating Chilean mining disaster rescues to our president through the generous and unifying worldview that the artist considered a blessing. Here people and animals walk down the colorful city street, awaiting or celebrating the moment of rescue that united the world in relief and joy – the emotions and vision that Aminah Robinson expressed so magnificently in this unparalleled work of tribute, promise and love.

All photographs in this post are thanks to the excellent work and generosity of Hammond Harkins Gallery.