The Country Baptizing in 1925 in Seguin, Texas
Artist:
John Willard Banks
(American, 1912 - 1988)
Date: March 9, 1985
Medium: Mixed media on board
Dimensions:
14 x 18 in. (35.6 x 45.7 cm)
Credit Line: San Antonio Museum of Art, Gift of Caroline Lee
Object number: 2000.21.1
Inscribed: L/R: "JW Banks "
Label Text
Although John Willard Banks never had formal art lessons, he loved drawing since his days growing up on a farm near Seguin, Texas. After completing tenth grade, he took off on his own, eventually serving in World War II. After the war, Banks worked in San Antonio, Texas, as a custodian at Kelly Air Force Base, Fort Sam Houston, and a local television station. In 1978, while Banks was recuperating from an illness, his wife secretly installed several of his drawings in a laundromat, selling them for fourteen dollars each. He went on to show in local art galleries with the help of Joseph A. Pierce Jr., a San Antonio physician and collector of African American artists, and his wife Aaronetta Pierce. Banks developed a distinct style, outlining figures in pencil or ballpoint pen and shading them with colored pencil, crayon, and felt-tipped marker. Often set in lush landscapes, his subjects were inspired from rural memories, including scenes of baptisms, church meetings, funerals, or inner visions, such Banks’s visualization of what man might be found doing should Christ return today.
(Suzanne Weaver, 2019)
(Suzanne Weaver, 2019)
Not on view
In Collection(s)
The San Antonio Museum of Art is in the process of digitizing its permanent collection. This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect SAMA's complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.
This resource has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.
