The Incredible Joy of Collecting African American Art: My Journey from Frogtown, S.C. to the National Gallery

This book is a great read for beginning and established art collectors.

Aunique, multi-layered debut memoir regarding the tremendous impact of a grandmother’s love and how art can educate a young child about one’s own history and culture.

The book is an engaging story of how a 5-year old child, born into the South’s suffocating racial segregation of the 1950’s is introduced to the deep beauty and cultural richness of African American art. Inspired by the unconditional love of a “new” Grandmother and the stunning manner that she filled the interior of her Augusta, GA home with art, captivated too, by paintings and sculptures displayed throughout his segregated South Carolina elementary school, Patrick developed an early fascination and lasting interest in black & white photographs that captured family celebrations, paintings of black women, children at play and religious rituals. At this early age Patrick also enjoyed spending time alone with his Grandma during which she’d sing her favorite spirituals and share unforgettable and riveting stories about her childhood on a sharecropping farm in Barnwell S.C. Patrick’s Grandma also shared stories about the traumatic fear, brutality and inhumanity of daily life in the Jim Crow South. Within days of marrying his college sweetheart, Patrick and his new bride set out on a 46-year cultural journey acquiring museum quality artwork and befriending some of our country’s most well-known and admired African American artists. The book’s Introduction is written by Kymberly N. Pinder, Ph.D, Provost at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

Artwork from Patrick and Judy’s collection has been exhibited in museums, university galleries and art centers throughout the United States including: the Art Institute of Chicago, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Dallas Museum of Art, Black Academy of Arts & Letters, American Jazz Museum, University of Cincinnati DAAP Galleries, Winston-Salem State University Diggs Gallery, Tampa Museum of Art, Charlotte Country Day School, Providence Day School, Belk Stores Corporate Gallery and the National Gallery of Art.