A new portrait of Opal Lee, “Grandmother of Juneteenth,” will be displayed at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, today through Sunday. After that, it will be on its way to the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C.
Sedrick Huckaby,the Fort Worth artist who painted the portrait, debuted the piece last week at Talley Dunn Gallery in Dallas.
Special event at Amon Carter
The new painting will be displayed in the first-floor gallery near the atrium, said Kimberly Daniel, an Amon Carter spokesperson.
“It is so complex to capture someone’s essence in a painting, especially someone with the poise and vitality of Opal Lee,” said Maggie Adler, Curator of Paintings, Sculpture, and Works on Paper at the museum. “What a photo might miss, the texture and nuances of a life, Huckaby captures with his signature warmth.”
Lee and Huckaby will talk about the painting Sunday at 2:30 p.m. in the museum's auditorium. Seating is limited and will be first come, first served.
A meet-and-greet follows in the atrium with signed copies of Lee’s book, “Juneteenth: A Children’s Story,” available for purchase.
This special event coincides with the closing of the Carter’s exhibit “Emancipation: The Unfinished Project of Liberation.” Co-curator Adler will give a final tour Sunday at 3 p.m.
Opal Lee's march to Washington
Lee campaigned to create Juneteenth as a federal holiday. It had been celebrated for decades in Texas. She walked from Fort Worth to Washington D.C. in 2016 — at 89 years old — and presented 1,500,000 signatures to Congress.
She was successful, and people nationwide started celebrating Juneteenth in 2021. A group of mostly Texas Congressional lawmakers nominated her for the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize.
Juneteenth represents the date of June 19, 1865 — two-and-a-half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation and more than two months after the Civil War ended — when enslaved Texans heard that they were free.
"An Afternoon with Opal Lee," Sunday at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art.
- 2:30 p.m. portrait talk, museum auditorium
- 3 p.m. meet-and-greet Opal Lee and Sedrick Huckaby
- 3 p.m. final tour of "Emancipation: The Unfinished Project of Liberation" with co-curator Maggie Adler