By Erica Wright
The Birmingham Times
Carnetta Davis has had a passion for art since she was a child and that passion has rubbed off on her husband of more than 33 years, Norm.
“I always liked art when I was growing up because my older brother was an artist and he would do drawings and paintings for my parents and later for me when I got married,” said Carnetta, who grew up in Birmingham.
Norm, who was raised in Washington D.C., said he grew up not caring much about art and neither their two sons. “My wife’s passion has kinda rubbed off on all of us, so now they actually appreciate it as much as we do,” he said.
Carnetta and Norm have collected more than 150 paintings, drawings and sculptures over the last 12 years and 30 of those works are being shown at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in celebration of the institute’s 25th Anniversary.
The exhibit, “Alabama and Beyond: African American Educators and Their Art Selections from the Carnetta & Norm Davis Collection” opened July 18 and will run until October 22 in the Odessa Woolfolk Gallery.
The Davises have always collected art but shifted their focus 12 years ago after helping the Birmingham Museum of Art exhibit more African American works.
“I started studying about this area of art and thought it would be a worthy cause to start collecting and teach others to revive artists who might’ve been forgotten or underrepresented because of their race,” said Carnetta, a retired electrical engineer.
The couple has a target list of about 150 artists that they follow and research. Before purchasing art, the Davises have a system to determine what pieces will fit with their collection: If the artist on their list has a work at an auction or gallery they will bid and buy the art or they will buy directly from the living artists. The couple also has collected some inherited pieces from Norm’s mother and Carnetta’s brother.
“We collect the art whenever there’s something great,” she said. “When we first started collecting, we got bit by the bug and collected everything we saw but now we might go months without buying a piece or buy two or three at a time. It just depends on what’s out there and what speaks to us.”
Their favorite piece is a portrait of Carnetta’s mother done by New York artist Whitfield Lovell, which took two years to complete. The art is called “Rise of the Delta” because her mother was from the Mississippi Delta. The portrait is currently on loan for two years and on exhibit at the Birmingham Museum of Art. Carnetta’s mother passed six years ago.
The “Alabama and Beyond” exhibition features many artists who were educators and have ties to Alabama. Among those featured are Hale Woodruff, who created the Amistad Murals at Talladega College; Claude Clark, who established the art department at Talladega in 1948 and was succeeded by David Driskell whose work is also featured; Hayward Oubre, who taught art at Alabama State College and Florida A&M University; Dr. William Colvin who taught art at Stillman College; and John Rhoden, a noted sculptor from Birmingham who created the Fred L. Shuttlesworth statue at the BCRI.
“People don’t understand the great connection Alabama has to these classic artists and that’s the story we really want told,” said Norm, managing director of the Alabama Office of Trufund Financial Services.
Their collection also includes well-known names like Henry Ossawa Tanner, Richard Mayhew, Richmond Barthé, Norman Lewis and Radcliffe Bailey. Their collection spans 19th to the 21st centuries.
In addition to this exhibit, Norm and Carnetta have had their collections featured in exhibits at the Hunter Museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Piedmont College and the University of Alabama.
