Such a fortunate life

After Simms told me that the Cranbrook board had insisted that he live off campus, rather than integrating him with the other students, I asked about his experience of racism. "I don’t know what to say about that," he said, "because I have found out, after all these years I’ve lived, all people have problems with other peoples."

Something in his response prompted me to ask if he felt he had had a fortunate life. While he affirms that he has had a "very fortunate life," he goes on to express anxiety about the fragile state of the world and the things that he feels students today are not learning.

How I got to Cranbrook

Simms was the first African American to graduate from Cranbrook Academy of Art, which is known as the cradle of American modernism.

In this clip, he recalls how his fellow students helped him overcome the board's reluctance to allow him to live on campus. The off campus room the school administrators found for him was above a black funeral home.

Though he refers to the painter Zoltan Sepeshy as the first director of Cranbrook, when the school opened in 1932, the president was Eliel Saarinen, the Finnish architect who had designed the buildings, the campus, and the curriculum. 

To get some sense of the atmosphere Simms found at Cranbrook, watch this short video about an exhibition of the work of Saarinen's son Eero, also an architect and Cranbrook graduate, at the academy's museum.

Observing and Teaching

Simms was talking about being a good observer, so I asked him if observing was a skill that could be taught. Listening to his responses, and reading his expressions, I can't help but wonder about his relationship with his teachers, and his relationship with his students. How were those relationships different?

The sculpture you can see in the background, through the car window, is his second version of Jonah and the Whale, a subject he executed at least three times. There are a number of parallels between Simms' story and Jonah's story.

Works by Simms at Texas Southern University

Carroll Harris Simms, an artist, author, professor and key figure in shaping the art department at Texas Southern University, died Monday after a long

Complete obituary in the Houston Chronicle

Simms finds a new mentor

While in London to study at the Slade school of art on a Fulbright fellowship, 1954 - 1956, Simms discovered the African art collections of the British Museum. His frequent visits attracted the attention of William Fagg, Keeper of the ethnography collection. Fagg befriended Simms, encouraged his interest in African art, Benin bronzes in particular, and helped him get a second Fulbright to continue his studies in London.

Fagg also urged Simms to purchase a camera to photograph works in the collection. Fagg himself made thousands of photographs in his field work in Africa during this period. Unable to afford a camera, Simms asked Fagg to write to his patron, Jane Blaffer Owen, who sent the money to Fagg.

Fagg was also a friend of the artist whom Simms considered his role model, Jacob Epstein. Though born in the USA, Epstein made his career in London, and was working at the Royal Academy, where Simms met him.