Barbara Bullock

{{short description|American artist}} {{Infobox artist | name = Barbara J. Bullock | image = | imagesize = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date text|1938}} | birth_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | education = Samuel S. Fleischer Art Memorial, Hussian School of Art | field = Painting | training = | movement = abstract | works = | patrons = | awards = Leeway Award, Pew Fellowship in the Arts | spouse = | partner = | website = }} '''Barbara J. Bullock''' (Nov 24, 1938) is an African American painter, collagist, printmaker, soft sculptor and arts instructor. Her works capture African motifs, African and African American culture, spirits, dancing and jazz in abstract and figural forms. She creates three-dimensional collages, portraits, altars and masks in vibrant colors, patterns and shapes. Bullock produces artworks in series with a common theme and style. == Early life and education == Bullock was born in Philadelphia on Nov 24, 1938,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Barbara J. Bullock |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:292D-LZH |access-date=2023-08-13 |website=familysearch.org}}</ref> after her father James Bullock moved his family from North Carolina to Philadelphia in the 1930s. They were part of the Great Migration of Black people to the North in search of better opportunities. Her mother Janie McFarland Bullock<ref name=":33">{{Cite web |title=James Bullock |url=https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/G3MX-C3Q/james-bullock-1908 |access-date=2023-08-13 |website=familysearch.org}}</ref> looked for work at the local armory and her father was a truck driver.<ref>{{Cite web |title=U.S. Census 1950, James R. Bullock |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHK-9QHW-F1FD |access-date=2023-08-12 |website=familysearch.org}}</ref> The couple separated and Bullock's mother died when she was 12 years old. She, her brother Jack and sister Delores moved in with her father and stepmother Gertrude, who became her second mother. Both of Bullock's paternal grandparents, Rev. Oscar and Mattie Bullock,<ref name=":33" /> who visited often from North Carolina, were storytellers, and she grew up listening to their tales.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Scarborough |first=Klare |title=Barbara Bullock: Chasing After Spirits |year=2016}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |date=2022 |title=Barbara Bullock: Ubiquitous Presence |url=https://www.swarthmore.edu/sites/default/files/assets/documents/list-gallery/Barbara%20Bullock%20Catalog.10.6.22.pdf |access-date=2023-01-04 |website=List Gallery, Swarthmore College}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Barbara Bullock / Painter |url=https://www.greenestreetartists.org/residents |access-date=2023-01-12 |website=Greene Street Artists Coop}}</ref>(She would later create an abstract painting titled “Stories My Grandmother Told Me” in 2012.) <ref>{{Cite web |title=Stories My Grandmother Told Me by Barbara Bullock |url=https://pffcollection.com/artworks/stories-my-grandmother-told-me/ |access-date=2023-01-04 |website=Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art}}</ref><ref name=":25">{{Cite web |date=2017-02-11 |title=Constructing Identity: Conversations on African-American Art & Culture |url=https://portlandartmuseum.org/event/lecture-constructing-identity/ |access-date=2023-01-04 |website=Portland Art Museum |archive-date=2023-01-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111170408/https://portlandartmuseum.org/event/lecture-constructing-identity/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Bullock always felt a need to make things and was always in her parents’ basement doing that, she told artist Najee Dorsey in a 2017 interview. “I’ve always been creative. When I was growing up, I needed a language. I realized early on that art was going to be that language,” she told interviewers for a 2015 exhibit of Black artists at the Woodmere Art Museum in Philadelphia.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dorsey |first=Najee |date=2017-09-17 |title=BAIA Talks: Barbara Bullock |url=https://www.blackartinamerica.com/blogs/news/baia-talks-barbara-bullock-full-interview |access-date=2023-01-04 |website=Black Art in America}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2015 |title=WE SPEAK: Black Artists in Philadelphia, 1920s-1970s |url=https://issuu.com/woodmereartmuseum/docs/wam_we-speak-catalogue_ |access-date=2023-01-04 |website=Woodmere Art Museum}}</ref>

Bullock also took dancing lessons. She was asked to leave a dance class when she showed up one day with a stray dog and refused to remove it. She quit the class but never gave up on the concept. She participated in the School Art League, an arts program in the public schools. She attended Saturday-morning classes at the Philadelphia Museum School of Art School (now the University of the Arts) and participated in programs at community centers.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":13">{{cite news |id={{ProQuest|532678935}} |title=Area Artists Exhibit at lle-Ife |newspaper=Philadelphia Tribune |date=22 November 1975 |page=23 }}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite news |last=Clarke |first=Sabina |date=2014-04-24 |title="Women and Biography" Exhibit: G'tn artist with strong social conscience at Woodmere |work=Chestnut Hill Local (accessed via files 2023-01-04 at Free Library of Philadelphia) |access-date=}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{cite news |id={{ProQuest|532424057}} |last1=Churchville |first1=John |title=She Paints 'Soul':: Local Gal 'Hangs' Staple Singers Downtown While the Gospel Group Is Singing Uptown |newspaper=Philadelphia Tribune |date=29 October 1966 |page=12 }}</ref> She became interested in Africa after learning about it in ''National Geographic'' magazine and wanted to understand her connection to it.<ref name=":8">{{Cite news |last=Diller |first=JoAnne |date=1983-10-24 |title='I don't actually teach them to draw' |work=Public Opinion (Chambersburg, PA) |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/449911800 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite news |last=Campisi |first=Gloria |date=1994-02-03 |title=She dips her brush in Africa |work=Philadelphia Daily News |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/187086816/ |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref>

She attended Roosevelt Junior High School and graduated from Germantown High School in 1958. She was headed to Moore Institute (now Moore College of Art and Design) to study fashion illustration.<ref>{{cite news |id={{ProQuest|532190381}} |last1=Jordan |first1=Julia |title=Germantown Gems: Barbara Bullock entertains after graduation |newspaper=Philadelphia Tribune |date=1 February 1958 |page=20 }}</ref> For three years, she took Saturday-morning painting and drawing classes at the Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial in Philadelphia.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":4" /><ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Jordan |first=Julia J. |date=1958-01-28 |title=Germantown Gems: Germantown high school graduates |work=Philadelphia Tribune |id={{ProQuest|532311114}} }}</ref> In 1963, she began taking night classes at Hussian School of Art, which taught commercial art classes. She remained at Hussian until 1966.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0" />

==Career== ===Portraits=== Bullock initially painted portraits of famous Americans, friends, and family members. Most of her early works were watercolors. She sought to show the humanity of Black people, she told an interviewer in 1966, but finally decided to paint what she felt.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" />

In the 1960s, she became acquainted with other African American artists in Philadelphia. Several had attended or were attending the prestigious Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA): Charles Pridgen, Cranston Walker, Richard Watson. Pridgen, Walter Edmonds and sculptor John Simpson were among those who had their own studios. She hung out with Joe Bailey, Moe Brooker, James Brantley, Charles Searles and Ellen Powell Tiberino to talk about their craft, the lack of exhibition opportunities and other issues. The seasoned artists offered advice and critiques of her work.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=Weaver |first=A.M. |title=The International Review of African American Art (in collection of Free Library of Philadelphia) |year=2016}}</ref><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0" />

Bullock, Tiberino, Reba Dickerson Hill, and Fern Stanford were among the few working Black female artists at the time. Noting that many male artists were supported by their wives and married females were not readily accepted, Bullock decided not to get married. “I married my art,” she stated in the catalog for the Swarthmore College exhibit “Ubiquitous Presence” in 2022.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":6" />

In 1971, Bullock was named art director of the Ile Ife Black Humanitarian Center, now the Village of Arts and Humanities, founded by dancer and choreographer Arthur Hall, where she stayed until 1975. She taught art techniques to children and young adults.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1972-06-07 |title=Model Cities |work=Philadelphia Inquirer |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/180039613 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref><ref name=":10">{{Cite news |date=1972-06-13 |title=Model Cities Exhibit Now at Art Museum |work=Philadelphia Tribune |id={{ProQuest|532612920}} }}</ref><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":7">{{Cite book |title=Spirit Rain, Barbara Bullock (catalog in collection of Free Library of Philadelphia) |year=1988}}</ref> Hall incorporated Yoruba culture, philosophy and spirit entities into the core of the center, which attracted artists, dancers and musicians from all over the world. Funded by the Model Cities Program, the center offered arts, African-inspired dance and music. Bullock met musicians Odean Pope and Max Roach, who also taught there.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" />

Bullock embraced Hall's African sensibility and absorbed it into her own art. Her outlook changed, expanding beyond the teachings of her Catholic upbringing to accept the possibility of a world of spirits that allowed her to connect with her African roots.<ref name=":2" /> She took dance lessons from Hall, and she painted the dancers - images that found a permanent place in her works. “I want to express the ritual through dance, the communion of the body and spirit through movement,” she said in an artist statement for her retrospective at the Afro-American Historical and Cultural Museum in 1988.<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":1" />

She taught alongside Charles Pridgen, John Simpson, Charles Searles and Twins Seven Seven, a Nigerian who was the only survivor of seven sets of twins, who had settled in Philadelphia. In his works, Twins Seven Seven connected animals and spirits. Artist Moe Brooker noted that Bullock was among those artists who fed off their African heritage but kept it at a distance as they created their own unique styles.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":1" />

Twins Seven Seven's influence can be seen in many of Bullock's paintings, including the series “Stilt Dancers,” 1975.<ref name=":7" /> She described her artwork as “chasing after spirits.”<ref name=":9">{{Cite news |last=Booker |first=Bobbi |date=2010-04-18 |title='Women's Work' celebrates local artists |work=Philadelphia Tribune |id={{ProQuest|2672591620}} }}</ref> At one point, Bullock painted an image of an African spirit in a mural on the side of a building, which eventually collapsed. The mural and images – one was of Hall – were recreated by artist Lily Yeh in 2018 on another wall.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018 |title=Arthur Hall |url=http://www.ileife.org/ |access-date=2023-01-04 |website=Ile Ife}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2016 |title=The "Obatala & the Tree Goddess" Mural: A Tribute to the Village of Arts & Humanities, 30th anniversary |url=https://barefootartists.org/tag/mural/ |access-date=2023-01-04 |website=Barefoot Artists}}</ref>

Bullock's spirit-based abstract works were dominated by vibrant colors, patterns, rhythmic movement and a cacophony of shapes.<ref name=":7" /> She chose black as a predominant color, she said, because she wanted to replace its negative symbolism with power and strength.<ref name=":2" /> Her materials included layers of painted paper, fabric, plant fibers, beads, metals, shells, feathers and other small materials. Some of her dancer and animal figures extended outward from the walls when hung.<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":22">{{Cite news |date=2002-11-14 |title=The African American Museum's '4 artists of distinction" is bright and deep |work=City Paper (Philadelphia) |url=https://mycitypaper.com/articles/2002-11-14/art.shtml |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref> She worked in acrylic and gouache on paper, pen and ink, textured sculptures, figural collages - which she called “shaped paintings”- and three-dimensional wall collages made of heavy paper.<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":7" />

In 1980, she began making altars while researching African culture. She placed them in her home and did not finish, sell or trade them. Made of hand-dyed cloth, raffia, shells, beads, rocks and other objects, they were meant to protect her, she told an interviewer in 1999.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Jay |first=Hilary |date=1999-03-07 |title=Little altars everywhere |work=Philadelphia Inquirer |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/179754039/ |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref>

While at Ile Ife, she visited Haiti to learn about its religious practices. She also visited Jamaica and Mexico.<ref name=":1" /> With the aid of grants over several decades, Bullock traveled to Ethiopia, Egypt, Mali, Morocco, Senegal, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire and South Africa.<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Russ |first=Valerie M. |date=2005-01-07 |title=Inspired by 'spirit' of Africa |work=Philadelphia Daily News |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/197870381 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref> She incorporated into her collages the images she saw and the techniques she observed on her visits to Africa: the land, the black night sky, textiles and masks, and observed ceremonies and other events.<ref name=":2" /> “I felt very close to that culture,” she said in a 1983 interview. “In reality, I come from that culture. It’s like getting in touch with yourself.”<ref name=":8" />

Bullock produced series made up of multiple works that, she said, allowed her to fully explore a theme. “Jasmine Gardens,” 1976, included one painting and 300 drawings. “Stilt Walkers” was the first series. The others included “Initiation,” “Night Songs,” “Healers,” “Journey,” “Spirit Houses,” “Chasing After Spirits,” and “Bitches Brew.”<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":7" /><ref name=":6" /> Some of her works reflected her feelings toward contemporary issues affecting Black people: “Trayvon Martin, Most Precious Blood,” a teen who was killed by a white Neighborhood Watch volunteer in Florida in 2012, “Katrina," the devastating floods left by that hurricane in New Orleans in 2005, and a portrait of George Floyd, who was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis, MN, in 2020.<ref name=":0" />

She started researching the series “Jasmine Gardens” during the waning days of Ile Ife, she told an interviewer for an exhibit at the Portland Art Museum in 2017. A painting in the series, “Dark Gods,” which showed two thick Black characters intertwined in each other's grasp, evoked controversy because of its erotic nature. The series was inspired by the naturalism she found in Japanese eroticism and the people's openness about love, she said. Although the figures were male and female, some thought they were males. Bullock chose her artist-friend Deryl Mackie as the male model.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Boothe |first=Berrisford |date=2017 |title=The Jasmine Garden Series: Interview with artist Barbara Bullock |url=https://pffcollection.com/wp-content/uploads/barbara_bullock_interview_barbaraeditsl_al_edits_1-1.pdf |access-date=2023-01-04 |website=Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of Africa American Art}}</ref>

Bullock participated in printmaking programs, including the Experimental Printmaking Institute at Lafayette College. In 2017, PAFA held an exhibit titled “A Collaborative Language” of artists who made prints at the institute, and she was included. In 2008, she was also represented in a show at the Hammonds House Museum in Atlanta of works from the program. The institute donated Bullock's print “Seeing is Believing (2011)” to Woodmere Art Museum.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":26">{{Cite web |date=2017-03-29 |title=Barbara Bullock |url=https://epi.lafayette.edu/2017/03/29/barbara-bullock/ |access-date=2023-01-04 |website=Lafayette College}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2011 |title=Seeing is Believing, Barbara Bullock |url=https://www.pafa.org/museum/collection/item/seeing-believing |access-date=2021-01-04 |website=Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts}}</ref><ref name=":12">{{Cite web |date=2017 |title=A Collaborative Language: Selections from the Experimental Printmaking Institute |url=https://www.pafa.org/museum/exhibitions/collaborative-language-selections-experimental-printmaking-institute |access-date=2023-01-04 |website=Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts}}</ref>

===Academia=== Over four decades, Bullock taught art classes in schools, colleges, community centers and for nonprofits.<ref name=":2" /> She completed more than 200 artist-in-residences in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":8" /><ref name=":11">{{Cite news |date=1988-04-30 |title=Central students learn from artist |work=York Dispatch (PA) |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/615247532 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref><ref name=":9" /><ref name=":3" /> She conducted mask-making and art classes at local art centers and museums.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Perfido |first=Lou |date=1987-02-01 |title=Creativity unmasked at Abington Art Center |work=Philadelphia Inquirer |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/168769510 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref><ref name=":10" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=1985-05-14 |title=African-American arts |work=Philadelphia Tribune |id={{ProQuest|532861472}} }}</ref> She trained teachers on integrating art in their school-district curriculums and led classes for inmates in prisons.<ref name=":11" /><ref name=":8" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":9" /><ref name=":2" />

In 1978, she was among 18 artists chosen to participate in a Works Progress Administration-style program to employ artists and offer art access to communities. It was conducted under the auspices of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act and administered by the printmaking Brandywine Workshop. She and the other artists, including Roland Ayers, Bob Thompson, and Cranston Walker, worked at community agencies, community centers and detention centers. Bullock taught classes at Nicetown Boys and Girls Club.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=1979-07-13 |title=Photo caption: A group project by Nicetown Girls Club |work=Philadelphia Tribune |id={{ProQuest|532754304}} }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1989-01-13 |title=Calendar for January |work=Philadelphia Tribune |id={{ProQuest|532982725}} }}</ref>

As an artist-in residence, she spent time with elementary and high schools students in several districts, including Shippensburg and York in Pennsylvania, and Sussex in Delaware (where she taught students to paint murals).<ref name=":8" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":11" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Hoey |first=Kim |date=1995-07-26 |title=Artist and kids splash tropical colors over murals |work=News Journal (Wilmington, DE) |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/159444790 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Estaban |first=Parra |date=1995-07-07 |title=Power of art |work=News Journal (Wilmington, DE) |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/159426301 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref> In Philadelphia, she worked at Prints in Progress, an afterschool printmaking workshop.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1982-08-27 |title=Snow show |work=Philadelphia Tribune |id={{ProQuest|533057481}} }}</ref><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":4" /> In New Jersey, she taught art classes from Cape May on the coast to Camden inland. She taught at Arts Horizon where she held classes for students in the Camden (NJ) schools and trained schoolteachers on Rutgers University’s Camden campus. She began making fans while teaching there.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":6" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3" />

In a five-month residency at the African American Museum in Philadelphia in 1999, she produced a series titled “Journey Series #4, Ethiopia.” It is now part of the museum's collection.<ref name=":31">{{Cite news |last=Sims |first=Phyllis |date=1999-09-24 |title=Acclaimed artist unveils new work |work=Philadelphia Tribune |id={{ProQuest|533307043}} }}</ref> She also held a residency at Perkins Center for the Arts in New Jersey.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":12" />

===Notable exhibitions=== Bullock exhibited periodically in group shows in the 1960s with other Black artists. It was hard to find white galleries to show their works, she said, noting that Charles Pridgen, Earl Wilke, Leroy Johnson and Joe Bailey were more aggressive at finding venues at galleries, community centers and churches. Black artists also exhibited in private homes. They were members of the National Conference of Artists, and several exhibited at PAFA in an ancillary show during the conference's 1986 meeting in Philadelphia.<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3" /><ref name=":19">{{Cite news |last=Dove-Morse |first=Pheralyn |date=1986-04-01 |title=National Conference of Artists gather in our own Philadelphia |work=Philadelphia Tribune |id={{ProQuest|532890512}} }}</ref>

In 1966, Bullock joined John Simpson, Walter Edmonds and Percy Ricks in an exhibit titled “Four Negro Artists” at the Philadelphia Gallery. She showed five works, including a portrait titled “The Staple Singers,” along with “Strange Spring” “Mother and Child,” “Father and Child” and “A Dancer’s World.”<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":5" /><ref name=":14">{{Cite news |date=1966-10-23 |title=Calendar of Arts - Four Negro Artists |work=Philadelphia Inquirer |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/179798098 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref>

The same year she was in an exhibit of works by young Black artists at the William Penn Memorial Museum in Harrisburg. The artists included Moe Brooker, Walter Edmonds, Ellen Powell Tiberino, Leroy Johnson, Charles Pridgen, Percy Ricks, Walter Gill, John Simpson, Maurice Thompkins, Gwendolyn Joyce Daniels, and Tina Lloyd King.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1966-02-08 |title=Contemporary Negro in Art Show |work=Philadelphia Tribune |id={{ProQuest|532559300}} }}</ref> Bullock participated in a benefit show at a lawn party for SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) in 1975. Others included Pridgen, Simpson and Robert Moore.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1966-06-25 |title=SNCC sponsors a lawn party |work=Philadelphia Tribune |id={{ProQuest|532410060}} }}</ref>

In 1969, she was among 200 Black artists in a premier show sponsored by the Philadelphia School District and the Pennsylvania Civic Center Museum. The show featured some of the top names in the country, including Ellen Powell Tiberino, Horace Pippin, Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, Jacob Lawrence, Benny Andrews, Columbus Knox, Roland Ayers, Romare Bearden, Avel de Knight, Barkley Hendricks, Paul Keene, Raymond Saunders, Louis B. Sloan, Ed Wilson, Henry Ossawa Tanner and Joshua Johnson.<ref name=":15">{{Cite news |last=Donohoe |first=Victoria |date=1969-12-14 |title=Impressive Exhibit by Afro-Americans |work=Philadelphia Inquirer |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/169131720/ |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref>

Earlier that year, she was represented in the Afro-American Arts Festival that featured 28 Black artists at the Black Student Union at La Salle College. The artists included Janette E. Banks, Turner Battle, Toni Beavers, Benjamin Britt, Harold Carter, Marilyn Coleman, Quetta Consuella, Eugene Fleming, Roy Gibbs, Humbert Howard, Paul Keene, Louis B. Sloan and Howard N. Watson.<ref name=":16">{{Cite news |date=1969-03-23 |title=Calendar of Events in Phila. Area: Afro-American Arts Festival |work=Philadelphia Inquirer |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/179908148 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref>

While at Ile Ife, Bullock was included in a show with Ellen Powell Tiberino in 1975. The exhibit consisted of 20 paintings, drawings and soft sculpture by the artists. It was their first joint exhibit.<ref name=":13" /> Also in 1975, she participated in “Spirits of Forgotten Ancestors” at the Walnut Street Theater, cosponsored by the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Department of Urban Outreach. It consisted of paintings, prints and jewelry by Black artists, including Avel de Knight, Bill Howell, Peg Alston and Wendy Wilson.<ref name=":17">{{Cite news |date=1975-05-21 |title=Things to do, Places to Go This Week |work=Philadelphia Inquirer |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/174708358 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref><ref name=":18">{{Cite news |last=Donohoe |first=Victoria |date=1975-05-02 |title=Art (column) |work=Philadelphia Inquirer |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/173212792 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref>

In 1988, the Afro-American Historical and Cultural Museum held a retrospective of Bullock's works.<ref name=":7" /> In 2005, she was among 41 Black artists in “Chemistry of Color: The Harold A. and Ann R. Sorgenti Collection of African American Art” at PAFA. The show, featuring works from the 1950s to 2005, was a traveling exhibit.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":20">{{Cite news |date=2005-01-09 |title=Explore the 'Chemistry of Color' at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts |work=Philadelphia Tribune |id={{ProQuest|2631952340}} }}</ref> In 2002, she won a $35,000 Leeway Foundation Award and was represented in a 2003 exhibit of award winners at the Philadelphia Art Alliance.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":23">{{Cite news |last=Sozanski |first=Edward J. |date=2003-01-17 |title=Leeway winners |work=Philadelphia Inquirer |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/200801047 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2002-06-17 |title=2002 Leeway Foundation Awards |url=https://www.leeway.org/news/2002_leeway_foundation_awards_190000_awarded_to_philadelphia_area_women_art#.Y7rziHbMJD8 |access-date=2023-01-04 |website=Leeway Foundation}}</ref>

In 2010, Sande Webster Gallery featured her works in a group show of women artists titled "Women's Work: A Group Show" that included artists Martina Johnson-Allen, Maya Freelon, Betsy Casanas, Nannette Acker Clark, Alice Oh, Heather Pieters, Doris Nogueira-Rogers, Marta Sanchez and Kathleen Spicer.<ref name=":9" />

In 2014, La Salle University Art Museum hosted an exhibition titled "Barbara Bullock: Straight Water Blues" and, in 2016, published a book titled “Barbara Bullock: Chasing After Spirits,” edited by Klare Scarborough, with contributions by Leslie King-Hammond, Lewis Tanner Moore, Linda Goss, A.M. Weaver, William R. Valerio, and Nannette Acker Clark.<ref name=":0" />

In 2015, Bullock was among artists in the exhibit “WE SPEAK: Black Artists in Philadelphia, 1920s to 1970s” mounted by Woodmere Art Museum.<ref name=":1" /> In 2020, Woodmere's “Africa in the Arts of Philadelphia” featured Bullock, Searles and Twins Seven Seven.<ref name=":24">{{Cite news |last=Hine |first=Thomas |date=2020-02-09 |title=Africa in the Arts of Philadelphia |work=Philadelphia Inquirer |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/637822469 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref>

In 2022, the List Gallery at Swarthmore College held an exhibit of selected works in “Ubiquitous Presence,” which included oil paintings, sculptures, book arts, prints, altars and mixed media.<ref name=":2" />

In 2023-2024, Woodmere Art Museum hosted a retrospective exhibition titled "Barbara Bullock: Fearless Vision.” It ran from September 2023 to January 2024.<ref>{{cite news |title=Barbara Bullock Fearless Vision |access-date=April 29, 2026 |publisher=Woodmere Art Museum |url=https://woodmereartmuseum.org/experience/exhibitions/barbara-bullock}}</ref>

===Commissions=== In 1990, Bullock was commissioned by Philadelphia International Airport to produce artwork. She created three-dimensional collages of dancers titled "Releasing the Energy, Balancing the Spirit."<ref name=":27">{{Cite web |date=1990 |title=Barbara Bullock: Releasing the Energies, Balances the Spirits 1990 |url=https://www.phl.org/at-phl/art-exhibitions/Barbara-Bullock |access-date=2023-01-04 |website=Philadelphia International Airport}}</ref>

She created “Journey Series #4, Ethiopia” in 1999 for the African American Museum in Philadelphia, commissioned by Chivas Regal as part of its Perspectives program.<ref name=":31" /> In 2004, she produced a commemorative poster for the 30th anniversary of the Odunde Festival in Philadelphia.<ref name=":32">{{Cite news |date=2005-06-10 |title=Odunde: Mmore than the festival |work=Philadelphia Tribune |id={{ProQuest|2631974848}} }}</ref><ref name=":0" /> In 2008, she was commissioned by Philadelphia's SEPTA Art in Transit for a work that was installed at the 46th Street Station on the Market-Frankford Line. It is titled "El Dancers."<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=2008 |title=El Dancers |url=https://www.associationforpublicart.org/artwork/el-dancers/ |access-date=2023-01-04 |website=Association for Public Art}}</ref>

===Selected exhibitions=== Philadelphia Gallery, 1966<ref name=":14" />

Philadelphia Civic Center Museum, 1969, 1981<ref name=":15" /><ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Donohoe |first=Victoria |date=1981-07-19 |title=The work of two minorities belatedly gains attention |work=Philadelphia Inquirer |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/173690145 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref>

La Salle University, Black Student Union, 1969<ref name=":16" />

Howard University, 1972, 1985<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Barbara Bullock resume |url=http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/48772/22496755/1406826260533/Bullock+resume.pdf?token=ZZfyC2Zk4EFAFdjjWKwPO0z4q3g%3D |access-date=2023-01-04 |website=Seraphin Gallery}}</ref>

Ile-Ife Humanitarian Center, 1975<ref name=":13" />

Walnut Street Theater, 1975<ref name=":17" /><ref name=":18" />

Bicentennial Women's Center, 1975<ref>{{Cite news |date=1975-08-25 |title=Bicentennial attractions |work=Philadelphia Daily News |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/185269318 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref>

Off the Wall Gallery, Dirty Frank's Bar, 1980, 1981 <ref>{{Cite news |date=1981-02-27 |title=Art (column) |work=Philadelphia Daily News |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/185984970 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1980-12-12 |title=Art (column) |work=Philadelphia Daily News |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/186004315/ |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref>

Cheltenham Art Center, 1983<ref>{{Cite news |last=Donohoe |first=Victoria |date=1983-01-14 |title=1983 At Cheltenham Art Center, a sampling of black artists' work |work=Philadelphia Inquirer |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/175127905/ |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref>

Villanova University, 1983<ref>{{Cite news |date=1983-01-23 |title=The latest in traditional African artistry |work=Philadelphia Inquirer |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/175163052 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref>

Shippensburg University, 1985<ref name=":0" />

Free Library of Philadelphia, 1988<ref name=":28">{{Cite news |date=1988-01-08 |title=Black life depicted in exhibit at Library: Opening is Friday; Black artists shown |work=Philadelphia Tribune |id={{ProQuest|532966730}} }}</ref>

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1986, 2005, 2017<ref name=":19" /><ref name=":20" /><ref name=":12" />

Suzanne Gross Gallery, 1986<ref>{{Cite news |last=Donohoe |first=Victoria |date=1985-04-19 |title=On galleries |work=Philadelphia Inquirer |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/169098876/ |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref>

Uptown Theater, 1987<ref>{{Cite news |last=Dove-Morse |first=Pheralyn |date=1987-05-08 |title=It's festival time, and North Phila. is the place to be |work=Philadelphia Tribune |id={{ProQuest|532920976}} }}</ref> <ref name=":21">{{Cite news |last=Donohoe |first=Victoria |date=1996-09-01 |title=Show may heal some feelings about art |work=Philadelphia Inquirer |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/178476701 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref>

Sande Webster Gallery, 1989, 2010 <ref name=":9" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=1989-06-23 |title=Galleries: Sande Webster |work=Philadelphia Inquirer |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/177796656/ |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref>

Bomani Gallery (San Francisco), 1992<ref>{{Cite news |date=1992-10-18 |title=Group shows |work=San Francisco Examiner |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/462156589/ |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref>

Bucks County Community College, 1996<ref name=":21" />

Nexus Gallery, 1997 <ref>{{Cite news |last=Edmonds |first=Arlene |date=1997-01-31 |title=African American Curators: Keepers of the Culture |work=Philadelphia Tribune |id={{ProQuest|533250119}} }}</ref>

Rowan University, 1997 <ref>{{Cite news |last=Baxter |first=Robert |date=1997-11-16 |title=Her mentor |work=Courier Post (Camden, NJ) |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/183946034 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref>

Painted Bride Art Center, 1992, 1998 <ref>{{Cite news |last=Nelson |first=Nels |date=1992-09-24 |title=Artists Find their own religions |work=Philadelphia Daily News |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/184486957 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Fuller |first=Richard |date=1988-10-07 |title=Art (column) |work=Philadelphia Inquirer |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/169389023/ |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref>

Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, 1998<ref>{{Cite news |last=Klein |first=Julia |date=1998-03-22 |title=Celebrating extraordinary people |work=Philadelphia Inquirer |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/178695127 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref>

Walt Whitman Cultural Center (NJ), 2000<ref>{{Cite news |date=2000-03-31 |title=Arts & Entertainment Calendar: Walt Whitman Cultural Center |work=Philadelphia Tribune |id={{ProQuest|533353164}} }}</ref>

Mercer County Community College, 2001<ref>{{Cite news |first= |date=2001-09-09 |title=Arts Preview |work=Central New Jersey Home News (New Brunswick) |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/319554755 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref>

African American Museum in Philadelphia, 1988, 2002 <ref name=":22" /><ref name=":7" />

Philadelphia Art Alliance, 2003<ref name=":23" />

Lafayette College, 2005 <ref>{{Cite news |date=2005-04-10 |title=Art exhibits |work=Morning Call (Allentown, PA) |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/285163679/ |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref>

Noyes Museum of Art (NJ), 2007<ref>{{Cite news |date=2007-01-05 |title=Events: Noyes Museum |work=Courier Post (NJ) |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/184212544 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref>

Woodmere Art Museum, 2008, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2020, 2023 <ref name=":29">{{Cite news |last=Clifford |first=Patricia |date=2008-09-30 |title=Lewis Tanner Moore exhibition draws hundreds |work=Philadelphia Tribune |id={{ProQuest|2666132997}} }}</ref><ref name=":24" /><ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Hine |first=Thomas |date=2018-06-24 |title=Philadelphia takes on the world |work=Philadelphia Inquirer |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/445075170 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref><ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Barbara Bullock: Fearless Vision |url=https://woodmereartmuseum.org/experience/exhibitions/barbara-bullock |access-date=2023-09-13 |website=woodmereartmuseum.org |language=en-gb}}</ref>

Pierro Gallery (NJ), 2010<ref>{{Cite news |date=2010-04-22 |title=Visual Alchemy: Eight African-American Artists Explore the Spirit of Visual Narrative |work=Montclair Times (NJ) |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/499559924/ |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref>

Seraphin Gallery, 2012, 2013<ref>{{Cite news |date=2012-06-08 |title=Thanks, Doc |work=Philadelphia Inquirer |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/199352441/ |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2013-03-22 |title=Galleries (column) |work=Philadelphia Inquirer |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/199489020 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref>

Atrium gallery, Morris County Administration and Records Building (NJ), 2015<ref>{{Cite news |date=2015-01-21 |title=African-American art exhibit to debut |work=Daily Record (Morristown, NJ) |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/113995352 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref>

Morris Museum (NJ), 2017<ref>{{Cite news |date=2017-02-09 |title=Art: "Rituals and evocations," Barbara Bullock |work=Herald News (Passaic, NJ) |agency=via newspapers.com. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/503410284 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref>

Portland Art Museum, 2017<ref name=":25" />

Swarthmore College, 2022<ref name=":2" />

Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, 2022<ref name=":30">{{Cite web |date=2022 |title=Black Women Artists from the Zimmerli Art Museum |url=https://diversity.rutgers.edu/event/collective-yearning-black-women-artists-zimmerli-art-museum |access-date=2023-01-04 |website=Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University}}</ref>

==Collections == African American Museum in Philadelphia<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

Philadelphia Free Library <ref name=":0" /><ref name=":28" />

Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":30" />

Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

Woodmere Art Museum<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

Howard University<ref name=":0" />

Lafayette College<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":26" />

La Salle University Art Museum<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Belief - Barbara Bullock |url=https://artcollection.lasalle.edu/objects-1/info/4038 |access-date=2023-01-04 |website=La Salle University Art Museum}}</ref>

Robert Wood Johnson<ref name=":0" />

Lewis Tanner Moore Collection of African American Art<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":29" />

Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Barbara Bullock - Works in the Collection |url=https://pffcollection.com/artists/barbara-bullock/ |access-date=2023-01-04 |website=Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art}}</ref>

Philadelphia International Airport<ref name=":27" />

== Commissions == Philadelphia International Airport<ref name=":1" />

SEPTA, Art in Transit<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":27" />

Odunde Festival<ref name=":32" />

Chivas Regal's Perspectives program (collage for African American Museum in Philadelphia)<ref name=":31" />

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *[https://www.blackartinamerica.com/index.php/2017/09/17/baia-studio-visit-barbara-bullock/ BAIA Studio Visit: Barbara Bullock] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220207021420/https://www.blackartinamerica.com/index.php/2017/09/17/baia-studio-visit-barbara-bullock/ |date=2022-02-07 }} video

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bullock, Barbara}} Category:1938 births Category:Living people Category:African-American artists Category:21st-century American women artists Category:Artists from Philadelphia Category:Painters from Philadelphia Category:African-American women sculptors Category:American women sculptors Category:African-American sculptors