A View from the Vault: Celebration by Lev Timothy Mills
by Qiaira Riley, graduate research assistant, museums
In this print, a larger than life, seemingly omnipresent figure looms over a group of praise dancers. The figure’s reddish-brown skin tone is interrupted by a mask that covers just their eyes but reveals to us heavenly blue skies. You might wonder what’s under the mask. Could the figure’s gaze meet the viewer’s or might their eyes be peering up towards the heavens? The dancers’ warm orange skin contrasts against their white dresses as they float between graphs and what could be a stage, open door, or portal.
Lev Timothy Mills (United States, 1940-2021)
Celebration, 1981
Color serigraph on paper
Museums Collections, Gift of Paul R. Jones
Viewing Celebration (1981) from Lev Timothy Mills can evoke varied meanings, depending on the audience’s cultural understandings. In his work, I find echoes of myself and my people in the dancer’s suspended movements as I am instantly reminded of my own time as a young praise dancer. This expression of worship became popular in Black churches in America during the 1970s and has since remained an iconic symbol of African American culture. Did Mills attend Sunday sermons that would have made him familiar with this practice and possibly inspired this piece? The acclaimed printmaker and sculptor was born in Tallahassee, Florida during the Jim Crow era, while being educated and teaching at Historically Black Colleges and Universities throughout his creative career. He received his first of many art degrees from Florida A&M before he taught at Spelman College, a women’s liberal art college, for nearly 30 years. Could this work have been inspired by the creative expression of his students at an institution known for their liturgical dance?
Mill’s inclusion of graphs, a feature repeated in his works, offers an interesting visual contrast to the praise dancers, ultimately creating more questions than answers for the viewer. Are these graphs mapping the movement of the dancers? Or could they represent the presence of a greater power that these dancers are in communication with? Celebration’s portal seems to open up a world of possibilities,inspiring those who gaze upon this scene to uncover its complex significance.
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“A View from the Vault” showcases some of the unique, notable or rare items that are a part of the Special Collections and Museums holdings at the University of Delaware. Each month, we highlight a different work and share interesting facts or intriguing histories about it. If you are interested in seeing any of the materials featured in person or want to learn more about any work showcased in the series, please contact Special Collections and Museums at AskSpec or AskMuseums.