Summer in Eden
Date2005
MediumAcrylic on canvas
DimensionsImage: 49 × 41 1/8 × 1 5/8 inches (124.5 × 104.5 × 4.1 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase in honor of Eleanor Haynes.
Object number2008.28
On View
Not on viewTerms
Copyright© Estate of Luther E. Vann.
The images and text contained on this page are owned by Telfair Museums or used by the Museum with permission from the owners. Unauthorized reproduction, transmission or display of these materials is prohibited with the exception of items deemed “fair use” as defined by U.S. and international copyright laws.Label TextPainter, sculptor, and printmaker Luther Vann was dually shaped by experiences of his native Savannah and of New York City, where he studied and connected with prominent artists. When he was six, Vann moved to New York City from Savannah with his mother, but he returned to his birthplace to stay with his aunt and uncle during summers. In New York, he took community classes with Harlem Renaissance painter Charles Alston, before moving on to studies at the High School for Art and Music and the Art Students' League. Vann's mature work included expressionistic paintings of African American community life as well as more abstract, spiritually-inspired works in which halos and beams of light emanate from the heads of human figures. Summer in Eden depicts a young woman on a bicycle in the foreground of a snapshot-like composition in which individuals of various ages converse on stoops and engage in activities suggestive of a bustling New York neighborhood. The painting's title and warm yellow-orange hues, however, also evoke the Southern heat and community life of Vann's many Savannah summers.