Michael Ellison, Mickey Dees, 1987, woodcut. Photograph by Reis Birdwhistell. ©Michael Ellison
Memories & Inspiration: The Kerry and C. Betty Davis Collection of African American Art
May 26, 2025 – Aug 16, 2025
Finding voices of the African Diaspora that might otherwise be forgotten is at the heart of the Davis Collection.
The Taubman Museum of Art is pleased to announce Memories & Inspiration: The Kerry and C. Betty Davis Collection of African American Art, celebrating the passion of an ordinary couple who spent more than 35 years as devoted connoisseurs, building a collection of vivid artworks that are both resonant and remarkably personal. Memories & Inspiration is on view at the Taubman May 26-August 16, 2025.
Memories & Inspiration: The Kerry and C. Betty Davis Collection of African American Art presents 67 selected works from a body of art amassed over 35 years. Kerry, a retired mailman, and Betty, a former television news producer, gladly gave up many ordinary comforts in order to live with extraordinary paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures as their principal luxuries.
Their collection includes works by Romare Bearden, Beverly Buchanan, Elizabeth Catlett, Ernest T. Crichlow, Sam Gilliam, Loïs Mailou Jones, Jacob Lawrence, Gordon Parks, Alma Thomas, and Charles White, but Kerry and Betty do not search exclusively for well-known and/or documented artists. Rather, they focus on the more meaningful task of gathering and preserving a range of artistic approaches to the black image, in order to console the psyche and contribute to a more authentic articulation of the self.
The result is an eclectic gathering of pieces crossing different mediums, subjects, and styles by a group of artists of the African Diaspora who—in terms of training, experience, and expression—are strikingly diverse but unified in their use of cultural and historical narratives.
As their collection has grown, so has the Davis’s storehouse of memories of discovering new works of art, building friendships with artists, and conversing with museum professionals and other collectors in their home.
Memories & Inspiration brings together an awe-inspiring selection of works, but it is their personal resonance—their connection to the Davis’s hopes, passions, and everyday lives—that gives the collection its unique power.
Memories & Inspiration: The Kerry and C. Betty Davis Collection of African American Art was organized and toured by International Arts & Artists, Washington, DC.
EXHIBITION PREVIEW
Yashua Klos, Coby, 2003, graphite. Photograph by Gregory Staley. © 2021 Yashua Klos.
Loïs Mailou Jones, St. Michelle, France, 1958, watercolor. Photograph by Gregory Staley. © 2021 Lois Mailou Jones Pierre-Noël Trust. © Loïs Mailou Jones.
Sedrick Huckaby, She Wore Her Family’s Quilt, 2015, oil on canvas. Photograph by Gregory Staley. © Sedrick Huckaby
Sam Gilliam, Untitled, 1974, oil acrylic on rice paper. Photograph by Gregory Staley. Courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. © Sam Gilliam.
Claude Clark, Self Determination, 1969, oil on board. Photograph by Reis Birdwhistell. © Claude Clark.
Beverly Buchanan, Shack with Chair, 1989, foam board. Photograph by Gregory Staley. © 2021 Jane Bridges.
William J. Anderson, Joanne by the Window, 1986, silver gelatin photograph. Photograph by Reis Birdwhistell. © William J. Anderson.
Charles Edward Williams, Uncharted Waters, 2021, Oil on board, Photo by Reis Birdwhistell, © Charles Edward Williams
Ealy Mays, Last Chocolate Ice Cream, 2013, Oil on canvas, Courtesy of the artist, Photo by Reis Birdwhistell, © Ealy Mays
Eric A. Mack, Untitled, 2003, Mixed media on canvas, Photo by Greg Staley, © Eric Mack
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Memories & Inspiration: The Kerry and C. Betty Davis Collection of African American Art
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