Sunday Afternoon

About the Work

Sunday Afternoon illustrates two eccentric figures in an energetic and vibrant display. These two figures stand facing one another in a field, their skin covered with a black and white pattern, highlighting the artist's perspective on one's own portrayal. Wearing stylized hats, adorned with visuals of a house, tree, heart, cross, and flowers, their mouths are connected by a bolt of lightning, signifying the ideals of relationships, communication, and representation. Framed by bold patterns and colors, the border adds to the dynamic, vivid, and dreamlike elements.
—From Brandywine Workshop and Archives records

Humphrey’s signature style as an artist is quintessentially Neo-Expressionist—illustrative, colorful. It also features texts (though it is never wholly text-based) stemming from the artist’s longtime interest in traditional African oral traditions. Her subject matter addresses broad-based issues of racism and feminism, as well as personal narratives. Her aesthetic is inspired by the lively colors and bucolic forms of Haitian and Brazilian art; by similar qualities in the French artists Gauguin and Rousseau; and by African American vernacular artists, explicitly Sister Gertrude Morgan. Although Humphrey’s art often centers on the Black experience, she stresses that this is a logical outcome of her identity as an African American and should not be perceived as a narrowly constructed artistic agenda. Her wish is to be understood as a unique individual who happens to be of African descent, rather than as a “Black artist.”
_{—Adapted from https://global.oup.com/us/companion.websites/9780199995394/ch13/bio/, accessed 6-23-2021}