FALL 2022 LEGACY EXHIBITION

MVP: A Selection of Sculptures From Melvin Van Peebles Blue Room

CO-CURATED BY DAMIEN DAVIS and ALAINA SIMONE
September 10, 2022, through August 19, 2023

In celebration of the life of legendary Melvin Van Peebles, Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling presents a selection of art objects, artifacts, and ephemeral materials, contextualizing his legacy as a filmmaker, activist, and visual artist. As an extraordinary individual who kept a child-like sense of openness and curiosity about the world around him, the exhibition features a recreation of Melvin’s living room (The Blue Room) with original objects from his home. 

About Melvin Van Peebles (1932 - 2021)

Melvin Van Peebles was an artist in every sense of the term. From portraiture to novel writing to filmmaking and more, his interdisciplinary relationship with composing art is unique. He moved–– jumping from Chicago to Mexico to Amsterdam and finally Paris––to chase his dream of working in the film industry. After achieving accolades in Paris and being invited into Hollywood with open arms, rather than taking up the space he had always wanted to, Van Peebles created space for other Black artists. 

The Blue Room served simultaneously as a source of Melvin’s inspiration and an amalgamation of his childlike state of curiosity and creativity. Similar to Matisse’s “The Red Studio,” his blue-walled apartment was filled with a myriad of odd yet somewhat functional objects. From the back end of a Volkswagen that doubles as a filing cabinet to a giant sculpture of a hot dog, the artist’s joie de youth saturated his life with whimsy and wonder. “He had this fanciful, wily sense of humor and a love of the every day,” shares Mario Van Peebles, filmmaker, actor, and son of the artist. “He would sit in the Blue Room and look out through the windows onto the wonderful view on the street and watch the light play across. He passed away in that apartment — he wanted to be back in a space he had created and enjoyed, in which he’d given birth to so many of his projects.” 

In tandem with his impact on history through his work, this would become his legacy. Melvin, forever young and building off his joyful perspective on life, wanted to live alongside these items—items that made him happy to repurpose and collect. His many roles throughout life: astronomer, playwright, a stint on Wall Street, portrait artist, writer, filmmaker, composer, and producer, Melvin lived a boundless life, celebrating Black culture while appreciating white culture. His loving, collaborative perspective on life and of the world allowed for this duality, his many lives as an artist and creator instilling in him a vast love for life and all of its oddities.

Read his obituary printed in The New York Times.