WASHINGTON — Everybody knows Bill Cosby’s humor, but the comedian has kept his artistic tastes close at home. Now the extensive art collection of Bill and Camille Cosby has opened to the public for the first time at the Smithsonian Institution, revealing some works by African-American artists that until now have been seen only by family and friends.
The exhibition not only celebrates African-American heritage, it also provides a glimpse at works the Cosbys have enjoyed intimately, with pieces ranging from a masterwork that had remained hidden for a half-century before Camille Cosby recognized its value, to a quilt made from their slain son’s clothes. More than 60 artworks from the Cosby collection are being displayed through early 2016 alongside 100 pieces of African works at the National Museum of African Art in Washington.
Surrounded by these artworks in a Smithsonian gallery, the Cosbys sat down to discuss their passion for collecting, and for once, Bill Cosby let his wife take the floor, describing how they came to love art together and their hopes that the exhibit will foster a new appreciation for works by black artists long silenced or ignored.
“I hope that people will become emotionally attached to these paintings,” Camille Cosby said. “I really want people to feel something.”
A centerpiece is “The Thankful Poor,” painted in 1894 by Henry Ossawa Tanner, a son of slaves who went to Paris and painted scenes that dignified black people at a time when they mostly suffered degrading images in popular culture.
The work depicts an elderly man and young boy in prayer at a humble dinner table. It had been left in basement storage at the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf for 50 years. Camille Cosby found the painting up for auction in 1981, and bought it for $250,000 as a Christmas gift for her husband.
“We didn’t collect to increase our assets because there weren’t any real values placed on art by African-Americans, no monetary value nor artistic value,” Camille Cosby said. “We collected because we really loved the pieces. We wanted to live with them.”
The greatest gift from amassing some 300 pieces of African-American art kept in their homes was that their children and grandchildren’s self-perceptions have been reinforced by positive images of black people, she said.
The Cosbys began collecting art in 1967, three years after they were married. Bill Cosby said he grew up in a housing project where a clock, a picture of Jesus, and cutouts from Ebony magazine passed as art.
When he had a house of his own, a taste of success in entertainment and rich friends, he noticed “these people have art, and it’s all white people.” The Cosbys started purchasing works by artist Charles White and almost immediately got hooked on collecting.
Bill Cosby featured paintings by black artists on the set of his early TV sitcom “The Bill Cosby Show” where he played Chet Kincaid. Later, he included African-American art on the walls of the Huxtables’ living room in “The Cosby Show” series.
Some of the oldest works in the Cosby collection include rare portraits from the late 1700s and early 1800s by Joshua Johnston, a Baltimore-based African-American artist who was at one time a slave. The family also collected works by emerging artists and noted artists, including Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Jacob Lawrence and Faith Ringgold.
