A Boy Named Alligator

Chicago artist Kathleen Blackshear portrayed this young field worker named Alligator amid a rhythmic, stylized landscape that reflects her interest in modernist form. Blackshear was born in rural Navasota, Texas, and continued to spend summers there after she moved north. She defied the racial constraints still prevalent in Texas by befriending African American workers on nearby cotton farms and brought forth their individuality through her progressive approach to portraiture. Although cotton cultivation in the region was marked by the brutal legacy of enslavement and ongoing injustices, Blackshear here centers Alligator—a name or nickname that itself evokes a terrible history of violence against black children—as a laborer whose skills helped cultivate this lush landscape. In Chicago, Blackshear was an influential teacher at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1926 to 1961, and an important mentor to young artists including Margaret Burroughs and Eldzier Cortor.