Clyde Connell

This month is Women’s History Month, making March the perfect time to celebrate a nationally-renowned artist with Bossier Parish connections, Clyde Dixon Connell. Clyde Connell started as a painter but was best-known as a self-taught abstract impressionist sculptor. In 1998, which was the year of her passing at the age of 97, she was named a Louisiana “Living Legend” by the Louisiana Public Broadcasting Service.

Minnie Clyde Dixon was born in Belcher, Louisiana in 1901 and lived on a large sharecropping plantation. In her adult years she lived in Shreveport and during her later years lived in a cabin in Bossier Parish at Lake Bistineau. Both her Dixon family and the family of Thomas Dixon Connell, Jr., who she married in 1922, had ties to Bossier Parish. Local newspapers mention several visits of the young Connell family to rural south Bossier and the “Poole” community in south Bossier Parish. Thomas was a penal farm warden, and this further opened Clyde’s eyes to racial and social justice issues, as did growing up on the plantation in Belcher as a sensitive, observant child. She was well ahead of her time promoting desegregation and teaching at an integrated Presbyterian church school.

Clyde D. Connell took art classes in Shreveport in the 1920s but it wasn’t until the early 1950s after she raised her children, daughter Clyde and son Brian, that she started painting seriously. In 1952 her art style and interest became firmly established when she traveled to New York City on a social work trip with the Presbyterian Church. She visited the Museum of Modern Art multiple times during her extended stay and was drawn to the color and form of the abstract art. Now her own work is in MOMA’s collection.

Clyde Connell became serious about being a fulltime artist by the early 1960s—when she was about sixty years old-- and set up her first permanent studio. She constructed artistic pieces (such as 3-D wall installations) with wood and metal molded together with a mix of paper and glue. Later that mixture became her medium itself, after adding in some local red dirt and reinforcing it with sticks and embedding small pieces of metal found on her son’s cotton farm. She tended to sculpt tall and narrow figures, with religious overtones and homages to the natural world surrounding her at Lake Bistineau. “The New York Times” reported that her sculptures resembled shamans, decorated trees, or towers. In addition to reflecting her lush natural environment, much of her work also was meant to reflect social issues and culture that she observed around her.

Clyde Connell’s work is represented by the Arthur Roger Gallery in New Orleans, which describes her sculptures as “evocative of ritualistic totems and primitive votive objects; her paintings employ primitive markings and pictographs associated with talismanic shapes.” Locally, the Bossier Arts Council in the old Bossier City Hall building in the East Bank District has some of her sculptures on permanent display.

Come visit us to see the History Center’s small archival collection of Clyde Connell materials. If you have any information, stories, or photos about Clyde Connell or other Bossier Parish artists, we would love to see them or to copy them, with permission, to add to the History Center’s research collection. We are open M-Th 9-8, Fri 9-6, and Sat 9-5. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org

For other fun facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, @bplhistorycenter on TikTok, and check out our blog http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/.

Image: Clyde Dixon Connell from Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art 

Article by: Pam Carlisle 

Andres Sanchez-Flores – A Hidden Gem of an Artist and a Lost Gem of a Masterpiece

 It’s the end of September, but the middle of Hispanic -American Heritage Month (September 15-October 15), making it the perfect time to celebrate one of the Shreveport-Bossier area’s hidden gems Andres Sanchez-Flores. This longtime resident of Shreveport was an internationally known mural artist and assistant/protégé to the renowned Mexican artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. Following his move from Mexico to the Shreveport-Bossier area, his art took a back seat to earning a living and raising a family. He did get a chance to share his masterful artistic talents when he painted a 35-foot-long, 10-foot-high mural of Bossier Parish history in the lobby of the National Bank of Bossier that once anchored Bossier City’s downtown.

Sanchez-Flores was born in 1905 in Jalisco, Guadalajara, Mexico. As a child he dreamed of being an artist, but the Mexican school system’s vocational sorting of students pointed him to higher education in chemistry. It didn’t take long after finishing college for chemistry to lead him back to art. He was sent on an expedition to find and study the chemical compositions of murals in ancient Mayan ruins. This set in him a desire to continue to study the Maya civilization, which led him to Michigan. It was in Michigan in 1920 that he met Diego Rivera. Because Sanchez-Flores was a Spanish speaker and shared Rivera’s interest in Mayan culture, Rivera invited him to be a part of his team that was working on murals depicting industrial might in Detroit. Sanchez-Flores became Rivera’s right-hand man, while learning all that he could about painting murals.

Sanchez-Flores came to Shreveport in 1952. His wife Ella was from Texas. They lived in Mexico for 20 years on Frida Kahlo’s family’s property, but his wife was more and more homesick for the U.S. Plus, he wanted his children to get a quality education in the States. His two children, Rocio and Erwin, both graduated from Louisiana Tech. To support their education, once in the states he almost entirely had stopped painting, and worked in engine repair until retirement. The ambitious mural in Bossier was an exception.

In a story about the mural, “The Bossier Tribune” assured readers that every effort will be made to make the mural not only typical of this region but historically correct. This claim is supported by his daughter, who described her father as a prodigious researcher. The effort to research a likeness of General Pierre Jean Baptiste Evariste Bossier of Natchitoches, after whom the parish is named, warranted an entire article in the “Bossier Banner-Progress” titled: “Audubon is Responsible for Likeness of General Bossier in Historical Mural.” As a result of Sanchez-Flores’ research, the State Library of Louisiana turned up the information that the famous painter John James Audubon, before he gained his fame as a naturalist, had painted portraits of people to make a few dollars, including General Pierre Bossier!

Sanchez-Flores was assisted with the mural by state artist laureate Amos Lee Armstrong. The mural spanned over 400 years of Bossier history, beginning with Hernando DeSoto’s expedition to the area, shown inhabited by tribes of the Caddo Indian confederation. The Caddo Indians, whom Sanchez-Flores connected culturally to the Mayans, was a special research interest of his. The mural showed many details of Caddo Indian village life, such as beehive-shaped mud and thatch houses several stories high, the lush natural resources of the area like majestic oaks on banks of bayous, cypress trees and cypress knees at the water’s edge, and even plants like wild iris and water lilies. Also shown were waterfowl such as duck and heron. On the land were the plentiful game of rabbit and deer plus wildcats, cougars, and bear.

The mural also depicts the arrival of French explorers, who traded with Caddo. The fur trapper and Caddo interpreter Larkin Edwards is shown along with the arrival of overland wagon trains, the Red River log jam and its clearing, and steamboats. The arrival of the American period with the Louisiana Purchase is shown in such minute detail as the lowering of the French flag and the raising of the American flag, along with illustrations of the Freeman and Custis Expedition sent by President Jefferson to survey the purchase. The mural also shows pecan groves, oil wells and refineries, sawmills and pulp factories, and the cultivation and raising of cotton, corn and livestock. On the home front, houses, circuit riders, churches, and schools appear. The Shed Road is depicted, paralleled by different eras of travel, such as the steam locomotive followed by the diesel streamliner, covered wagons and automobiles, and combustion engine airplanes followed by jets.

As Sanchez-Flores himself said, “There is not much mural work here: Shreveport is a young town, and consequently hasn’t developed a craving for art. It will in time, because it’s a process of maturing.” Perhaps that’s what the National Bank of Bossier had in mind when it commissioned such an impressive work of art that depicted hundreds of years of history, to make a point about Bossier City and Bossier Parish growing and maturing. In a feature article in the October 1955 “Shreveport Magazine” the National Bank proclaimed that all residents of the region would want to “share in this pageant of progress” as related by “two outstanding artists.” Despite this popular sentiment, the mural was destroyed during remodeling sometime prior to 1975.

Upon Sanchez-Flores’ retirement, his son Erwin, who spent time in Australia for his work in the oil industry, arranged for him to give some university lectures there. He ended up not only doing that but getting a commission for a gigantic mural at the Western Australian Institute of Technology in Perth. Press releases out of Australia in 1975 and picked up by local papers showed Shreveport-Bossier the master painter who had been ‘hidden’ in their midst. He could have gotten more commissions in Australia, but after a few months chose to come home to Shreveport. He said he certainly wouldn’t turn down commissions back in north Louisiana, though. That might have come true, as shown by a commission for church mural in Minden that he was to paint assisted by his daughter, but sadly he received a sudden diagnosis of cancer, and passed away not long after.

Come visit us at the History Center to see our exhibits that depict the history that had been shown in Sanchez-Flores’ Bossier mural. If you have any information, stories, or photos about Sanchez-Flores, the National Bank building, its mural or other Bossier Parish stories of Hispanic heritage, we would love to add to the History Center’s collection and knowledge. We are open M-Th 9-8, Fri 9-6, and Sat 9-5. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org

Images:

• Mural of 400 years of Bossier Parish history by Andres Sanchez-Flores shown in-progress in 1955 in the National Bank of Bossier. Photo courtesy of Dr. Rocio Arthur.
• Color postcard of interior of the National Bank of Bossier with mural of Bossier City history.  History Center collection (courtesy of Billy Thorn).

For other fun facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, @bplhistorycenter on TikTok, and check out our blog http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/.

Clyde Connell

 This month is American Artist Appreciation Month, making August the perfect time to celebrate a nationally-renowned artist with Bossier Parish connections, Clyde Dixon Connell. Clyde Connell started as a painter but was best-known as a self-taught abstract impressionist sculptor. In 1998, which was the year of her passing at the age of 97, she was named a Louisiana “Living Legend” by the Louisiana Public Broadcasting Service.Clyde Connell

Minnie Clyde Dixon was born in Belcher, Louisiana in 1901 and lived on a large sharecropping plantation. In her adult years she lived in Shreveport and during her later years lived in a cabin in Bossier Parish at Lake Bistineau. Both her Dixon family and the family of Thomas Dixon Connell, Jr., who she married in 1922, had ties to Bossier Parish. Local newspapers mention several visits of the young Connell family to rural south Bossier and the “Poole” community in south Bossier Parish. Thomas was a penal farm warden, and this further opened Clyde’s eyes to racial and social justice issues, as did growing up on the plantation in Belcher as a sensitive, observant child. She was well ahead of her time promoting desegregation and teaching at an integrated Presbyterian church school.

Clyde D. Connell took art classes in Shreveport in the 1920s but it wasn’t until the early 1950s after she raised her children, daughter Clyde and son Brian, that she started painting seriously. In 1952 her art style and interest became firmly established when she traveled to New York City on a social work trip with the Presbyterian Church. She visited the Museum of Modern Art multiple times during her extended stay and was drawn to the color and form of the abstract art. Now her own work is in MOMA’s collection.

Clyde Connell became serious about being a fulltime artist by the early 1960s—when she was about sixty years old-- and set up her first permanent studio. She constructed artistic pieces (such as 3-D wall installations) with wood and metal molded together with a mix of paper and glue. Later that mixture became her medium itself, after adding in some local red dirt and reinforcing it with sticks and embedding small pieces of metal found on her son’s cotton farm. She tended to sculpt tall and narrow figures, with religious overtones and homages to the natural world surrounding her at Lake Bistineau. “The New York Times” reported that her sculptures resembled shamans, decorated trees, or towers. In addition to reflecting her lush natural environment, much of her work also was meant to reflect social issues and culture that she observed around her.

Clyde Connell’s work is represented by the Arthur Roger Gallery in New Orleans, which describes her sculptures as “evocative of ritualistic totems and primitive votive objects; her paintings employ primitive markings and pictographs associated with talismanic shapes.” Locally, the Bossier Arts Council in the old Bossier city hall building in the East Bank District has some of her sculptures on permanent display.

Photo of Clyde Dixon Connell from Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art 

Come visit us to see the History Center’s small archival collection of Clyde Connell materials. If you have any information, stories, or photos about Clyde Connell or other Bossier Parish artists, we would love to see them or to copy them, with permission, to add to the History Center’s research collection. We are open M-Th 9-8, Fri 9-6, and Sat 9-5. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org

For other fun facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, @bplhistorycenter on TikTok, and check out our blog http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/.

Article by: Pam Carlisle

Dogwood Queen Presents Painting to First Lady

Felix “Dan” Broussard, an insurance salesman from Lafayette, La, attended the first Louisiana State Society Mardi Gras ball in Washington D.C. in 1944. He believed that the ball was “a great chance to bring the culture of Louisiana to Washington.” This statement led to him being placed in charge of the future balls, which he remained involved in for the next thirty years.

It was in 1947 that Broussard suggested that they invite Louisiana festival queens to the ball. Other members of the society agreed, and the next year six Louisiana festival queens were presented to the royal court. “Today over 25 Louisiana festivals proudly send their queens to Washington.” The reigning Plain Dealing Dogwood Festival Queen of 1953, Julia Ann Burford, attended the Louisiana Society’s Mardi Gras festival in 1954.

The following appeared in the Bossier Banner-Progress on Mar. 18, 1954, and gives an account of Burford’s Mardi Gras experience in Washington D.C.

“Congressman Overton Brooks, who extended so many courtesies to Miss Julia Ann Burford, the Plain Dealing Dogwood queen on her recent visit to the Mardi Gras festival at Washington recently, sent the following letter to the editors of the Banner-Progress:

‘“I am writing to inform you of the splendid manner in which Miss Julia Ann Burford represented the Dogwood festival at the Louisiana Mardi Gras here in Washington, and at other functions in which she participated while here. She has created an immeasurable amount of good will for the festival and for Plain Dealing.

“Soon after her arrival here Mrs. Brooks and I accompanied her to a special luncheon in the Capitol building, honoring her and other queens following a brief visit in the gallery of the House of Representatives. We enjoyed talking with her about our friends in Plain Dealing and were honored to present her to others at the luncheon as our own queen. Shortly after the luncheon Mrs. Brooks and my secretary rushed her away to one of Washington’s most popular television programs where she performed a dance, and told the listening and viewing audience about the Dogwood festival and Plain Dealing. Many people here saw this program and have commented very favorably about her performance and her discussion of the festival.

(L to R) Homer Gruenther, president Eisenhower's assistant;
Mary Jane McCaffree, Mamie Eisenhowers Secretary;
Julia Ann Burford, Plain Dealing Dogwood Festival Queen 1953
presenting Oena Martin's painting for Mrs. Eisenhower
and Congressman Overton Brooks. (1954)

“The following morning I took her to the White House where she presented the picture painted for Mrs. Eisenhower by Mrs. W. H. Martin of Plain Dealing. As you know Mrs. Eisenhower has been ill since returning from California, and Mr. Homer Greunther, assistant to the president, and Mrs. Mary Jane McCaffree, secretary to Mrs. Eisenhower, met us. We then showed Miss Burford portions of the White House and its grounds which are not open to visitors under ordinary circumstance.

“We were especially proud of her at the Mardi Gras Ball, held in the Grand Ballroom of the Mayflower hotel. There she was escorted to the place in the “Royal Court” reserved for her and received the ovation of more than a thousand persons gathered there. She carried a sceptor [sic] and wore her crown as befits a queen. This was a great and well-deserved tribute to the Dogwood Trail and its queen.

“I want you to know that it has been a real pleasure to work with the patrons and sponsors of the Dogwood festival in making her visit to Washington a full and enriching experience, and this bring additional honor and notice to our area.

Sincerely yours,

Overton Brooks, M. C.’”

The painting that Burford gave to First Lady Mamie Eisenhower was the art of Oena Martin. She was a local artist from Plain Dealing, well known for her Plain Dealing area paintings. “The dogwood trail was one of her favorite haunts where she often went to put on canvas the beauty she loved so much.” A couple of years after her death, the companion piece the painting given to Eisenhower was displayed in a local art exhibit at the Plain Dealing library.

By: Amy Robertson