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An Analysis of From This Earth by

Lamar Dodd

By Austin Hendricks
For Mr. Barney’s
AP United States History Class
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Impression: My first impression of From This Earth by Lamar Dodd can be condensed

into one word: simple. The scene depicted in the painting is done in a very simple

manner. The slaves in the painting are dressed very plainly, clad in only sparse white

garments similar to their simple white bags. In addition, the ground that the slaves are

working on is very plain, sparse land. There are only a few cotton plants in a

predominantly barren field giving the field a very plain, empty feeling. This image is very

depressing and dark. The sky overhead has a dark hue to it that gives it a foreboding,

dangerous tone. The darkness in the ground, sky and blurry mountains in the background

are offset by the pure, white clothes that the slaves are wearing. All of these colors

combine to give the picture a darker look, with one pure and innocent aspect.

Description: This painting depicts four African Americans, presumably slaves, picking

cotton off a few cotton plants. Two of them are men, while the other two are women. All

four of the workers are wearing simple, white clothes. Both of the women have yellow

headdresses on their heads, similar to traditional African head garments. Each one of the

workers carries a plain white bag for putting cotton in. In addition, there are several bare

trees that either did not grow an adequate amount of cotton or have already been picked.

Each one of them is bent in a position of tiresome work, with backs bent and heads

bowed. They appear to be completely exhausted from their work, so much that they are

unable to stand straight up. The ground is mostly a dark brown color; however, it does

contain some red stains splattered around in the dirt. In the background of the painting is

a blurry image, presumably some mountains or hills. The color of this mysterious shape
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matches the muddy brown of the ground. The sky is predominantly a dark, menacing

blue. There are also some faint dark clouds far off in the distance. However, there are

some white places where sunlight is shining through the darkening sky. Dodd contrasts

the hard, unforgiving ground with the slaves by having the ground be a dark, muddy

color while the slaves are garbed in an innocent and pure white wardrobe. The red stains

that mar the ground could possibly be the blood of the slaves, abused and worked

endlessly for so many years.

Interpretation: Lamar Dodd was born in Fairburn, Georgia in 1909 and was raised in

LaGrange, Georgia. When he was twelve, his art talent led to his acceptance as a special

student at LaGrange College. Studying for five years, he received a degree from the

College at the same time he graduated from high school. He then enrolled briefly at the

Georgia Institute of Technology from 1926 to 1927, and spent time teaching in rural

Alabama. In 1928, he began studies in New York City at the Art Students League with

George Bridgeman and Boardman Robinson, and also took private lessons with George

Luks and Charles Martin. Later Dodd used a much more colorful palette including use of

gold and silver leaf, which provided religious symbolism. Dodd increasingly painted

circular shapes over a straight line, fascinated by the contrast and by the unity of that

which was nearly circular and to him suggested the sun and the moon. One of his

paintings with this motif is "The Crucified Sun", a title he chose for the deep intense

background against silver leaf, which turns green when exposed to the air. Former

President Jimmy Carter has the painting hung by his desk at the Carter Center in Atlanta.

In 1930, he returned to LaGrange to get married. He devoted the year to painting, which

led to a one-person exhibition at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. In 1931, he returned
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to the Art Students League and became a student of Jean Charlot, Thomas Hart Benton

and John Steuart Curry as well as his earlier teachers. Benton and Curry stirred Lamar

Dodd's interest in regionalism and his own part of the South where he returned in 1933.

Moving to Athens, Dodd joined the faculty of the University of Georgia, which was part

of a national movement to put working artists in to academia. One year later he was

named head of the Department of Art, and shortly after he established a Master's Degree

program. He brought much distinction to the school, earning artistic honors and serving

as consultant to various federal agencies and educational entities. He was President of the

College Art Association of America from 1954 to 1956, and in 1962 was named director

of the National Council of Arts in Education. In his own quest for painting locations, he

was also expanding by travelling all over Georgia and onto the islands and coasts of

South Carolina. He also started going to Mohegan Island off the coast of Maine in the

late 1940s. In the 1950s, he began traveling worldwide including to Europe, the Mideast,

Asia and then to the Soviet Union where he was named a cultural emissary for the State

Department. The travel, especially to France where he saw the work of Cezanne, had a

marked influence on adding elements of realism and cubism to his predominantly abstract

style. In the 1960s and 1970s, he took on two major projects that seemed quite opposite

to each other, the vastness of the universe and the closed world of the human heart and

the surgery performed upon it. In 1963, Lamar Dodd was named an official artist for

NASA for the Mercury Astronaut-9 project, and then served as a NASA artist for

numerous other rocket launchings including Apollo 9 for which he did an abstraction

titled "Totality Triptych". This painting reflected his interest in circular shapes, and their

conveyance of unity and order. He was a part of this program for nearly twenty-five years
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and became totally fascinated by it. The second project was a series called "The Heart",

which began in 1978 and resulted from his wife, Mary, having open-heart surgery. The

surgeon asked Lamar Dodd to do paintings in the operating room to capture the sense of

drama as well as the realistic details of the procedure. In preparation, Dodd talked to

many doctors and did extensive reading, which resulted in eight years of focus on the

series. He found it fascinating because, like the space program, the subject matter was

complex, held his sympathy, provided challenge with its mysteries, and was linked to

universal subjects of life, death and rebirth. In the Series, Dodd did nearly sixty paintings,

often using silver and gold leaf, in his abstract/realist style employing circular shapes and

religious symbolism. In the last two decades of his life, Lamar Dodd spent much time in

Maine at Mohegan Island and also traveled throughout the United States and Europe.

Many of his paintings were in watercolor and reflected his awe in the natural beauty of

many of his surroundings. . However, he did not avoid harsh realities. One of his

paintings, completed in 1995, the year before he died, featured the bloody glove of the

O.J. Simpson murder trial. Because Lamar Dodd had such a wide-ranging career and yet

remained so anchored in Georgia, he has been described as "the most influential Georgia

artist of his generation". 

The social and economic atmosphere during this time experienced great

upheaval. When the United States entered World War II, women gained more rights as

they began doing the things that men had to do. They entered the workforce and began

doing the men’s jobs while they were fighting in the war. In 1938, the Fair Labor

Standards Act was passed, setting the first minimum wage in the United States at twenty

five cents per hour. The scientific community also took many leaps forward during this
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time. In 1934, Fermi found plutonium, the ninety fourth element in the Periodic Table of

Elements. In 1937, Dow Chemical developed plastic, which revolutionized storage and

transportation of items. Between 1941 and 1945, Bletchley Park computers sabotaged the

German Enigma. In 1949, Kurchatov developed the first Soviet A-bomb. Later, in 1951,

Teller tested the Hydrogen-bomb. There were also several important novels and films

that were written during this time. During this time, the film industry took a giant leap

forward as sound began to be included in the films. In 1935, Alfred Hitchcock released

The 39 Steps, an adaptation of John Buchan’s novel. In 1940, Ernest Hemingway wrote

For Whom the Bell Tolls, a novel about the brutality of war. In 1943, Jean-Paul Sartre

wrote his essay Being and Nothingness.

Like the social and economic upheaval, the political world during this time

experienced much turmoil. From 1939 to 1945, World War II occurred. Originally, the

United States declared its neutrality from European conflict. Roosevelt was elected a

third time in 1941. He is the first and only president elected to a third term. In 1941,

Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, and so the United States declared war on Japan. Germany

and Italy then declare war on the United States. In 1942, the Allies invaded North

Africa and later, in 1943, Italy. They move on to invade France on D-Day in

1944. Roosevelt becomes President for a fourth term in 1945. However, President

Roosevelt dies of a stroke on April 12, 1945 and is succeeded by his vice president, Harry

Truman. Germany surrenders to the Allied powers on May 7, 1945. In 1947, the

Presidential Succession Act is signed into law by President Truman. The Central

Intelligence Agency was established in 1947 in order to gather intelligence on other

countries. Also, during the 1940’s and 1950’s, Communism began to appear in the United
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States, but was quickly and determinedly quashed before it was able to take hold. In

1948, Congress passed the Marshall Plan, which provided for European postwar

recovery. Also in that year, Soviets began a blockade of Berlin in the first major crisis of

the upcoming Cold War, setting the stage for the continued conflict between the Soviet

Union and United States.

Judgment: While most artists during this time period had moved away from the

issue of slavery, though not necessarily African American’s rights, Dodd chose to

reexamine the issue using this painting. Unlike other artists, he could be commenting on

the effects of slavery on African Americans and how their rights have been denied. The

red splattering on the ground could be the life-blood of the African American people,

shed to secure the hopes and dreams of the prosperous slave owners that would abuse and

overwork them. Dodd is commenting on how the rights of African Americans have been

denied and taken advantage of for too long, which is something most other artists avoided

doing.
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“American History Timeline: 1700-2005.” Animated Atlas of American History. Web. 23

April 2011. http://www.animatedatlas.com/timeline.html.

"Chronological History Timeline of the United States - SHG Resources." Your Guide To

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