Felrath Hines was an African American artist who reached the top of his profession as a painting conservator working with Washington D.C.’s finest museums but felt himself to be, foremost, a painter. In 2009, Dorothy Fisher, the artist’s widow, contacted the MMA to select five paintings by her husband for its collection. Detroit artist Charles McGee, who is also represented in our collection, recommended the MMA to Ms. Fisher “because of [Muskegon’s] interest in collecting the work of African Americans and [our] community-oriented collections.”
The Indianapolis-born Hines studied at the John Herron Art School and at the Art Institute of Chicago before going to New York. Hines was a founding member of New York’s Spiral Group, an artist alliance that explored the possible roles of Black artists during the Civil Rights Movement. Hines’s involvement in Black cultural and civil rights activities is an important backdrop for the increasing study and representation of African American life and art.