Lenard Hinds exhibit opens Saturday

For Missouri artist Lenard Hinds, music becomes art and art becomes music.

“When creating art...You cannot have a painting without music, especially jazz. Jazz inspires me when creating, especially when creating works dealing with music and musicians,” he said in a statement.

Hinds’ works will be displayed through Feb. 23 at the Margaret Harwell Art Museum in a retrospective exhibit. A reception is 6-8 p.m. Saturday. Museum Director Steve Whitworth said Hinds is unable to attend due to health problems, but the reception will feature food, drink, and an interview with noted author and historian Clayvon Wesley.

Whitworth praised Hinds’ work, which is influenced by Black American artists — including Robert Duncanson, Edward M. Bannister and Kenneth Calvert — and the Impressionist movement.

“The light and the form, they flow. He sees jazz in everything he does,” Whitworth said.

The exhibit comprises half of MHAM’s display for Black History Month. Additional pieces by several other Black artists will be displayed in the upstairs gallery.

“The way Lenard can just capture life — he just innocently puts down what he sees and explains it with his paintbrush and records it, and captures life, and movement, and joy, and anguish, and sorrows, and mood. It’s really a record of his life, what he has seen throughout his life,” Whitworth enthused.

Hinds’ subjects include famous figures like Muhammad Ali and Billie Holiday, as well as everyday people. He’s been featured in galleries across St. Louis and Chicago. This will be his second exhibition in MHAM, Whitworth said, the first being around a decade ago.

Hinds was born in St. Louis in 1951. He formed the band The Concepts with his brother and friends as a young adult, then joined The Marines, The Earls Incorporated, and Image in the 1970s and ‘80s. The latter eventually broke up, leaving Hinds bitter towards the music industry, and he embarked on a path that eventually led to his arrest and a seven-year incarceration. Hinds earned his GED while in prison and took up art, which he had enjoyed as a child, after his release in 1990. His talent got the attention of friends, family and gallery owners, and he began exhibiting and selling pieces.

He also met his wife Cheryl Banks-Hinds during this time. They have been married for 25 years.

MHAM is located at 421 N. Main St. in Poplar Bluff. More information and gallery times are available at mham.org.