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Artist commits Motown History to Canvas
Dickerson's brush records top recording groups : The 1960s and 1970s were electric with energy and creativity. There were protests and love-ins, marches and sit-ins and behind all of this was the music -- music that was often as revolutionary as the times, as romantic as a flower child's dreams.
Rene Dickerson, of Leesburg, described it simply as “an explosion of music that covered the entire world.”
One of the leaders of those years was Motown founder Berry Gordy, Dickerson said -- an inspiration to black musicians everywhere, including himself and his band, The Meditations.
During this time, the place Dickerson was living was Oakland, Calif. The place he wanted to be was Detroit, Mich.
“The Motown sound was new,” Dickerson said. “It was exciting.”
But Dickerson was drafted and ended up spending seven years in the Army as an illustrator, an art he had taught himself from, as he said, “the school of hard knocks.”
Once he left the Army, he tried to regroup with the band, but time and circumstance had changed things beyond recall.
Instead, Dickerson, used his ability as a visual artist to maintain his ties with the music he loved.
While living in California, Dickerson became affiliated with Otis Williams, a founding member of the Temptations and the only surviving member of the original group.
Dickerson had first met Williams in 1992. In 1996, he invited Williams to his one-man show in San Francisco,
“One of my paintings was related to the Temptations. It was called 'Tations.' That's what they were known as in the black community, with a great deal of affection,” Dickerson explained.
Dickerson said the painting depicted the original lineup in Dickerson's signature style, neocubism.
“Otis liked it so much that he commissioned me to do another for his manager,” Dickerson said. “From that point on, the relationship solidified.”
In 2001, Dickerson did the cover for the Temptations' “Awesome” album. He also created a collage, “Berry's Vision,” which captures all of the great performers from the Marvelettes to the Jackson Five.
Eventually, Dickerson began working with the Motown Historical Museum and donated a Motown-related art work to its annual fundraiser.
Dickerson was there with such Motown immortals as Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye and Nancy Wells for the 20th anniversary of the museum.
June was Black Music Month, and Dickerson was at Wolf Trap June 26 for a nighttime performance by the Temptations and the Four Tops.
"We took the opportunity to pay tribute to these legends of Motown, and I created a painting of the Temptations that we unveiled at the McLean Hilton Hotel," Dickerson said. "Over the years, there have been 20 members of the Temptations, and that painting depicts those people, including the original five members.”
The result is “Temptations: Generations,” a 36-by-48-inch acrylic on canvas.
“Otis just loved it,” Dickerson said. “Then we also unveiled the painting of the Four Tops, 'The Four of Us.' Otis said [about the Temptations], 'I am going to ride this horse until the hair falls off it.'”
Dickerson pointed out that the Temptations have “been at this for 47 years” (and the Four Tops for 54 years). “The morning after Wolf Trap, Otis was tired but happy. ... It's just that explosion of sound.”
Contact the writer at ecarlton@timespapers.com
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