African

Ancient Mediterranean

Asian

European and American

Art since 1900

Art since 1900

The geometric, abstract quality of this painting reflects Rose Piper's interest in Cubism and her solid grounding in modernist techniques. During the 1940s, she traveled through the American South, studied in Paris and lived in New York, where she became part of an artistic circle that included Charles Alston, Romare Bearden and Jacob Lawrence.

Piper immersed herself in the folk songs and blues of African Americans during the period when she created Slow Down Freight Train, one of a series of fourteen paintings. This image relates to Trixie Smith's recording of "Freight Train Blues," whose lyrics expressed the feelings of many African Americans affected by the Great Migration (1913-1946), the time when many blacks moved from the rural South to the urban industrial North. In the painting, a man grieves, perhaps for his wife or girlfriend, his community or a way of life left behind. Often, men moved alone to first find work and housing before their families followed.

Piper quit painting in the early 1950s for family and financial reasons and worked as a textile and greeting card designer. She began painting again in 1978.