Alpha Phi Alpha Basketball Team

1926

James Van Der Zee

Artist, American, 1886 - 1983

Five young Black men wearing uniforms sit on the front steps of a brick building around a sixth young man, who holds a basketball in this vertical black and white photograph. Three more men stand in a row behind them. They pose on steps leading up to a door covered with a flag and a sign with the Greek letters for alpha phi alpha. The seated men, the players, wear knee pads, knee-high socks, and sleeveless tank tops with the Greek letters. One of the men in the background wears an Alpha Phi Alpha sweater over a shirt and tie. The next wears a sweater jacket and the third a suit jacket, all over shirts and ties. The artist signed this photograph by inscribing the negative, “VANDERZEE N.Y.C. 1926.”
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Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Thurlow Evans Tibbs Jr. [1952-1997], Washington, DC; gift to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1997; acquired by NGA, 2015.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1997

  • Rhapsodies in Black: Art of the Harlem Renaissance, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, April 11–June 22, 1998; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, July 26–October 19, 1998; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, November 22, 1998–February 14, 1999

2016

  • Intersections: Photographs and Videos from the National Gallery of Art and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2016 - 2017, unnumbered catalogue.

Bibliography

1997

  • Bailey, David and Richard Powell, et al. Rhapsodies in Black: Art of the Harlem Renaissance. Exh. cat. Hayward Gallery, London; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Institute of International Visual Arts, London, 1997: 181, no. 124.

2008

  • Malet, Rosa Maria et al. Modernitat Americana: Obres de la Corcoran Gallery of Art. Exh. cat. Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, 2008: 92-93, 172.

Inscriptions

signed by artist, lower left in negative: VANDERZEE / N.Y.C. / 1926

Wikidata ID

Q64155563

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