ARTNOIR'S AFRICAN/AMERICAN ART HISTORY 101
LESLIE GARLAND BOLLING (1898-1955)
Leslie Garland Bolling in his own handwriting wrote to James A. Porter on November 19, 1933 that he was "born 1898 to the husband & wife Clinton C. and Mary M. Bolling in Surry Co., Dendron Va." He wrote that he had always loved trees and was born and grew up in a lumbering center. He further wrote that his father was a blacksmith and that he was the oldest of two brothers and one sister. "My mother died 1911 and I believe her death changed the whole course of my life."
In his spare time during his childhood he "learned to draw by copying pictures." He began carving in 1926. He wrote that his friends "began to talk about the funny little things" he was carving. Bolling wrote that he never had any formal art instruction and that he worked with a saw, hatches and many pocket knives.
His first exhibition included four pieces in a group show of local talent. "...the one that stand out was a Mother & her Babe." Carl Van Vechten gave him a private exhibition "about 1928, at which time a piece was sold to a lady in London, Eng..." In 1932 he exhibited at The Richmond Academy of Arts displaying The Market Woman. In February 1933 he displayed two pieces in the Harmon Foundation Exhibition - The Wash Woman and A Figure Reclining, and in April 1933 he exhibited in the 2nd Annual Exhibition of Virginia Artists. An additional Harmon Foundation exhibition in 1935 included Salome and The Workman which was descirbed by the Sunday Call, a local Trenton newspaper as "worthy of special attention. Mr. Bolling's only tool is an ordinary jack-knife, but he puts real life into his figures."
Bolling wrote "Through the courtesy of Mr. J. Watson James and the Mr & Mrs. Whiting (probably F.A. Whiting of the American Federation of the Arts) of Washington, D.C., I was brought in contact with Prof. James A. Porter and Prof. James Herring, and through their endeavors, I had an opportunity to exhibit in the Exhibition of Works by Negro Artists at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. I was repersented (sic) in that show by the following. The Boxer...George's Delight, A Portrait Bus of a friend, A Shopper on Broad St., and Salone, The Dancer."
At least 51 pieces have been identified as being the work of Leslie Bolling, including a bust of Marian Anderson, busts of the Roosevelts, as well as his well-known days of the week series - Aunt Monday, Sister Tuesday, Mama on Wednesday, Gossip on Thursday, Cousin on Friday, Cooking on Saturday, and Parson on Sunday.
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