John Wesley Hardrick (September 21, 1891 – October 18, 1968) was an American artist. He painted landscapes, still lifes and portraits.
Early life and family origins
Hardrick's grandfather, Shephard Hardrick, was a land-owning farmer in Kentucky who fled to Indianapolis with his family in 1871 due to activities of The Night Riders, a forerunner of the Ku Klux Klan. Hardrick's parents were Shephard Hardrick, Jr., and Georgia Etta West, who were married on October 10, 1888 and lived on South Prospect Street in Indianapolis, Indiana. He displayed at talent as a young man, learning to paint with watercolors at the age of eight without instruction. As a young teen, he studied with Otto Stark at Manual High School which is now used as offices by Eli Lilly and Company. He entered drawings at the Indiana State Fair while in high school, winning several awards. At the age of nineteen, he entered fifty-three paintings and drawings, receiving eight awards which included several first prizes. This gave Hardrick sufficient notoriety that he began to receive a formal art education after enrolling in October, 1910 in the Herron School of Art in Indianapolis, studying there with William Forsyth until 1918. In order to finance his education, Hardrick worked at the Indianapolis Stove Foundry and sold newspapers.
He married Georgia Anna Howard in 1914. They had children, Rowena, Raphael, Georgia, and Rachel.
Career
By 1917, Hardrick's local reputation was such that he and William Edouard Scott were featured in the Tenth Annual Exhibition of Works by Indiana Artists at the Herron School of Art, both men receiving critical praise. By 1924, he and Hale Woodruff shared a studio at 542½ Indiana Avenue. Unfortunately, his financial situation was such that by 1925 he was working in the family trucking business and had started a carpet cleaning business to help support his family, but despite these time constraints he still found time to paint. Commenting on a 1927 exhibition at the Pettis Gallery in Indianapolis, one review stated that his work had seemed to grow and mature in those two years. That same year Hardrick and Woodruff were among those featured at the Art Institute of Chicago's exhibition of African-American artists. In addition, that year he received a $100 honorarium and second-place bronze medal from the Harmon Foundation. It was presented to him by mayor Ert Slack during a ceremony which honored the achievements of local African-Americans as part of the city's sixth annual Inter-Racial Sunday. This led to a fund drive to purchase one of his best-known paintings, Little Brown Girl.
The Great Depression came just when it seemed Hardrick was poised to reap the rewards for his work and dedication. Hardrick continued to paint and exhibit. On December 18, 1933, Hardrick applied for a Civil Works Administration Public Works of Art Project program and was selected for the project planning committee.
In 1934, he was awarded a commission from the WPA to paint a mural for Crispus Attucks High School. The mural, titled Workers, portrayed 3 African-American foundry workers pouring molten metal, a subject Hardrick would have been familiar with due to his own work in a foundry. It was presented to the high school principal Russell Lane, who refused to install the mural due to its depiction of the laborers and his concern that it would dampen student aspirations.
By 1940 Hardrick's declining health prevented him from working in the family business and he began driving a taxi. He would often sell paintings out of the trunk and, while driving around, see a subject he would ask to paint. If a man or woman agreed, he would drive them to his studio and complete the portrait in a few hours.
In 1941, his wife Georgia died and Hardrick moved to his parents' house on Prospect Street with three of his children, Raphael, Georgia, and Rachel. He used the attic for a studio. By 1943 his daughters had married and he left. In 1946, his friends Rufus and Emily Wharton offered him their basement as a studio and residence, which he accepted. He continued to paint until unable due to advancing Parkinson's disease. When he died on October 18, 1968, he was a nationally recognized artist in spite of living his whole life in Indianapolis.
Art
Hardrick's first exhibition was in 1904 at the age of 13 at the Negro Business League convention and he also exhibited his work in 1904 at the Indiana State Fair.
His first major exhibition was at Allen Chapel, A.M.E. Church in 1914. In 1928 he also painted a mural at the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Indianapolis entitled "Christ and the Samaritan Woman at the Well."