N.J.’s ‘matriarch of the arts’ dies at 96 – NJ.com

Everyone could use a Gladys Barker Grauer in life.

Principled and disciplined, unapologetic and fearless, Barker Grauer was a Newark artist with plenty to say on a canvas. She used her paintbrush to illustrate social and economic inequality, artistically wearing the garments of community organizer and political activist to protests against racism and oppression.

With her talent and conviction, this pillar of Newark’s art community emboldened countless African-American women to pursue art careers as she captured city life with colorful strokes.

“Art is my life,” Barker Grauer once said in a 2016 interview. “It’s the way I express my feelings, my emotions, my anger, my joy.”

She did it for more than 60 years, opening Newark’s first art gallery, the Aard Studio Gallery, on Bergen Street in 1971. It was a hub for black and brown artists, who launched their careers with her help, many who will miss her guidance and wisdom.

Barker Grauer, known as the matriarch of Newark arts, died Sept. 5. She was 96.

Up until last year, though, Barker Grauer was still producing and curating art, some of which can be seen on murals in the city. Having done five since 2006, the latest piece, completed last year, is part of a 30-foot art wall that surrounds the Public Service Electric & Gas Fairmount Heights switching station in the West Ward.

Those who knew her opened their hearts to her this past Saturday at the Newark Museum. They came to say goodbye and celebrate Barker Grauer, who touched many with a kind word and stimulating conversation, humor and straight-forward honesty.

“Through her soft colorful strokes, she defined and confronted racism, economic inequality injustices and false narratives,” said Leon Grauer, her son, a Newark municipal court judge. “Glady’s refusal to be walked on in her advocacy for the defenseless and the voiceless had been my guiding light personally and professionally.”

Speakers said she was a woman before her time, a renaissance artist and truth teller who didn’t sugar coat her thoughts. Blunt, feisty, and definitely not a people pleaser, Barker Grauer was a fighter and 16-year cancer survivor.

It’s not a surprise that every seat in the museum auditorium – capacity 272 – was filled with family and friends, artists and politicians, the community and love. She meant that much to so many people. There were African drummers and poets, a gospel medley and a New Orleans jazz funeral march from the museum to the Newark Public Library.

“Thank you for making Newark a little better, more sassier, more beautiful, a little bit more funkier and a little bit more correct,” Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said. “Gladys was unafraid to be black, to be beautiful, to be vulnerable, to be artistic, to be loud and to sing her truth.”

Born in 1923 to Maudie and Charlie Barker, she grew up in Chicago, where her interest in the arts and politics emerged. A graduate of the Arts Institute of Chicago, Barker Grauer later got involved with the Socialist Workers Party when she moved to New York to be part of the arts scene in 1946.

She attended rallies, meeting her husband, Solomon Grauer, who saved her from serious injury during a political demonstration. He grabbed her before police officers, on horseback, could direct the animal to kick at protestors with their hind legs, a tactic often used to break up crowds.

“She took unpopular positions and decisions,” said Edie Grauer, her daughter. Not just politically, but in her personal life and journey. “In the mid 1940s she married a white, Jewish man (Solomon) because she loved him and he loved and adored her.”

They moved to Newark’s South Ward in 1951, raising four children. Together the couple fought to desegregate schools in the ward and were instrumental in bringing a community dental center to the neighborhood.

The Grauer household was lively, filled with discussion and debate, books and newspapers. Music was a staple, from Count Basie to James Brown. In 1960, she ran for U.S. Senate under the socialist slate, but Barker Grauer needed more.

“I was not doing any serious creative work myself,” Barker Grauer said during an interview about “Being Gladys,” a recent documentary on her life. In the film, which won best documentary at the Newark International Film Festival, Barker Grauer said she opened the Newark gallery to practice the craft that she put on hold while raising a family.

The gallery was a hit, drawing attention she didn’t expect. Artists of color came from all over the state and her daughter, Antoinette Baskerville-Richardson, said, “it served as the embryo for the arts movement in the city.” There finally was a place for artists to have exhibits, network and sell their work. It was a cultural center for the neighborhood, exposing the community to art.

The momentum, however, didn’t stop. Barker Grauer, along with other women artists and educators, including Nettie Thomas and Eleta Caldwell, started “Black Woman in Visual Perspective,” an organization promoting black women in the arts.

“She was an inspiration to women artists and she let us know that even though we were teachers, wives and mothers, that we should not neglect our art,” Thomas said.

Because of her work and influence, the Newark Museum showcased an exhibit – “Emerging and Established” – of African-American artists from New Jersey in 1983.

Barker Grauer went on to be a commercial art teacher for 15 years at the Essex County Vocational Schools, retiring in 1989. But she kept working and creating, making time to teach seniors in her later years.

Her work, displayed locally, nationally and internationally, is in permanent collections, including the National Art Library of the Victoria and Albert Museum, Library of the National Museum of American Art, Morgan State University and the New Jersey State Museum. The list goes on.

“Gladys had the ability to remain contemporary,” said Pamela Morgan, executive director of Woman in Media Newark. “She was relevant. That’s why there are so many young artists gravitated toward her.”

Count Danielle Scott among them.

“Everyone should have a Gladys Grauer in their life,” she said. “If you don’t have a Gladys, you need to get yourself one,” she said.

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Barry Carter may be reached at bcarter@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BarryCarterSL. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips.

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