U. S. Capitol Portrait of the Late Elijah Cummings to Debut in Baltimore

The multi-phase selection process was led by Rockeymoore Cummings and included a committee of BMA and community leaders.  The work is oil on canvas and measures 36 by 48 inches, unframed. Its title is I Only Have A Minute, 60 Seconds In It…

“In life Elijah and I enjoyed supporting the diversity of artists and events hosted by the Baltimore Museum of Art,” Rockeymoore Cummings said, in a statement.  “It is providence that I was able to bring Elijah’s official portrait to life in partnership with the BMA’s transformational leader Christopher Bedford and his team of world-class experts, as well as community arts leaders and wonderfully supportive donors. We are exceedingly pleased with the result. Jerrell Gibbs is a masterfully expressive painter and his stunning portrait perfectly captures Elijah’s essence and majesty. It is a timeless masterpiece.”

“It is our great honor to have worked with Maya on the commission for the portrait of the iconic Elijah Cummings, and to share it now with our community,” said Bedford, the museum’s Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director, in a statement.

“The Congressman’s life was guided by the belief that our diversity and our differences only strengthen us, as individuals and as a society. These are beliefs that the entirety of the BMA team and leadership hold and are ones that we try to bring to our own work every day. I am grateful to Maya for the opportunity to support this process, to everyone at the BMA that helped realize it and the accompanying events, and to Jerrell, who has brought his inspired vision to this portrait and whose work so beautifully captures the daily experiences and lives of our community.”

Gibbs graduated with a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2020. His work has been exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art; The Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Columbus Museum of Art; The Reginald F. Lewis Museum; The Galleries at the Community College of Baltimore County and The Gallery at Howard University. His work is in the permanent collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art; Columbus Museum of Art; CC Foundation; X Museum and the Los Angeles Museum of Art.

“Working on a painting of such great importance meant so much to me,” Gibbs said. “I am extremely honored to have been considered and selected to paint the official portrait of The Honorable Elijah Cummings. A very special thank you to Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, Christopher Bedford, [museum chief curator] Asma Naeem, as well as the entire portrait committee. This experience has been a once in a lifetime opportunity and I will forever cherish this monumental moment. I hope I made Elijah proud.”

Raised in Baltimore, the son of sharecroppers, Cummings graduated with honors from City College, Howard University, and the University of Maryland School of Law.

A gifted orator, he was the first African American to be named speaker pro tem in the Maryland House of Delegates. In the House of Representatives, where he represented parts of Baltimore City, Baltimore County, and Howard County, Cummings rose to become one of the most powerful and respected voices in Congress, a civil rights leader who fought for social justice, fairness, and a democracy that serves all Americans.

In 2019, Cummings was appointed Chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee and leveraged the role to lead investigations into the administration of then-President Trump. Following his death, he became the first African American legislator to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol.

Given Cummings’ lifelong commitment to Baltimore, museum officials say, his widow believed it was essential that his portrait be created by an artist that represented the “rich cultural fabric of the city” and “the incredible creative contributions of Black artists.”

To establish the selection process, Rockeymoore Cummings approached leaders at the BMA, where she served on the Board of Trustees from 2017 to 2019. Asma Naeem, The Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Chief Curator at the museum, led the curatorial process in collaboration with Bedford, working with the selection committee and organizing the presentation of the portrait.

The shortlist of three finalists emerged from a broader list of more than thirty artists developed with support from Naeem; Carlyn Thomas, the museum’s Curatorial Assistant for Contemporary Art; and other members of the museum’s curatorial and leadership team.

The selection committee consisted of Rockeymoore Cummings; Bedford; Naeem; Jeffrey Kent; Lori N. Johnson; Lisa Harris Jones; Amy Frenkil Meadows; Troy Staton and Kwame C. Webb. They conducted studio visits and reviewed preliminary sketches and portrait concepts presented by Gibbs, Ikegwu, and Shaw, before holding a discussion session and formal vote.

As part of the commission, Gibbs received a $75,000 financial award. In addition, the museum acquired one preparatory work by each artist on the shortlist, marking the first acquisitions by Ikegwu and Shaw to enter the museum’s collection.

Over the past seven months, Rockeymoore Cummings collaborated with Gibbs on the creation of the Congressman’s portrait. The painting is inspired by Baltimore-based photographer Justin T. Gellerson’s image of Cummings, an image that’s featured on the cover for Cummings’s biography, We’re Better than This: My Fight for the Future of Our Democracy.

According to the museum, Gibbs’ portrait of Cummings is “a continuation of his exploration of the layers between memory, time, presence and absence, and the varying handling of paint on canvas.”

Support for the portrait commission is provided by Nancy Dorman and Stanley Mazaroff; Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker; Under Armour Foundation; Eddie C. & C. Sylvia Brown; Bloomberg Philanthropies; Kevin Plank; The Shelter Foundation; Pearlstone Family Fund; Lisa Harris Jones and Sean Malone; Michele Speaks and David Warnock and Rockeymoore Cummings.

The presentation of the commission is supported by The Stoneridge Fund of Amy and Marc Meadows; Pearlstone Family Fund; Clair Zamoiski Segal and Michele Speaks and David Warnock.