Rex Goreleigh: Revisited in Princeton

Arriving in Princeton in 1947, Rex Goreleigh (1902-1986), an African-American artist, spent nearly 40 years in Princeton making and teaching art. Goreleigh spent the initial years of his career in Princeton as Executive Director of Princeton Group Arts, an attempt to bridge racial divisions in Princeton through the visual and performing arts. After Princeton Group Arts dissolved, Goreleigh established his own Studio-on-the-Canal, teaching students of all ages a variety of artistic techniques. In the 1960s and 70s, Goreleigh was particularly noted for his paintings of migrant farm workers in central New Jersey. The paintings and serigraphs in the “Migrant Series” depict both everyday hard work and moments of joy experienced by workers on the farms in the vicinity of Cranbury and Hightstown. Goreleigh called the series “a document and a lasting monument to the migrant workers who, like the rest of us, seek a way to security.”

The Historical Society of Princeton’s exhibition, opened to the public on September 2, 2009, and examined the life and work of this important artist and how his career compared with other African-American artists at that time. Looking at Goreleigh’s place within the art historical canon today, the exhibition also explored how Goreleigh’s potentially politically-charged subject matter was received in the 1960s and 70s. These social themes in Goreleigh’s work continue to resonate as important issues today throughout New Jersey and the nation.

Rex Goreleigh, Mary Watts’ Store, 1969, watercolor on board, Collection of the Historical Society of Princeton

Visitor Artwork from the Still Life Activity in the Goreleigh exhibition