"Saturday Night," an etching by artist James F. Cooper (1907-1968) from the late 1930s, is probably a scene from Pawley's Island, where Cooper owned a beach house. "Saturday Night" is more than simply the name of a day in the African-American communities of the sea islands; it is a tradition of community entertainment, music and dancing that marks the end of a hard week of work. Its jazzy secular music is soon followed by the sacred celebrations of Sunday morning.
Courtesy of the Collection of the Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, South Carolina. James F. Cooper, American, 1907-1968. "Saturday Night," etching. Gift of Boyd Saunders, CMA 1981.3.
