Horace Pippin served during World War I in the respected Fifteenth Regiment of the New York National Guard, an all-black infantry unit under French command. Spending more time abroad than any other infantry, its members exhibited enough heroics during the war to be nicknamed the “Hell Fighters” by the Germans. Pippin was wounded and sent home after serving one year. Ten years later, he started painting scenes of his war memories. Outpost Raid: Champagne Sector is an early painting executed with his typical palette of grays, browns, and black. The confrontation it depicts occurs in the shadow: two men are standing in a trench, with an American soldier entering from the left. His French helmet, gear, and weapons might indicate that he is a member of Pippin’s regiment. On the right, a German soldier in a pale blue uniform and beret, with a scorn in the face, stands beside a sentry box. Silhouetted and hiding behind a bed of sandbags in the center of the composition are more American soldiers. While Pippin’s war paintings—his first subject matter— document a particular moment in global history, they also subtly address the issues of race and injustice in American life.

Valérie Rousseau, exhibition label for Six Decades Collecting Self-Taught Art: Revealing a Diverse and Rich Artistic Narrative. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2019.