Considering the current interest in art focusing on ideological, political, and multicultural issues, Keith Morrison’s paintings were both timely and instructive—timely because of their socially relevant themes, and instructive because of Morrison’s reluctance to sacrifice esthetic or philosophical substance in the service of overt polemics.

In the watercolor Hat Ladies, 1989, Morrison, who is from Jamaica, employs a touch of humor in combining African and Christian themes, by placing three brightly decorated hats on an open Bible. These hats—the kind worn by black women on their way to