Untitled (Portrait) 

Albert Huie painted this portrait of a woman, perhaps in the mid-twentieth century, using oil on canvas. Her headwrap immediately draws our attention, not just as a practical garment, but as a symbol with roots stretching far beyond this particular time and place. Headwraps, across many cultures, signal identity: marital status, mourning, or simply belonging to a group. Think of the veiled figures in Renaissance paintings, or even further back, the draped figures of ancient Greece. The wrapping and unveiling of the head becomes a powerful visual language that communicates status and emotion. This headwrap echoes those traditions, and yet, the woman's direct gaze and the set of her mouth speak to a uniquely modern sensibility. The image stirs deep within us, connecting to a collective memory of human expression. It’s as if we recognize something familiar, a face from our own past, subtly transformed and reborn. The symbol of the headwrap, thus, is in constant flux—a visual echo that resonates differently across the ages.