Janis Joplin is one of the most iconic singers in the history of Rock-N-Roll. The Port Arthur native is enshrined in the Rock Hall of Fame in Cleveland. But the Museum of the Gulf Coast has added another item to its exhibit that reveals another side of Joplin.
A replica of Joplin’s “The Purple Painting” was unveiled June 7 in the museum’s Music Gallery. The donation is a gift from Rebecca Wood (Becky Hall), whose mother Ruth commissioned the painting.
Joplin graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in 1960 and ended up in San Francisco by way of Austin. She returned to Port Arthur in 1965 to live a “normal life,” MotGC curator Robert Fong said. Joplin enrolled at Lamar State College of Technology in Beaumont, now Lamar University, majoring in anthropology.
It was there she reconnected with Ruth Hall, whom she had met through a friend in high school. The pair began commuting to class together. Hall was 17 years older than Joplin, and her home was a gathering place for bohemians, beatniks and other “black sheep,” Fong said.
When Hall found out Joplin needed some money, she commissioned the painting. Coincidentally, the pair’s favorite color is purple.
In May 1966, Joplin was recruited to join a new band in San Francisco — Big Brother and the Holding Company. Thirteen months later, the band played the Monterrey Pop Festival, and the legend was born.
Rebecca Wood said she was nine when the picture was painted, and she grew up around the painting. Both Ruth Hall and Joplin died in 1970.
Wood said she believes Joplin called the painting “Two Ladies Playing Bridge.” The original was painted on the back of a piece of Masonite and Joplin did not attempt to hide the texture, which is clearly visible on the reproduction.
The two figures are nude — one visitor to the opening joked it should be called “Two Ladies Playing Strip Poker.” The figure on the left is seated, her back turned to the viewer leaning on one hand, the other resting on her thigh. The other figure shows torso and thigh. The figures are segmented into bold, geometric shapes, although they are still clearly figurative and show an understanding of anatomy. The seated figure especially looks as though it was taken from a life model.
The purple monochrome plays with light and shadow, and the painting evokes stained glass.
“You can see that she was a gifted artist, and the purple painting represents, I believe, one of her finest works,” Fong said.
The reproduction, which is 5-feet by 3-feet, the same as the original, is taken from a high-quality scan and is barely distinguishable from the original, Fong said. This is the only version of the image apart from the original.
The only time the original has been publicly exhibited was in 2011 when Joplin’s sister, Laura Joplin, included it in “Strange Kozmic Experience: The Doors, Janis Joplin & Jimi Hendrix,” an exhibition presented at three locations including the Grammy Museum operated by the Recording Academy of the United States.
“This feels really good to get (the image) in the public eye,” Wood said. “And now people can see that part of Janis. She was just a really dear person. She had so many different ways of being in the world. I just think she was a really cool person.
“People all over the world love Janis, and for people to see this part of her I feel like, ‘Yeah, Janis. We did it.’”
The Museum of the Gulf Coast is located at 700 Procter St. in Port Arthur. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Admission is $8.
This story first ran in the June 16, 2024 Art of Living section of The Beaumont Enterprise.
English with a bit of Texas 
Th