Celebrating Black History Month: Noteworthy Black Artists
“Collect artworks by Black artists, donate to organizations that support Black creatives and educate yourself about the amazing work that Black artists are making now and have made historically.”-- Jeanne Anderson (*General Manager Saatchi Art)
African American artists have contributed to this nation’s cultural landscape throughout its history. From colonial to modern times and realistic portraiture to minimalistic sculpture and striking abstractions, these diverse works and artists deserve more credit. Here we highlight twelve African American artists you should know more about.
— Sam Gilliam —
Sam Gilliam is one of the most famous artists from within the African American community who worked in the area of Abstract expressionism in various forms, including as a lyricist.
Many of his works during the 1950’s and 1960’s include paintings that focused on color field art, which features various elements that combine in strong and often vibrant colors.
Gillam became famous for his use of draped canvases that were not secured to a background board and much of his later works focused on similar elements of abstract expression combined with geometric renderings.
***MORE about this artist: https://www..../sam-gilliam/
— Gordon Parks, Photographer and Director —
(1912–2006)
Gordon Parks was a self-taught artist who became the first African American photographer for Life and Vogue magazines. He also pursued movie directing and screenwriting, working at the helm of the films The Learning Tree, based on a novel he wrote, and Shaft. Parks has published several memoirs and retrospectives as well, including A Choice of Weapons.
***LEARN MORE: https://www....rks/biography
— Jean Michel Basquiat —
Most art historians and critics will agree that Jean Michel Basquiat is among the most iconic African American artists in history.
Born in Brooklyn during the Civil Rights era, Basquiat famously used social commentary and statements in his works in a way that shined a special light on such contrasting items as wealth and poverty and the implications that integration had over the course of history across the United States.
New York City became a central location for Black artistry during the decades shortly after the Civil Rights movement and Basquiat was among the artists who put the city on the map for highly unique portrayals of cultural significance.
Many of his works showed themes and characteristics that were distinctly African American in nature, but the style and art quickly became one that the city of New York identified with as a whole.
Basquiat is most famously known for his role as a street artist and his flavor of edgy creations that would blend art and graffiti together in a way that nobody had done before.
Basquiat’s life was tragically cut short at the age of 27, but his legacy in art and culture would live on through the years and shape the American art scene drastically.
**MORE about this artist: https://www....real-basquiat
— Henry Ossawa Tanner —
Henry Ossawa Tanner was a famous African American artist who was widely known for his works that featured themes from the Bible and Judeo-Christian teachings.
He was born in Pennsylvania in 1859 and was recognized as a talented artist in his youth. He enrolled in 1879 at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia and quickly became one of the most celebrated students despite the fact that he was the only African American among his peers.
He would later move to Paris in 1891 and continue working to be recognized for his mastery as a painter.
Tanner was accepted into the circles of prominent artists in the French city and would finally have a painting titled Daniel in the Lion’s Den accepted into the 1896 Salon.
Tanner’s legacy is one that is as highly regarded as any other famous African American artist.
His works blended incredibly realistic combinations of light and darkness and his unique style of painting would even be one source of inspiration for the famous American painter Norman Rockwell.
**MORE about this artist: https://amer...a-tanner-4742
— Kara Walker —
Kara Walker is famously known for her works that feature contrasts and issues that are racial in nature.
She is a celebrated silhouettist, painter, and print-maker who is known, not for especially vivid and colorful works, but for her black and white silhouettes.
Her career began in 1994 and she has since grown and established what many see as a distinctive brand of artwork that solely focuses on silhouettes from the antebellum South.
Her most notable work thus far is a massive tableaux of black cut-paper silhouettes that feature various scenes and figures that are associated with the American South before the Civil War.
**MORE about this talented artist: http://www.k...kerstudio.com
— Robert Seldon Duncanson —
Robert Seldon Duncanson is among the most iconic African American artists who lived before the Civil Rights era.
He was regarded as one of the most celebrated landscape artists in American history and many of his works would serve as inspiration to some of the most recognized landscape artists in American history.
Born in New York in 1821, Duncanson lived as a free man during a time in which slavery was widespread across much of the southern United States with various politicians looking to expand the practice westward as the country grew.
Duncanson’s works were such that art critics of the day were highly impressed upon first viewing them. However, many of them would retort with a condescending nature upon learning that Duncanson himself was African American.
Despite being a wildly talented artist, he would not enjoy the same amount of commissions as white artists from his lifetime likely because of his ethnicity.
He was very highly supported by prominent abolitionists who would hire him to paint some of the most breathtaking vistas from the American heartland.
**MORE: https://wall...erican-artist
— Augusta Savage —
Augusta Savage was born in 1892 and would become one of the most prolific black female artists in history.
She was a sculptor who moved to New York City at the age of 29 to pursue her career as an artist in what became a bustling hub of creativity for Black artists.
She arrived in New York City in 1921 at the onset of what would later become a historic period of incredible growth and imagination among African American artists known as the Harlem Renaissance.
She attended The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and excelled in her studies, obtaining her degree a year earlier than expected.
Savage became a sensational member of the Harlem Renaissance and went on to found the Harlem Artists Guild in 1935.
She was instrumental in helping other prominent African American artists launch their careers, one of which was none other than Jacob Lawrence.
**LEARN MORE: https://amer...a-savage-4269
— Edmonia Lewis, Sculptor —
(1844-1907)
Born around 1844 in Greenbush, New York, Edmonia Lewis hailed from African American and Native-American ancestry, becoming the first professional sculptor representing both communities and the only Black female of the era recognized in the American art scene.
After graduating from Oberlin College, Lewis found her way to Boston where she met sculptor and mentor-to-be Edward A. Brackett and abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. After setting up her own studio, Lewis began creating plaster medallions of famous abolitionists starting in the early 1860s, but it was her 1864 bust of Civil War hero Colonel Robert Shaw, who led the African American 54th Massachusetts Regiment, that brought her national prominence.
**MORE: https://amer...ia-lewis-2914
— Charly Palmer —
Charly Palmer is one of the most celebrated painters of the modern era in the United States. He is best known for his works that portray famous portraits that incorporate various figures that incorporate floral or other designs into the background or clothing.
He is also highly-regarded for his works that feature African Americans posed in front of structures and stained-glass backgrounds that are composed of a litany of colors.
He was selected as the artist to complete the poster for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, as well as the Winter Olympics that took place in Nagano, Japan in 1998. He has recently devoted much of his efforts to the Black Lives Matter movement and to various efforts to focus on racial justice in America.
**MORE: https://www....rlypalmer.com
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