Art Fact Friday #4 August 18th 2023 Benny Andrews
- William Mandela Matthews
- Aug 18, 2023
- 3 min read
Benny Andrews born on November 13, 1930, in Plainview, GA. Andrew’s a notable artist and activist for minority artist representation in art history. Drawing inspiration from his environment detailing underserved communities. Using activism, he introduced art to many who wouldn’t have had the resources. His contemporaries include Red Grooms, Bob Thompson, Mimi Gross, Lester Johnson, Naim June Paik, George Segal and Jacob Lawrence
Born to sharecroppers Andrews is the first in his family to finish high school & attends Fort Valley State. In 1950 he joins the US Air Force; after failing most of his classes & lacking artistic opportunities. He is honorably discharged as Staff Sergeant in 1954. Andrews attends the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, with GI Bill funding. Andrews learns technical drawing, painting skills & broadens his insight of art history. Outside class, Andrews draws live performances in Chicago’s jazz scene.
Abstract Expressionism is the focus of his schools curriculum. Boris Margo, Andrews professor encourages him to pursue his own subjects and style. Andrew’s earned a BFA in 1958 & relocates to New York City. As income, he creates Christmas cards for the Metropolitan Art Museum.
In 1960, He has his 1st solo exhibit in Paul Kessler gallery; Provincetown, MA. In 1962, he joins the Forum Gallery; New York. As a John Hay Whitney Fellow, he returns to rural GA & creates his Autobiographical Series. In 1966 with resistance, the Autobiographical Series is shown at Forum & is Andrews last exhibition there.
In 1966 Andrews teaches at the New School for Social Research; NY & Jewish Community Center; Bayonne, NJ. 1968, Andrews begins a three decade career teaching at Queens Colleges SEEK program.
In 1969, Andrews, Faith Ringgold, Henri Ghent, & others picket the Whitney Museum & mount “Invisible Americans: Black Artists of the 1930s” at the Studio Museum; Harlem. This countered “The 1930's: Painting & Sculpture in America”, which included 80+ artists excluding African American artists.
In January 1969 Andrews’ helps start the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition. They picketed & boycotted “Harlem on My Mind: The Cultural Capital of Black America, 1900-68” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, for its exclusion of Harlem residents & artists. In 1969, they begin negotiations with Whitney Museum regarding discrimination against black artists. Andrews & over a dozen African American artists drop out of the 1971 exhibition Contemporary Black Artists in America due to a total lack of African American curators.
In 1970, “The Champion” is included in The Afro-American Artist: New York and Boston at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The Museum of Modern Art purchases “No More Games” & Andrews has a solo show at the Acts of Art Gallery, New York City. Also receiving the MacDowell Colony residency.
In 1971, as part of a major prison art program Andrews begins teaching art classes at the Manhattan Detention Complex. In 1973, Mayor John Lindsay of New York honors Andrews for his work, he curates an exhibition by prisoners at the Studio Museum, Harlem,1976.
Andrews becomes the art program director for the Inner City Roundtable of Youths, an organization of New York City gang members combating youth violence by strengthening communities. Andrews protests the Whitney's Exhibition of American Artists for not crediting African Americans in 300 years of American art.
1977,Andrews illustrates Appalachee Red, his brother first novel & it becomes the first James Baldwin Prize for Fiction. 1980, he is one of Six Black Artists at the New Jersey State Museum, along with Jacob Lawrence, Sam Gilliam, Bettye Saar, Richard Hunt & Romare Bearden. In the 80s Andrews travels internationally throughout Europe & has a fellowship at the Michael Karolyi Foundation. In 1987, Andrews is elected to the MacDowell Colony's Board of Directors & is,the first distinguished Martin Luther King Jr. - César Chavez - Rosa Parks Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan.1988, he is elected to the Board of Directors for the Sculpture Center.He is honored as Artist of the Year by Studio Museum,1993.
From 1999 to 2006 Andrews creates illustrations for a children’s book, The Hickory Chair and books for children about the lives of artists like Langston Hughes & Josephine Carroll Smith. He dies at age 75 from cancer November 10, 2006 in his New York. Andrews did not abandon a Figurative style, although the popularity of other movements in the art grew.
Reference:
#visualart #art #contemporaryart #artist #artwork #digitalart #photography #abstractart #painting #design #illustration #artoftheday #drawing #graphicdesign #artistsoninstagram #fineart #creative #instaart #visual #arte #artgallery #visualartist #modernart #abstract #portrait #photooftheday #nature #photoshop #instagood
Comments