February 4~ African-American visual artists

Edmonia Lewis (1844-1907)
Neoclassical African-American and Native American sculptor
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edmonia-Lewis

Hiawatha / 1868 / Marble / 13 3/4”x7 3/4”x5 1/2”

 

 

Bill Traylor (1853/54-1949)
African-American self-taught artist
https://americanart.si.edu/artist/bill-traylor-4852

Untitled (Radio) / 1939–42 / Opaque watercolor & pencil on printed advertising cardboard / 32 1/2”x24 1/2”

February 3~ African-American visual artists

Edward Mitchell Bannister (1828-1901), African-American painter of landscapes and pastoral subjects
https://americanart.si.edu/artist/edward-mitchell-bannister-226

Scene along the Connecticut River, Westmoreland / c.1870 / Oil on canvas / 30”x20”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Harriet Powers (1837-1910), African-American folk artist and quilt maker
https://www.civilwarwomenblog.com/harriet-powers/

Pictorial quilt / 1895–98 / Cotton plain weave, pieced, appliqued, embroidered, and quilted / 68 7/8”x105”

Loren MacIver: Born February 2, 1909

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Loren MacIver
(1909–1998)

Loren MacIver …was essentially a self-taught painter, having attended classes at the Art Students League only briefly at ages ten and eleven. Her work was included in group shows at New York’s Contemporary Arts Gallery in 1933 and 1942…The Museum of Modern Art acquired one of her works in 1935, well before her first one-person exhibition in 1938 at Marian Willard’s East River Gallery. From 1936 to 1939 she worked on the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration.

http://www.phillipscollection.org/research/american_art/bios/maciver-bio.htm

 

Tracking Loren MacIver~ http://brooklynrail.org/2008/03/artseen/tracking
Collection at The Met~ http://metmuseum.org/art/collection/search#!/search?artist=MacIver,%20Loren$Loren%20MacIver

February 2~ African-American visual artists


Robert S. Duncanson (1821-1872),  Nineteenth century African-American painter
https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/exhibit/NQJyYinFqXw_Lw

Landscape with Rainbow / 1859 / Oil on canvas / 30”x52 1/4”

 

James Presley “JP” Ball (1825-1904)
African-American photographer, abolitionist, and entrepreneur
https://danishimmigrants.weebly.com/montana.html

Three girls photographed in Helena, Montana

February 1~ African-American visual artists

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Prince Demah (c.1745 – March 1778)

African-American painter active in Boston in the late 1700s
https://outofthearchives.org/2015/01/10/prince-demah-portrait-painter

Portrait of William Duguid / 1773 / Oil on canvas / 20 3/4”x15 3/4”x1 1/8”

 

Joshua Johnson (c.1763-c.1824)
Biracial American painter
https://americanart.si.edu/artist/joshua-johnson-2479

Mrs. Abraham White, Jr., and Daughter Rose / 1808-09 / Oil on canvas / 30”x25 1/2”

 

 

 

 

 

Betty Parsons~ January 31, 1900-July 23, 1982

[Betty] Parsons’s role as a leading promoter of abstract art is well known. Less well known is that she was an artist.

“Betty led a double life,” a nephew, William P. Rayner, said. “Being an artist was her first priority. That’s why she was such a good dealer and that’s why her artists liked her.”
FROM http://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/28/nyregion/betty-parsons-s-2-lives-she-was-artist-too.html?pagewanted=all

Once referred to as “the den mother of Abstract Expressionism,” Betty Parsons was an early advocate of the great Abstract Expressionists, including Pollock, Rothko, Reinhardt, Still and Newman, long before they all achieved notoriety. Her midtown gallery, which opened in 1946 (and closed every summer so that Parsons could focus on her own art), gave the Abstract Expresionist artists their first large-scale exposure, making it one of the most prestigious art galleries in New York.
FROM http://www.theartstory.org/gallery-betty-parsons.htm

“I’ve learned a great deal about business, but I wasn’t a businesswoman,” Betty Parsons told Grace Lichtenstein in a profile that originally ran in the March 1979 issue of ARTnews, published just three years before Parsons’s death, in 1982.
FROM http://www.artnews.com/2017/06/16/from-the-archives-betty-parsons-gallerist-turned-artist-takes-the-spotlight-in-1979/

Throughout her storied career as a gallerist, she maintained a rigorous artistic practice, painting during weekends in her Long Island studio. Parsons’ eye for innovative talent stemmed from her own training as an artist and guided her commitment to new and emerging artists of her time, impacting the canon of Twentieth-Century art in the United States. Includes slideshow and biography~
FROM http://www.alexandergray.com/artists/betty-parsons?view=slider#2

 

Artist Birthday Quiz for 1/29~

This painter played an important role in the formative years of the New York School, but did not achieve recognition for his own work until late in his career.

Despite 27 years of  clashes with Disney, this artist and children’s book author rose through the ranks to become both illustrator and screenwriter before finally leaving.

Answers here~ https://schristywolfe.com/2015/01/29/january-29/

Artist Birthday Quiz for 1/27~

William Blake’s visionary art was to have a profound effect on this key figure in 19th century Romantic landscape painting.

Considered one of the most talented Russian landscape painters of his generation, this artist founded his own painting society in 1909.

Answers here~ https://schristywolfe.com/2015/01/27/january-27/