- Benny Andrews
Benny Andrews (
November 13 ,1930 -November 10 ,2006 ) was an American painter, print-maker, creator ofcollage s and educator. He was bornNovember 13 ,1930 inPlainview, Georgia and diedNovember 10 ,2006 inBrooklyn , New York.Andrews was an
African American who was one of 10 children of sharecroppers and was raised in theSouthern United States while it was still segregated. He was the first in his family to graduate from high-school and then Andrews went on to serve in the U.S. Air Force. Afterwards, the G.I. Bill of Rights afforded him training at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His first New York solo show was in 1962. From 1968 to 1997 Andrews taught atQueens College, City University of New York and created a prison arts program that became a model for the nation.In 1969, Andrews co-founded the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition (BECC) an organization that protested the 'Harlem on my Mind' exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. They protested the fact that no African-Americans were involved in organizing the show. The BECC then persuaded the Whitney museum to launch a similar exhibition of African American Artists, but later boycotted that show as well for similar reasons. [ [http://www.answers.com/topic/benny-andrews Benny Andrews: Biography and Much More from Answers.com ] ]
He was the director of visual arts for the
National Endowment for the Arts , 1982 to 1984. In 1983 he was instrumental in helping form The National Arts Program which today is the largest coordinated visual arts program in the nation's history.Benny Andrews was a figural painter in the expressionist style who painted a diverse range of themes of suffering and injustice, including
The Holocaust , Native American forced migrations, and most recently,Hurricane Katrina . Other influences on his work include Anti-Modernist American Scene painting,Surrealism , and Southernfolk art . His work hangs in theMetropolitan Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago, the Studio Museum inHarlem , New York City, theHigh Museum of Art inAtlanta, Georgia , and theOgden Museum of Southern Art inNew Orleans, Louisiana .Andrews' wife of 20 years is artist Nene Humphrey. Andrews has three children. He died of cancer, age 75.
References
* [http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2006/11/11/1112metandrews.html Atlanta obituary]
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/nyregion/12andrews.html New York obituary]External Links
* [http://www.artnet.com/awc/benny-andrews.html Benny Andrews on artnet's "Artist Works Catalogues"]
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