There are many African American artists in our world today. Many that get unnoticed every day and are very, very talented. They deserve recognition and I am here to give it to them.
Jean Michel Basquiat
Jean Michel was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1960. When Basquiat first began doing art, he started off doing graffiti throughout New York. Many recognized him for his signature graffiti pictures that decorated walls, poles, windows and many more. He wrote quotes, words that spoke to him and hopefully spoke to others.
Shortly after, Basquiat was recognized and soon became popular for his messages and graffiti. Moving on from his spray paint, he picked up a paint brush and began painting. When the 80’s came around that’s when Jean really blew. His paintings and portraits were like no other and everyone grew fascinated with his unique colors and strokes. He was deemed as a ‘Neo-Expressionist’ and grouped up with Andy Warhol, a famous artist, to collab.
Jean had always had a love and passion for art since he was a young boy. His mom and him would go and visit museums. At six he became a junior member of the Brooklyn Museum, but his love of art came to an end at the age of 27. On August 12, 1988 Basquiat died of an accidental drug overdoes at his studio.
Horace Pippin
Pippin was born in 1888 in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He was self taught artist who had been making art since he was a young boy. He made many paintings based on wars, historical and religious matters. After joining the army in 1917, he seriously wounded his arm and looked to find more ways to express himself. He started pyrography (a type of art that produced burnt wood panels) but mostly preferred to make oil paintings.
Pippin was the first African American painter to talk about his concerns and opinions on war and social injustices. Not only that, the style of his paintings were striking and clearly expressed his ideas. Soon he was recognized for his paintings and was invited to give lessons at the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania.
Later in his life he created paintings based off of the bible and on the works of Edward Hicks. Unfortunately Pippin died on July 6, 1946 in West Chester.
Kehinde Wiley
Kahinde was born February 28, 1977. He was born in Los Angeles, but currently works in New York. When he was around 11 years old he attended art school and often went to big museums in South California.
When Wiley first began making art he focused more on photographs of young men in Harlem. But as he practiced more he branched and started making portraits of models. He often made paintings of old events with current trends and designs. Many of his paintings were like this, making historical pictures that put African Americans in the light.
Not only that, he painted about problems that occur in the world that many people would rather not talk about or acknowledge. In 2001 he got an MFA from Yale. A little after that he became an Artist-in-Residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem. Hid art id now featured in exhibitions all across the world, including 12 museums in the US.
African American Artists 