External links
- Official website
- "The New Guard" (an interview with Phoebe Beasley)
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Phoebe Beasley | |
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| Occupation | Collage Artist |
Phoebe Beasley (born June 3, 1943 [1] ) is an American artist. Beasley is the only artist whose art has been awarded the Presidential Seal under two different U.S. Presidents - George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. [2] [3] Beasley was the first African-American woman to become president of the Los Angeles County Arts Commission. [4] She was the official artist of the 1987 and 2000 Los Angeles Marathons. [5]
Phoebe Beasley was born in Cleveland, Ohio. She has two siblings. Her mother died of a heart attack at the age of 29 (when Phoebe was 7 years old). [1]
Beasley has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in art education from Ohio University, and a master's degree from Kent State University. She received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Ohio University in 2005. She also delivered the commencement address that year. [5]
Beasley's high school guidance counselor told her that she shouldn't major in art because there was 'no such thing as an African-American artist.' [6]
Beasley was told multiple times by white gallery owners, "I don't carry black art." She was also asked "why do you always paint black subjects?" Beasley's said, "It was strange - especially since they were painting nothing but white subjects... Most of my themes are what I know, based on my point of reference, just like any other artist." [7]
From 1997 - 2012, she spent 15 years as a Commissioner on the Los Angeles County Arts Commission. [8]
In 2012, she was one of 44 artists commissioned to make a collage on a life-size bust of President Barack Obama. [9]
In 2013, she was given the Lifetime Achievement Award for Visual Arts & Advocacy by the California African American Museum. [8]
In 2015, her most expensive work to date was sold for $11,875 at Swann Auction Galleries. [10] That year, she was also appointed to the California Arts Council in 2015 by former California Governor Jerry Brown. [11]
Many celebrities have purchased Beasley's work - including Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, Shonda Rhimes, Tavis Smiley, and more. [1]
Beasley says she likes to make beautiful things out of "other people's trash," and that her creativity comes out as she works with texture, since she considers collage her main medium of art. She explains one of her collages of flowers as representing "humanity - they represented living and dying... It does not matter how much you nurture something, we are all going to die." [12]
Beasley was good friends with her mentor Maya Angelou, who's quoted as saying "Phoebe Beasley's eye has never failed her, has never lied to her, and her art generously gives us beauty, information, and always the truth." [6]
Beasley said if she had it her way, she'd wear a ball gown every day. [12]
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Clarence Coles Phillips was an American artist and illustrator who signed his early works C. Coles Phillips, but after 1911 worked under the abbreviated name, Coles Phillips. He is known for his stylish images of women and a signature use of negative space in the paintings he created for advertisements and the covers of popular magazines.
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“Art is not a luxury as many people think – it is a necessity. It documents history – it helps educate people and stores knowledge for generations to come.” – Dr. Samella Lewis
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Howardena Pindell is an American artist, curator and educator. She is known as a painter and mixed media artist, her work explores texture, color, structures, and the process of making art; it is often political, addressing the intersecting issues of racism, feminism, violence, slavery, and exploitation. She is known for the wide variety of techniques and materials used in her artwork; she has created abstract paintings, collages, "video drawings," and "process art."
Elaine Lustig Cohen was an American graphic designer, artist and archivist. She is best known for her work as a graphic designer during the 1950s and 60s, having created over 150 designs for book covers and museum catalogs. Her work has played a significant role in the evolution of American modernist graphic design, integrating European avant-garde with experimentation to create a distinct visual vocabulary. Cohen later continued her career as a fine artist working in a variety of media. In 2011, she was named an AIGA Medalist for her achievements in graphic design.
Beau Dunn is an American actress, model, visual artist and entrepreneur. based in Los Angeles, California. Dunn’s work consists primarily of mixed media works including neon, paint, photography and sculpture. Next to tackling social and autobiographical issues, Dunn speaks to the contemporary art tradition of using toys and the concept of play as a means to reflect societies’ stereotypes, tastes, and desires. She is best known for her series of Barbie portraits, titled "Plastic", in addition to her appearances in modeling campaigns for Smashbox Cosmetics and as well as her roles in American television series Entourage, Up All Night, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Melissa & Joey.
Patricia Anne Smith, known professionally as Alexis Smith, was an American visual artist. She worked in collage and installation.
Beulah Ecton Woodard was an American sculptor and painter based in California. Woodard was the first African American artist to have a solo exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
William Etienne "Bill" Pajaud was an African-American artist, primarily working in watercolor, known for his paintings exploring themes of jazz. He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and died in Los Angeles, California, on June 16, 2015, at the age of 89. He was the curator of the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Fine Art Collection.
Jennie C. Jones is an African-American artist living and working in Brooklyn, New York. Her work has been described, by Ken Johnson, as evoking minimalism, and paying tribute to the cross-pollination of different genres of music, especially jazz. As an artist, she connects most of her work between art and sound. Such connections are made with multiple mediums, from paintings to sculptures and paper to audio collages. In 2012, Jones was the recipient of the Joyce Alexander Wien Prize, one of the biggest awards given to an individual artist in the United States. The prize honors one African-American artist who has proven their commitment to innovation and creativity, with an award of 50,000 dollars. In December 2015 a 10-year survey of Jones's work, titled Compilation, opened at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, Texas.
Njideka Akunyili Crosby is a Nigerian-born visual artist working in Los Angeles, California. Through her art, Akunyili Crosby "negotiates the cultural terrain between her adopted home in America and her native Nigeria, creating collage and photo transfer-based paintings that expose the challenges of occupying these two worlds". In 2017, Akunyili Crosby was awarded the prestigious Genius Grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Carolyn Castaño, is an American visual artist. She is the recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant for Painters and Sculptors (2013), the California Community Foundation Getty Fellow Mid-Career Grant (2011), and the City of Los Angeles Individual Artist Grant (2011). She is an Assistant Professor, Drawing & Painting, at Long Beach City College.
April Bey is a Bahamian American contemporary visual artist and educator. She is known for her mixed media work which creates commentary on contemporary Black female rhetoric.
Nanette Carolyn Carter, born January 30, 1954, in Columbus, Ohio, is an African-American artist and college educator living and working in New York City, best known for her collages with paper, canvas and Mylar.
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