Enduring Voices Catalogue (6-21-23) - Flipbook - Page 40
Benny
ANDREWS
(1930-2006)
Benny Andrews was born in Plainview, Georgia, the youngest of
ten children in a family of sharecroppers. Despite education being
discouraged beyond seventh grade, Andrews’ mother struck a
deal with the landowners that enabled Benny to attend school
when not working the cotton fields. Following service in Korea as
an Air Force staff sergeant, Andrews attended the School of the
Art Institute of Chicago, training in abstract expressionism, and
then moved on to New York City where he initially went to work
designing Christmas cards at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to
support his family.
A self-described “people’s painter,” Andrews is known for his
expressive, figurative paintings that often incorporated collaged
fabric and other material. Andrews painted scenes from his
neighborhood and local coffee shops and jazz clubs. Much of his
work also provides social commentary on the struggles, atrocities,
and everyday life in Black communities.
BENNY ANDREWS
OTHER DESIRED WORKS
We admired Benny Andrews early, but much of his
work is just too big for us. But we found an early
one which leans right into the exhibition, it being a
representation of a group touring an exhibition space.
We would like to have an Alma Thomas. We would
like to have a Norman Lewis. We would even like to
perhaps have a good representation by John Biggers.
Now you can hardly buy a Norman Lewis or an Alma
Thomas. They are very expensive. I’m sorry that
we didn’t pick them up earlier, but that’s the way
it goes. We have begun to acquire in this area of
African American art a lot. We are always interested
in some of the more popular artists working today,
but right now we are particularly enthusiastic about
earlier African American artists who are long lessrecognized and consistently underrepresented.
In 1968, he began teaching at Queens College in New York, with
much of his life thereafter being marked by participation in major
exhibitions featuring his work. He also devoted much time and
energy to supporting underrepresented populations. Andrews
started a program to help youth in underserved communities
prepare for college, a program that used art to deter gang
violence, and a program that used art as a rehabilitative tool in a
New York prison — the latter of which eventually was expanded
to a national level. He later led a program with the National
Endowment for the Arts to enable artists to obtain health
insurance and, just prior to his death in 2006, he was working
with children displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
Interesting Andrews Fact:
Prior to enrolling at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Benny Andrews had never been in a museum.
| 38
–Susan S. and David R. Goode
