His father had been born into slavery in 1851 in Pittsboro, North Carolina.
Charles Henry Alston (November 28, 1907 – April 27, 1977) was an American painter, sculptor, illustrator, muralist and teacher who lived and worked in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem.
became the first image of an African American displayed at the White House. ==Personal life== ===Early life=== Charles Henry Alston was born on November 28, 1907, in Charlotte, North Carolina, to Reverend Primus Priss Alston and Anna Elizabeth (Miller) Alston, as the youngest of five children.
In 1910, when Charles was three, his father died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage.
Washington of Charlotte". In 1913 Anna Alston remarried, to Harry Bearden, brother of Romare Bearden's father.
His father was also good at drawing, having wooed Alston's mother Anna with small sketches in the medians of letters he wrote her. In 1915 the Bearden/Alston family moved to New York, as many African-American families did during the Great Migration.
In the late 1920s Alston joined Bearden and other black artists who refused to exhibit in William E.
After graduating in 1925, he attended Columbia University, turning down a scholarship to the Yale School of Fine Arts. Alston entered the pre-architectural program but lost interest after realizing what difficulties many African-American architects had in the field.
In 1929 he graduated and received a fellowship to study at Teachers College, where he obtained his Master's in 1931. ===Later life=== For the years 1942–43 Alston was stationed in the army at Fort Huachuca in Arizona.
That same year Alston received a second round of funding from the Rosenwald Fund to travel South, and he spent extended time at Atlanta University. During the 1930s and early 1940s, Alston created illustrations for magazines such as Fortune, Mademoiselle, The New Yorker, Melody Maker and others.
In 1929 he graduated and received a fellowship to study at Teachers College, where he obtained his Master's in 1931. ===Later life=== For the years 1942–43 Alston was stationed in the army at Fort Huachuca in Arizona.
He created murals for the Harlem Hospital, Golden State Mutual, American Museum of Natural History, Public School 154, the Bronx Family and Criminal Court and the Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, New York. ====Harlem Hospital Murals==== Originally hired as an easel painter, in 1935 Alston became the first African-American supervisor to work for the WPA's Federal Art Project (FAP) in New York.
These paintings were part of a diptych completed in 1936 depicting the history of medicine in the African-American community and Beauford Delaney served as assistant.
They did not want to be set aside but exhibited on the same level as art peers of every skin color. In 1938 the Rosenwald Fund provided money for Alston to travel to the South, which was his first return there since leaving as a child.
During the 1940s Alston also took occasional art classes, studying under Alexander Kostellow. In January 1977, Myra Logan and Months later on April 27, 1977, Charles Spinky Alston both died after a long bout with cancer.
In 1940 he completed Tobacco Farmer, the portrait of a young black farmer in white overalls and a blue shirt with a youthful yet serious look upon his face, sitting in front of the landscape and buildings he works on and in.
That same year Alston received a second round of funding from the Rosenwald Fund to travel South, and he spent extended time at Atlanta University. During the 1930s and early 1940s, Alston created illustrations for magazines such as Fortune, Mademoiselle, The New Yorker, Melody Maker and others.
Alston became staff artist at the Office of War Information and Public Relations in 1940, creating drawings of notable African Americans.
1930) and its caricature style of a man in blackface. Inspired by his trip south, Alston began his "family series" in the 1940s.
Charlie? which, in a similar style as Christ Head, shows a black man standing against a red sky "looking as frustrated as any individual can look", according to Alston. ====Modernism==== Experimenting with the use of negative space and organic forms in the late 1940s, by the mid-1950s Alston began creating notably modernist style paintings.
In 1929 he graduated and received a fellowship to study at Teachers College, where he obtained his Master's in 1931. ===Later life=== For the years 1942–43 Alston was stationed in the army at Fort Huachuca in Arizona.
On June 9, 1943, in Manhattan, she married operatic baritone Lawrence Whisonant. ===Higher education=== Alston graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School, where he was nominated for academic excellence and was the art editor of the school's magazine, The Magpie.
In 1943 Alston was elected to the board of directors of the National Society of Mural Painters.
Upon returning to New York on April 8, 1944, he married Dr.
In 1950, he became the first African-American instructor at the Art Students League, where he remained on faculty until 1971.
In 1950, his Painting was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and his artwork was one of the few pieces purchased by the museum.
Symbol (1953) relates to Picasso's Guernica, which was a favorite work of Alston's. His final work of the 1950s, Walking, was inspired by the Montgomery bus boycott.
In the late 1950s, he began working in black and white, which he continued up until the mid-1960s, and the period is considered one of his most powerful.
He landed his first solo exhibition in 1953 at the John Heller Gallery, which represented artists such as Roy Lichtenstein.
He exhibited there five times from 1953 to 1958. In 1956, Alston became the first African-American instructor at the Museum of Modern Art, where he taught for a year before going to Belgium on behalf of MOMA and the State Department.
He exhibited there five times from 1953 to 1958. In 1956, Alston became the first African-American instructor at the Museum of Modern Art, where he taught for a year before going to Belgium on behalf of MOMA and the State Department.
He exhibited there five times from 1953 to 1958. In 1956, Alston became the first African-American instructor at the Museum of Modern Art, where he taught for a year before going to Belgium on behalf of MOMA and the State Department.
In 1958 he was awarded a grant from and was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1963, Alston co-founded Spiral with his cousin Romare Bearden and Hale Woodruff.
Spiral served as a collective of conversation and artistic exploration for a large group of artists who "addressed how black artists should relate to American society in a time of segregation." Artists and arts supporters gathered for Spiral, such as Emma Amos, Perry Ferguson and Merton Simpson. This group served as the 1960s version of "306".
Jazz was an important influence in Alston's work and social life, which he expressed in such works as Jazz (1950) and Harlem at Night. The 1960s civil rights movement influenced his work deeply, and he made artworks expressing feelings related to inequality and race relations in the United States.
It was a very definite walk-not going back, no hesitation." ====Black and white==== The civil rights movement of the 1960s was a major influence on Alston.
In 1958 he was awarded a grant from and was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1963, Alston co-founded Spiral with his cousin Romare Bearden and Hale Woodruff.
Alston was described as an "intellectual activist", and in 1968 he spoke at Columbia about his activism.
In the mid-1960s Spiral organized an exhibition of black and white artworks, but the exhibition was never officially sponsored by the group, due to internal disagreements. In 1968, Alston received a presidential appointment from Lyndon Johnson to the National Council of Culture and the Arts.
Mayor John Lindsay appointed him to the New York City Art Commission in 1969. In 1973 he was made full professor at City College of New York, where he had taught since 1968.
Mayor John Lindsay appointed him to the New York City Art Commission in 1969. In 1973 he was made full professor at City College of New York, where he had taught since 1968.
In 1950, he became the first African-American instructor at the Art Students League, where he remained on faculty until 1971.
Mayor John Lindsay appointed him to the New York City Art Commission in 1969. In 1973 he was made full professor at City College of New York, where he had taught since 1968.
In 1975 he was awarded the first Distinguished Alumni Award from Teachers College.
Charles Henry Alston (November 28, 1907 – April 27, 1977) was an American painter, sculptor, illustrator, muralist and teacher who lived and worked in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem.
During the 1940s Alston also took occasional art classes, studying under Alexander Kostellow. In January 1977, Myra Logan and Months later on April 27, 1977, Charles Spinky Alston both died after a long bout with cancer.
Martins Episcopal Church on May 21, 1977, in New York City. ==Professional career== While obtaining his master's degree, Alston was the boys’ work director at the Utopia Children's House, started by James Lesesne Wells.
The Art Student's League created a 21-year merit scholarship in 1977 under Alston's name to commemorate each year of his tenure. ===Painting a person and a culture=== Alston shared studio space with Henry Bannarn at 306 W.
In 1990, Alston's bust of Martin Luther King Jr.
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