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Ad Code: 3
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from Auction House Records.
Untitled (Abstract Cityscape)
Artwork images are copyright of the artist or assignee
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Born in Charlotte, North Carolina, Charles Alston was a long-time instructor at the Art Students League of New York and was known for his grasp of abstract design and his ability to express in his artwork the social forces that where shaping America at that time. His mediums were painting, sculpture, and murals, and his mural titled Man on the Threshold of Space, is at the Harriet Tubman School and another, Emerging Man, is at the Harlem Hospital, both in New York.
Charles Alston earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees at Columbia, University, and in 1930, received the Arthur Wesley Dow Fellowship. From 1950, he began several decades of teaching at the Art Students League and was also a member of the National Society of Mural Painters. In 1958, he was a U.S. representative to the Brussels Worlds Fair and in 1967 was appointed to the Advisory Board of the National Council of the Arts.
He exhibited at the John Heller Gallery in New York and in 1969 had a large retrospective exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art in New York. However, he declined an invitation to participate in a 1971 exhibition of Black Artists at the Whitney Museum of Art writing to the Curator: "The idea of separating artists on the basis of color is a repulsive affirmation of the racism and bigotry which permeate American society . . . I would hate to think that I was in an exhibition because I's Black, rather than because I am a good painter." (Herskovic 26)
Sources:
American Art Review
ARTnews
Marika Herskovic, Editor, American Abstract Expressionists of the 1950s, An Illustrated Survey | |
Biography from Michael Rosenfeld Gallery:
| Born in Charlotte, North Carolina, Charles “Spinky” Alston moved to New York City with his family in 1915, but continued to spend summers in North Carolina until he was fifteen years old. A talented student, Charles Alston took classes at the National Academy of Art and went on to receive his B.A. with a concentration in fine arts from Columbia University (1925-1929).
While completing his M.F.A at Columbia University Teachers College, Alston was introduced to African art and aesthetics and was deeply influenced by modern art. After receiving his Master’s Degree (1931), Alston worked at the Harlem Arts Workshop run by Augusta Savage at the 135th Street branch of the New York Public Library. The workshop was partially funded by the Carnegie Foundation and later came under the jurisdiction of the WPA Federal Arts Project. When the school needed more space, Alston found additional room for the school at 306 West 141 Street. Known as “306,” the school became a center for Harlem’s creative community. When funding for the school disappeared, Alston, along with Augusta Savage and Arthur Schomburg, became a founding members of the Harlem Artists Guild.
In 1935, Alston became the first black supervisor within the Federal Arts Project when he was assigned to direct the WPA’s Harlem Hospital murals project. Alston’s work was influenced by the social realist art of the 1930s, the politically charged work of the Mexican Muralists, and by jazz and nightclub culture.
An accomplished sculptor, painter, illustrator, and printmaker, Alston was also an influential teacher at both the Art Students League (where he became the first black instructor in 1950) and the City University of New York. |
| ** If you discover credit omissions or have additional information to add, please let us know at registrar@AskART.com. |
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Charles Alston is also mentioned in these AskART essays:
Abstract Expressionism
Black American Artists
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