Using an innovative technique he called “rough collage,” Benny Andrews created vivid portraits of everyday people that mixed painting with pieces of clothing and other textural materials.
Andrews grew up in a family of sharecroppers in rural Georgia, his creativity nurtured by his father, who was a self-taught artist, and his mother, who believed in the importance of education. He was the first in his family to complete high school and attended Fort Valley State College on a 4-H Club scholarship. Andrews was limited by the lack of art courses available to him at Fort Valley, and in 1950 he enlisted in the Air Force and served in the Korean War. On the G.I. Bill, he studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). While fellow students focused on Abstract Expressionism, Andrews developed his own expressive style; one of his earliest portraits was of the janitors at SAIC. After he graduated in 1958, he moved to New York. Andrews’s first solo show was in 1960 at Paul Kessler Gallery in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
Visibility and social justice were at the forefront of Benny Andrews’s paintings, which meditated on scenes of daily life, drawing on memories of the artist’s childhood in the South. His subjects included his family members as well as other artists, such as Alice Neel, Norman Lewis and Howardena Pindell.
A longtime educator, including for three decades at New York’s Queens College, Andrews avidly promoted opportunities for Black artists, such as cofounding with Clifford R. Joseph the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition in 1969, which advocated for inclusion in museum exhibitions. One of his final works —completed between 2004 and 2006 — was the Migrant Series in which he retraced the forced relocation of Indigenous people on the Trail of Tears, the Dust Bowl migration and the displacement of Hurricane Katrina survivors.
Andrews’s work has continued to garner acclaim after his death in 2006, with posthumous exhibitions including “Benny Andrews: Portraits, a Real Person Before the Eyes” at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery in New York in 2020.
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Rollo Mixed Media Artwork, Contemporary, Signed, 1971, Framed, 24x15"
By Benny Andrews
Located in New York, NY
Benny Andrews was an African-American artist, activist and educator. Born in Plainview, Georgia, Andrews earned a BFA in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1...
Foil
Upim Mixed Media Artwork, Watercolor and Gouache on Paper, 1971
By Benny Andrews
Located in New York, NY
Benny Andrews was an African-American artist, activist and educator. Born in Plainview, Georgia, Andrews earned a BFA in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1...
Foil
$2,500
H 11.5 in W 8.5 in
Williams & Sonoma #4, Contemporary Gouache & Acrylic on Paper, 2002
Located in White Plains, NY
"Williams & Sonoma #4' in 2002 by American artist Jean Blackburn. Gouache and acrylic on paper, Image: 11.5 x 8.5 in. / Paper: 14 x 12 in. / Frame: 17.75 x 14.50 in. This work on paper features an abstracted version of a living room with a lamps, sofa, mirror, and flooring. In rich colors of red, yellow, orange, blue, green, white, and black. Framed in light wood. With her works on paper, Jean Blackburn begins with images scanned from various home furnishing catalogs (Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, Williams and Sonoma...
Paper, Acrylic, Gouache
$4,800
H 47 in W 63 in
Sunny Side Of Life - Figurative Pop Art Textural Portrait Painting
By Martina Niederhauser
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Internationally acclaimed artist Martina Niederhauser presents a new collection that offers fresh perspectives on women, delving into the realms of emotion, beauty, identity, and the...
Canvas, Mixed Media, Oil, Acrylic, Gouache, Archival Paper
$1,108
H 11.82 in W 15.75 in D 0.4 in
Épuisement du motif, Watercolor and Charcoal, Contemporary Marine Landscape, Sky
By Fabien Granet
Located in AIX-EN-PROVENCE, FR
Medium : Watercolour, Charcoal and Gouache on Archival Watercolour paper 300Gsm. Artist : Fabien Granet Subject : Epuisement du motif (French Title) This original watercolor by Fabie...
Charcoal, Watercolor, Archival Paper, Gouache
$576
H 22.05 in W 16.15 in
Jo Haran, Pink Haze, Original Floral Painting, Contemporary Art, Affordable Art
By Jo Haran
Located in Deddington, GB
Jo Haran Pink Haze Original Floral Painting Watercolour, Gouache and Gesso on paper Image Size: 53.5 cm x 38cm Sheet/Canvas Size: 56 cm x 41 cm Sold Unframed Free Shipping Please note that in situ images are purely an indication of how a piece may look. Pink Haze is an original watercolour painting by Jo Haran. I created contrast and tension between the dark inky soft focus background and the light hitting the studied flowers. I love to use gesso to describe the delicacy and translucent quality of petals. ‘There are always flowers for those who want to see them” – Henri Matisse. I have been painting flowers for over 20 years as an artist and as a senior textile designer selling prints to clients internationally including Valentino, Leonard, Paul and Joe...
Gesso, Paper, Watercolor, Gouache
"Istanbul Rising" abstract, mixed media collage - framed
By Linda Ganjian
Located in New York, NY
12"x9" mixed media collage: acrylic, metallic watercolor and papers, ink, collage dressmaking patterns, framed in a black shadowbox frame. Linda Ganjian's artwork captivates with it...
Foil
$644
H 20.28 in W 26.78 in
Jo Haran, Floral Burst In Glass Vase, Floral Art, Original Still Life Painting
By Jo Haran
Located in Deddington, GB
Jo Haran Floral Burst In Glass Vase Original Floral Painting Watercolour, Gouache and Gesso on paper Image Size: H 49cm x W 65cm Paper Size: H 51.5cm x W 68cm Sold Unframed Please ...
Gesso, Paper, Watercolor, Gouache
Hydrangea - Purple Blue Abstract Floral Painting on Paper
By Xiao Wen Xu
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Xiao Wen Xu is a Chinese-born Canadian artist based in Toronto, Canada, Her artistic practice is deeply influenced by her profound appreciation for the natural world. In her series, ...
Paper, Watercolor, Gouache, Powder Coating, Ink
$3,750
H 23 in W 19 in D 3 in
Cut w/ Surgical Scalpel on 2 ply Museum Board: 'Red & White Stripe Circle-In'
By Elizabeth Gregory-Gruen
Located in New York, NY
“CUT WORK” is an evolving examination of emotion experienced through the inspired meeting of blade and paper. Beginning with the featureless plane of a blank paper canvas and a surge...
Plexiglass, Gouache, Archival Paper, Adhesive
$4,200
H 22 in W 30 in
"Samsum Starburst" Painting, collage, metallic paint, foil, patternmaking paper
By Linda Ganjian
Located in New York, NY
22’’ x 30" mixed media collage: ink, watercolor, origami paper, gold foil, pattern-making paper on paper, framing options available. Linda Ganjian's artwork captivates with its orna...
Foil
$338
H 8.19 in W 8.04 in D 0.04 in
Spring, Papercut and gouache artwork, Animal, Figurative, Polish artist
By Marianna Oklejak
Located in Warsaw, PL
Cheerful artwork on paper by Polish award-winning artist Marianna Oklejak. Artwork is made out of paper cuts and gouache. MARIANNA OKLEJAK (b. 1981) – Polish illustrator and graph...
Paper, Gouache
$338
H 9.81 in W 7.56 in D 0.04 in
A Bat-Woman Papercut and gouache artwork, Super Hero, Figurative, Wonder Woman
By Marianna Oklejak
Located in Warsaw, PL
Cheerful artwork on paper by Polish award-winning artist Marianna Oklejak. Artwork is made out of paper cuts and gouache. MARIANNA OKLEJAK (b. 1981) – Polish illustrator and graph...
Paper, Gouache
$338
H 11.7 in W 8.27 in D 0.04 in
A Panthero-Fly, Papercut and gouache artwork, Animal, Figurative, Polish artist
By Marianna Oklejak
Located in Warsaw, PL
Cheerful artwork on paper by Polish award-winning artist Marianna Oklejak. Artwork is made out of paper cuts and gouache. MARIANNA OKLEJAK (b. 1981) – Polish illustrator and graph...
Paper, Gouache
"The Reaper" Abstract Assemblage Figurative Painting
By Benny Andrews
Located in Houston, TX
Painting of an African American woman with short hair standing next to an abstract tree by southern artist Benny Andrews in 1975. Signed and dated in lower right corner. Hung in a decorative frame with a simple white mat. Dimensions Without Frame: H 29 in. x W 21 in. Artist Biography: Born in 1930, one of ten children in a Georgia farming family, Benny Andrews grew up desperately poor. After serving in the U.S. Air Force, he studied at the Art Institute of Chicago on the G.I. Bill. He differed from his fellow students, mostly Abstract Expressionists, by going off to jazz clubs to draw. In 1958, he moved to New York, where his artist friends included Red Grooms, Bob Thompson and the Soyer brothers. For two years (1982-84), he served as director of the Visual Art Program for the National Endowment for the Arts, after which he returned to full-time painting. Two kinds of influence coexist in Andrews's art. The first is an exuberant regionalism that takes into account the lives of the poor; Andrews sees a precedent in the work of Thomas Hart Benton. The second is the narrative impulse of much African-American painting...
Mixed Media, Watercolor