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.
Find Benny Andrews art on 1stDibs.
Upim Mixed Media Artwork, Watercolor and Gouache on Paper, 1971
By Benny Andrews
Located in New York, NY
Upim, 1971 24.5 x 18.5 inches Watercolor, gouache, collage of various papers including commercial and foil papers on paper Matted and Framed Mint Condition Benny Andrews was an ...
Foil
Rollo Mixed Media Artwork, Contemporary, Signed, 1971, Framed, 24 x 15"
By Benny Andrews
Located in New York, NY
Rollo, 1971 Mixed media 24 x 15 paper size Signed and dated lower right: Benny Andrews July 20, 1971 Framed Mint Condition Benny Andrews was an African-American artist, activist...
Foil
$3,900
H 55 in W 39 in
The Secret Ingredient Is Always Love, Mixed Media on Canvas, 55x39 inches
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
$1,085
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
$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
$1,906
H 24 in W 22 in D 1 in
WINDOW VI - Heather Hartman Mixed Media Painting - Oil on Polyester and Paper
By Heather Hartman
Located in Signal Mountain, TN
"Window VI" is one piece in Heather Hartman's Spare Room series. Hartman’s work combines paper softly appearing behind polyester mesh to create the illusion of light glowing through ...
Polyester, Paper, Oil, Acrylic, Gouache
"Marsh Rising" - Abstract Landscape Cyanotype - Kapoor
By Caroline Bullock
Located in Atlanta, GA
"Marsh Rising" is a work on paper that features hues of green, blue, gold, pink, yellow and orange. Caroline Bullock is inspired by the work of Agnes Martin, Anish Kapoor, Katharin...
Paper, Watercolor, Gouache
$300
H 12 in W 9 in
"Lofts, Nob Hill, Albuquerque", Contemporary, Abstract, Mixed Media Print
By Patty deGrandpre
Located in Franklin, MA
Patty deGrandpre’s “Lofts, Nob Hill, Albuquerque” is a vivid 12 x 9 inch mixed media abstracted depiction of a sign and lamp post advertising loft rentals in the Nob Hill area of Alb...
Ink, Archival Ink, Mixed Media, Digital, Monoprint, Gouache, Bamboo Paper
$4,800
H 63 in W 47 in
Soulsister Mixed Media Painting on Canvas, Contemporary, 21st Century
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
$3,900
H 55 in W 39 in
Imagination Has No Limit: Contemporary Mixed Media Painting, 55x39
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
$1,430
H 15 in W 15 in D 1 in
The Haveli-2, Gouache & Gold Leaf on Handmade Paper by Indian Artist "In Stock"
By Yugal Kishor Sharma
Located in Kolkata, West Bengal
Yugal Kishor Sharma - The Haveli-1 15 x 15 inches (unframed size) Gouache & Gold Leaf on Handmade Paper. (Unframed & Delivered) Yugal Kishore Sharma The Haveli-1 Gouache & Go...
Gold Leaf
$1,430
H 15 in W 15 in D 1 in
The Haveli-1, Gouache & Gold Leaf on Handmade Paper by Indian Artist "In Stock"
By Yugal Kishor Sharma
Located in Kolkata, West Bengal
Yugal Kishor Sharma - The Haveli-1 15 x 15 inches (unframed size) Gouache & Gold Leaf on Handmade Paper. (Unframed & Delivered) Yugal Kishore Sharma The Haveli-1 Gouache & Go...
Gold Leaf
Jacquelyn Strycker "Before it Settles" 2026
Located in New York, NY
Jacquelyn Strycker Before it Settles, 2026 collage of risographs on kita kata papers and handmade papers with sewing 34 x 23 in. (Str044)
Gouache, Handmade Paper, Screen
$335
H 14 in W 18 in
Rainbowland Bruguiera - Vibrant Colorful Still Life 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
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
$335
H 14 in W 18 in
Rainbowland Money Tree - Vibrant Colorful Still Life 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
Poinsettia - Blue Orange 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, Powder Coating, Ink, Watercolor, 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