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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Woman with Flowers
By Benny Andrews
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Benny Andrews, American (1930 - 2006) Title: Woman with Flowers Year: 1976 Medium: Oil and Collage on Canvas, signed and dated l.r. (and ...
Oil, Canvas
$143,400
H 48 in W 36 in D 2 in
Mother & Child Oil Painting on Canvas, Abstract Figurative, 2016
By Christopher Mudgett
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Mother & Child, 2016 By Christopher Mudgett This powerful and emotive original oil painting from the artist's 2016 "Mother & Child" series encapsulates a profound moment of ...
Canvas, Oil
$245,900
H 60 in W 48 in D 3 in
Woman & Dog, Monumental Oil Painting, Signed, 60x48 Inches, 2017
By Christopher Mudgett
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Woman and Dog Christopher Mudgett Oil on canvas 2023 48 x 36 in (121.9 x 91.4 cm) Signed by the artist Certificate of authenticity included Available from the artist’s studio In W...
Canvas, Oil
$125,400
H 48 in W 36 in D 2 in
Woman with Clasped Hands, Contemporary Oil on Canvas, 48x36, 2017
By Christopher Mudgett
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Woman with Clasped Hands, 2017 by Christopher Mudgett A striking embodiment of strength and introspection, Woman with Clasped Hands (2017) challenges traditional portrayals of the f...
Canvas, Oil
$2,160
H 59.06 in W 43.31 in
Abstraction. Contemporary Abstract Oil Painting, Colorful, Dynamic, Polish art
By Monika Rossa
Located in Warsaw, PL
Approxiate dimensions of this painting are 140 x 110 cm, unstretched canvas is 157 x 113,5 cm Abstract painting by Polish artist living in USA Monika Rossa. Painting in style of ges...
Canvas, Oil
$1,560
H 47.25 in W 59.06 in
Children with birds. Contemporary figurative Oil Painting, Colorful, Dynamic
By Monika Rossa
Located in Warsaw, PL
Contemporary figurativ oil on canvas painting by Polish artist living in the USA Monika Rossa. Painting depicts three children holding birds. Birds are also flying near them. Artwork...
Canvas, Oil
$1,920
H 47.25 in W 31.5 in
Abstraction. Contemporary Abstract Oil Painting, Colorful, Dynamic, Polish art
By Monika Rossa
Located in Warsaw, PL
Abstract painting by Polish artist living in USA Monika Rossa. Painting in style of gestural abstraction with dynamic brush strokes and shapes. Do to the composition, the artwork can...
Oil, Canvas
$2,160
H 59.06 in W 44.89 in
Abstraction - Contemporary Abstract Oil Painting, Colorful, Dynamic
By Monika Rossa
Located in Warsaw, PL
MONIKA ROSSA studied painting at the University of Arizona, in the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris and at the Escuela de Diseno in Barcelona. She practices drawing and easel painting....
Canvas, Oil
$1,440
H 47.25 in W 35.44 in
A reading one - XXI century, Contemporary Figurative Oil Painting, Colorful
By Monika Rossa
Located in Warsaw, PL
MONIKA ROSSA studied painting at the University of Arizona, in the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris and at the Escuela de Diseno in Barcelona. She practices drawing and easel painting....
Oil, Canvas
$2,160
H 47.25 in W 44.1 in
In embrace. Figurative oil painting, Young art, European artist
By Waleria Matelska
Located in Warsaw, PL
Figurative oil on canvas painting by young professional European artist Waleria Matelska. Artwork is minimalist and composed with synthesized shapes. Painting is both vibrant and pas...
Canvas, Oil
$1,800
H 31.5 in W 47.25 in
Abstraction. Contemporary Abstract Oil Painting, Colorful, Dynamic, Polish art
By Monika Rossa
Located in Warsaw, PL
Abstract painting by Polish artist living in USA Monika Rossa. Painting in style of gestural abstraction with dynamic brush strokes and shapes. Do to the composition, the artwork can...
Canvas, Oil
$2,160
H 59.06 in W 44.89 in
Abstraction - Contemporary Abstract Oil Painting, Colorful, Dynamic
By Monika Rossa
Located in Warsaw, PL
MONIKA ROSSA studied painting at the University of Arizona, in the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris and at the Escuela de Diseno in Barcelona. She practices drawing and easel painting....
Canvas, Oil
$2,040
H 47.25 in W 31.5 in
Abstraction. Contemporary Abstract Oil Painting, Colorful, Dynamic, Polish art
By Monika Rossa
Located in Warsaw, PL
Abstract painting by Polish artist living in USA Monika Rossa. Painting in style of gestural abstraction with dynamic brush strokes and shapes. Do to the composition, the artwork can...
Canvas, Oil
Sold
H 15.5 in W 19.5 in
"New York Cafe" Benny Andrews, 1966 African-American Social Realist Work
By Benny Andrews
Located in New York, NY
Benny Andrews New York Cafe, 1966 Signed, titled and numbered in pencil, lower margin Lithograph on wove paper Image 10 1/2 x 14 1/4 inches Sheet 13 x 18 inches Edition 201/250 Ben...
Paper, Lithograph