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.
Price Upon Request
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
$344
H 15.36 in W 13.39 in
Mum's Favourite, original art, affordable art, pattern art, still life art
By Kerry Louise Bennett
Located in Deddington, GB
Mum’s Favourite [2022] original Acrylic on canvas board Image size: H:30 cm x W:26 cm Complete Size of Unframed Work: H:30 cm x W:26 cm x D:0.5cm Frame Size: H:39 cm x W:34 cm x D:3.5cm Sold Framed Please note that insitu images are purely an indication of how a piece may look. This contemporary still life features a characterful pot (Mum's favourite!) on a patchwork tablecloth. The rich textures and the colour palette of spice tones are perfectly set off by a French style white wooden frame and will add vibrance and warmth to both traditional and modern homes. Kerry Louise...
Canvas, Oil
$12,000Sale Price|40% Off
H 77 in W 51 in
Figurative Painting by Cuban Artist Carlos Quintana
By Carlos Quintana
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Carlos Quintana is a contemporary Cuban artist known for his expressive paintings which meld collective memory, fantasy, and personal symbolism. Often fe...
Canvas, Oil
$12,600Sale Price|30% Off
H 64 in W 59 in
Figurative Painting by Cuban Artist Carlos Quintana
By Carlos Quintana
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Carlos Quintana is a contemporary Cuban artist known for his expressive paintings which meld collective memory, fantasy, and personal symbolism. Often fe...
Oil, Canvas
$2,200
H 31.5 in W 39.38 in D 1.58 in
French Contemporary Art by Karine Bartoli - Porto 08
By Karine Bartoli
Located in Paris, IDF
Oil on canvas Karine Bartoli was born in 1971 in Ajaccio. She enrolled at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts in Marseille where she graduated in 1997. Since then she has ...
Canvas, Oil
$900
H 7.5 in W 9.5 in
"Smell Da Flowers", Framed Face with Stitched Elements (Mixed Media Collage)
By Eustace Mamba
Located in Philadelphia, PA
"Smell Da Flowers" is a one-of-a-kind piece created by Eustace Mamba. This original sewn mixed media in painted wood frame artwork measures 7.5”h x 9.5”w framed. It ships with a gal...
Canvas, Paint, Oil, Other Medium
I Can Buy Myself Flowers. Peonies
By Wencke Uhl
Located in New Orleans, LA
I Can Buy Myself Flowers marks the first gallery solo exhibition of Bonn, Germany-based painter Wencke Uhl. First appearing in the 27th Annual NO DEAD ARTISTS International Exhibitio...
Canvas, Paper, Acrylic, Oil
$8,636
H 39.38 in W 59.06 in D 0.79 in
Beach - Contemporary Figurative Oil Painting, Realism, Beach View, People
By Julita Malinowska
Located in Hallein, AT
Artodyssey "Julita Malinowska's paintings belong to those, which once seen - are never forgotten. The open spaces, sometimes cool and bright, at other times heavily saturated with co...
Canvas, Oil
$658
H 15.75 in W 15.75 in D 0.79 in
Cat Oil Painting on Canvas, Contemporary, 40x40 cm, 2024
By Elena Mardashova
Located in Roma, IT
'Cat' - Original oil painting on canvas 40 x 40 cm, 2024.
Oil, Canvas
$28,000Sale Price|20% Off
H 48 in W 72 in D 2 in
"The Visitor" Contemporary Surrealist Painting, tiger, books, Albers and fruit.
By Thomas Broadbent
Located in New York, NY
This large scale oil painting depicts a tiger with a book in its mouth on a modernist table with wine and fruit. At 6ft in width this impressive oil painting exemplifies the artist’s...
Oil, Canvas
$12,000Sale Price|40% Off
H 78.44 in W 65.52 in
Carlos Quintana Large Abstract vs. Figurative Painting
By Carlos Quintana
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Carlos Quintana is a contemporary Cuban artist known for his expressive paintings which meld collective memory, fantasy, and personal symbolism. Often featuring bald figures, Quintana’s work shifts between grotesqueness and beauty while exploring the formal properties of paint. Born in Havana, Cuba in 1966, he went on to study painting at both the Academy of San Alejandro and the Institute of Design in his hometown. Exhibiting in Cuba since the early 1990s, the artist has gone on to show in Mexico, Spain, and the United States. He currently lives and works in Madrid, Spain. Quintana’s works are held in the collections of the Rubin Museum of Art in New York, and the National Museum of Fine Art in Havana. Large Oil on canvas Black and White figurative painting...
Canvas, Oil Pastel, Oil
$2,200
H 31.89 in W 39.38 in D 1.58 in
French Contemporary Art by Karine Bartoli - Iles Lavezzi
By Karine Bartoli
Located in Paris, IDF
Oil on canvas Karine Bartoli was born in 1971 in Ajaccio. She enrolled at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts in Marseille where she graduated in 1997. Since then she has ...
Canvas, Oil
$2,200
H 28.35 in W 23.63 in D 0.79 in
Japanese Contemporary Art by Miyuki Takanashi - Azarea's Memory
By Miyuki Takanashi
Located in Paris, IDF
Mixed media (acrylic, gouache, oil) on canvas Miyuki Takanashi is a Japanese artist born in 1961 who lives & works in Sapporo in Japan. She is graduated from Hokkaido University...
Canvas, Mixed Media, Oil, Acrylic, Gouache