Robert Colescott

Robert Colescott (1925-2009) is an internationally known artist who fearlessly tackled subjects of social and racial inequality, class structure, sex, and the human condition. He explored a distinctive version of popular culture, using references to art history, religion, and literacy sources, His earlier work illustrates his expressive and formal interest as a painter. While not easily placed within any one specific school of painting, Colescott's distinctive works share elements of Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Renaissance Painting, Neo-Expressionism, and Surrealism.

Colescott received a bachelor’s degree and, later, a master’s degree in drawing and painting from the University of California, Berkeley. His studies continued in Paris under Fernand Léger, who was instrumental in Colescott’s embrace of the human figure as subject. He was a lifelong professor of painting at academic institutions including Portland State University, OR; University of California, Berkeley; and University of Arizona, Tucson; and held the distinction of being the first visiting professor of art at the American University in Cairo, Egypt in 1966-1967. In 1997, Robert Colescott was honored as the first African American artist to represent the United States with a solo exhibition at the 47th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy.

His work is in numerous notable institutions including the Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH; American Research Center in Egypt, Alexandria, VA; Art Bridges Foundation, Bentonville, AR; Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD; Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY; California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; Denver Museum of Art, Denver, CO; Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI; de Young Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA; Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA; High Museum of Art, Atlanta GA; Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; New Museum, New York, NY; Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA; Pinault Collection, Paris, France; Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR; Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA; Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; among many more.