Robert H. Colescott Biography

ARTIST BROCHURE Decorate Your Life™ ArtRev.com

Robert H. Colescott

Robert H. Colescott, born in Oakland, California in 1925, is a painter of Afro-American life and social commentary in a semi-abstract, antic, cartoon, anecdotal style related compositionally to the early Cubism of French artists Marc Chagall and Fernand Leger. He studied with the latter artist in Paris.

He has become a controversial artist because he uses exaggerated, even stereotyped, images of blacks in his paintings. He uses satirical themes as shocking social commentary, particularly in his parodies of classic European paintings with minstrel-like black characters.

Now, an older artist, "Mr. Colescott continues to produce vitally significant work which has become more and more biting, provocative and, at times, even savage. No one has been more important as a role model for a younger generation of African-American artists exploring the relationship between the self and the impediments of its realization. In this way, he has created one of the most powerful bodies of work in recent American art, employing a highly personal brand of narrative figuration laced with enough irony to expose the still on-going racial inequity of our culture.

After living in Cairo, Egypt, Colescott returned to America and the West Coast, where he played a part in the revival of figurative painting in the 1960s. In the mid-1970s, he began using images from popular culture and making racial parodies of masterpieces from art history which presaged the emergence of "appropriation" in the 1980s.

His work is in the collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts; Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Robert Colescott represented the United States at the 47th Venice Biennale. A catalog, "Robert Colescott: Recent Paintings", with an essay by Miriam Roberts, was published by the U.S. Government in 1997.

A video on the artist, Robert Colescott, "One-Two Punch", has been produced, as part of their African-American Artists Series, by L & S Video for Academic Media Services, Boulder, Colorado.

The artist received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1985, and was elected an Academician of the National Academy of Design, New York City, in 1999. A teacher at the University of Arizona, Tucson, he is now Regents' Professor Emeritus of Art there. He was a visiting lecturer at the Tyler School of Art, Temple University, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Copyright Notice: This document was generated on ArtRev.com on 10/2/2021 9:23:12 PM (U.S. Eastern Time Zone) - Copyright 2021 ArtRev.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The entire contents of this brochure is the property of ArtRev.com and/or its content suppliers. You may not modify, copy, reproduce, republish, or distribute any portion of this brochure without the prior express written consent of ArtRev.com, Inc.

Authenticity & Price Match Guarantee: Shop with confidence. ArtRev.com is proud to be the first online art retailer to offer a " lifetime authenticity guarantee " with every limited edition or original work of art. Most limited edition and original artworks ship with a Certificate of Authenticity free of charge. This certificate is an official and valuable document that most insurance companies require in order to insure artworks against damage or theft. ArtRev.com will make every possible attempt to match or beat the advertised price of any major Internet competitor, art gallery, or frame shop; given that they are authorized to sell the item from the publisher or artist, and have the exact item in stock available for immediate sale.

Disclaimer: The biography shown in this brochure is not meant to be a complete and comprehensive exploration of the life of the featured artist and is not guaranteed to be up-to-date. While information provided about each artist is carefully studied and reviewed prior to publishing; ArtRev.com assumes no liability for the content provided on this page. Biography Last Updated on 5/27/2009 6:53:34 PM. Please let us know if any information is out-of-date or inaccurate.