9 Famous Black Painters You Should Know

Kara Walker (Nov. 26, 1969)

Walker is a painter and printmaker who has become famous for her paper silhouettes. Her work addresses race, gender, stereotypes and Black history. Walker has made a career out of controversial works that force people to see the ugliness of the world. In 1997, the painter won the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation “genius grant.”

Installation view of Kara Walker: "My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love" (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 11, 2007–February 3, 2008). Photograph by Sheldan C. Collins — Installation view of Kara Walker: “My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love” (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Oct. 11, 2007–Feb. 3, 2008). Photograph by Sheldan C. Collins

Gwendolyn Bennett (July 8, 1902- May 30, 1981)

Sadly, Bennett was an overlooked poet, painter and writer from the Harlem Renaissance. She was multi-talented in a variety of areas. Bennett worked alongside intellectuals like Alain Locke. In addition to writing and painting, she served as a journalist working for the New York Herald Tribune, The New Republic and the New York Amsterdam News.

This is an untitled river landscape from Bennett from 1931. Most of her work has been lost.

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