Gwendolyn Clarine Knight (May 26, 1913 – February 18, 2005) was an American

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

who was born in

Bridgetown Bridgetown (UN/LOCODE: BB BGI) is the capital and largest city of Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Island ...

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...

, in the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

. Knight painted throughout her life but did not start seriously exhibiting her work until the 1970s. Her first retrospective was put on when she was nearly 90 years old, "Never Late for Heaven: The Art of Gwen Knight," at the

Tacoma Art Museum The Tacoma Art Museum (TAM) is an art museum in Tacoma, Washington, United States. It focuses primarily on the art and artists from the Pacific Northwest and broader western region of the U.S. Founded in 1935, the museum has strong roots in the c ...

in 2003. Her teachers in the arts included the sculptor Augusta Savage (who obtained support for her from the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

) and

Jacob Lawrence Jacob Armstead Lawrence (September 7, 1917 – June 9, 2000) was an American painter known for his portrayal of African-American historical subjects and contemporary life. Lawrence referred to his style as "dynamic cubism", although by his own ...

, whom she married in 1941 and remained married to until his death in 2000. During the course of her career, she received many awards, including the National Honor Award, and two honorary

doctorate degree A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

s, from

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

and

Seattle University Seattle University (SeattleU) is a private Jesuit university in Seattle, Washington. Seattle University is the largest independent university in the Northwestern United States, with over 7,500 students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate prog ...

. With her husband, Knight founded the Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation in 2000, initially to support the early careers of professional artists. When Lawrence died, Knight disbanded the original foundation and changed her will so that most of the couple's assets went to support children's programs. Today the Foundation's activities are devoted to the maintenance of a website that had been developed in 2000. The U.S. copyright representative for the Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation is the

Artists Rights Society Artists Rights Society (ARS) is a copyright, licensing, and monitoring organization for visual artists in the United States. Founded in 1987, ARS is a member of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers and as such repr ...

Biography

Early life and education

Knight was born in 1913 in Barbados, West Indies. At the age of seven, her mother entrusted her to close friends with whom she immigrated to the United States. She and her foster family first lived in St. Louis, Missouri. At age 13, she and her foster family moved to Harlem (New York City), where she graduated from Wadleigh High School in 1930. From 1931 to 1933 she attended

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" and accredited by the Middle States Commissi ...

, studying fine arts. The Great Depression caused financial hardship, causing Knight to drop out before receiving her degree.

Adulthood

Knight subsequently returned to New York City, where she was employed by the

Works Projects Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

as an assistant to the muralist, Charles Alston. She continued to study art at the Harlem Community Art Center, where she was mentored by Augusta Savage. Through Savage, she met or was exposed to the work of

Langston Hughes James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1901 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called jazz poetry, Hug ...

Ralph Ellison Ralph Waldo Ellison (March 1, 1913 – April 16, 1994) was an American writer, literary critic, and scholar best known for his novel ''Invisible Man'', which won the National Book Award in 1953. He also wrote ''Shadow and Act'' (1964), a collecti ...

Romare Bearden Romare Bearden (September 2, 1911 – March 12, 1988) was an American artist, author, and songwriter. He worked with many types of media including cartoons, oils, and collages. Born in Charlotte, North Carolina, Bearden grew up in New York City a ...

, Claude McKay and other artists, poets, and writers of the Harlem Renaissance. In 1934 Knight joined a Works Progress Administration (WPA) mural project, where she met her future husband and fellow painter,

. The couple were married in 1941. In 1946,

Josef Albers Josef Albers (; ; March 19, 1888March 25, 1976) was a German-born artist and educator. The first living artist to be given a solo show at MoMA and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, he taught at the Bauhaus and Black Mountain College ...

invited them to teach at

Black Mountain College Black Mountain College was a private liberal arts college in Black Mountain, North Carolina. It was founded in 1933 by John Andrew Rice, Theodore Dreier, and several others. The college was ideologically organized around John Dewey's educational ...

, which had begun integrating and incorporating African-American culture into its curriculum a few years prior to the couple's time there. During the 1950s, the couple worked and lived in New York. Then in 1964, they traveled to Nigeria. In 1971, Lawrence accepted a position at

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

’s School of Art. The couple moved to Seattle, where they lived as active members of the artist community and of the city itself. Knight even procured support from The National Links, Inc. for her first one-woman show, which was developed in 1976. This exhibit sparked a greater desire for her work and the acquiring of her pieces by national museums.

Death

Knight succeeded her husband, Lawrence, and passed away in Seattle on February 18, 2005, at the age of 91.

Work

Knight's work focused on narrative paintings depicting the life, culture, and history of African Americans, through still life, portraits, and urban scenes. The majority of her career produced oil portraits of friends, figure studies of dancers, and watercolor and gouache landscapes. However, her work began to shift in the 1990s incorporating lyrical depictions of animals through etchings and monoprints. Her inspiration came from spontaneous responses to her surroundings, as well as African dance, sculpture, and theater.

Exhibitions

Knight did not begin exhibiting her work publicly until the 1970s. Knight had several major solo exhibitions:

Seattle Art Museum The Seattle Art Museum (commonly known as SAM) is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington, United States. It operates three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM) in Volunteer Park on Cap ...

(1976), Virginia Lacy Jones Gallery, Atlanta University (1988), Francine Seders Gallery in Seattle (1994), ''Never Late for Heaven: The Art of Gwen Knight'', at the

(2003) and at DC Moore Gallery, New York in 2003. Her work was included in several group exhibitions, including the 1967 show, ''Portrayal of the Negroes in American Painting'' at the Forum Gallery.

Awards and honors

In 1993, Knight received the

Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award The Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award was established under the presidency of Lee Ann Miller (1978–80). Joan Mondale, artist and wife of vice-president Walter Mondale, helped to secure approval for a national award honoring women ...

. She was honored with the Caucus Centennial Medallion, from the Black Caucus. In 1984 she received the Centennial Award of Merit from

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

, and in 1994, she received the Pioneer Award, Twelfth Annual Artists' Salute to

Black History Month Black History Month is an annual observance originating in the United States, where it is also known as African-American History Month. It has received official recognition from governments in the United States and Canada, and more recently ...

Selected collections

Gwendolyn Knight at the Minneapolis Institute of Art
Minneapolis, Minnesota *

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, New York *

St. Louis Art Museum The Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM) is one of the principal U.S. art museums, with paintings, sculptures, cultural objects, and ancient masterpieces from all corners of the world. Its three-story building stands in Forest Park in St. Louis, M ...

Works

Some of her works are: * ''Afternoon of a Faun'', 1994 * ''Pleas and Thank Yous: 100 True Stories'', 1991 * ''Diva'', 1994 * ''Figure Study No. 3'', 1975 * ''Cat III'', 1994 * ''Jacob'', 1986 * ''Self Portrait'', 1991 * ''Portrait of a Girl'' *''New Orleans'', 2002 *''The Boudoir'', 1945 *''The White Dress'', 1999 *''Still Life'' 1960, *''Dusk'', 1960 *''Head of a Dancer'', 1960

References

External links

The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation website

Artists Rights Society, Knight's U.S. Copyright Representatives
*Rowell, Charles H. "A Conversation with Gwendolyn Knight." Callaloo, no. 37, 1988, pp. 689–696. ''JSTOR,'
www.jstor.org/stable/2931719
{{DEFAULTSORT:Knight, Gwendolyn 1913 births 2005 deaths 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American women artists African-American women artists African-American painters Art Students League of New York alumni Barbadian women artists Federal Art Project artists Sculptors from New York (state) African-American sculptors 20th-century African-American women 20th-century African-American artists 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women