Herbert Alexander Gentry (July 17, 1919 – September 8, 2003) was an
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...
Expressionist
Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...
painter who lived and worked in
Paris, France
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
(1946–70; 1976–80),
Copenhagen, Denmark
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
(1958–63), in the Swedish cities of
Gothenburg (1963–65),
Stockholm (1965–76; 2001–03), and
Malmö
Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal pop ...
(1980–2001), and in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
(1970–2000) as a permanent resident of the
Hotel Chelsea
The Hotel Chelsea (also the Chelsea Hotel or the Chelsea) is a hotel in Manhattan, New York City, built between 1883 and 1885. The 250-unit hotel is located at 222 West 23rd Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, in the neighborhood of ...
.
The art of Herbert Gentry
Gentry's paintings juxtapose faces and masks, shifting orientations of figures and heads—human and animal—into profiles, to the left, to the right, above and below. The direction of the head, as face or profile, leading right or left, or facing front, is played against the relative scale of each head, its position on the canvas, and in relationship to the others.
The faces evoke subtle expressions and moods. Rather than using images to depict a concrete story, Gentry releases his experiences upon the canvas. The act of spontaneous painting uses
consciousness
Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...
itself, and each painting reveals the self. When asked about direct influences, he avoids imposing external meanings upon primary experience, describing instead his creative process.
Philosophically near the
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
musician, Gentry breathes rhythms into a personally inflected expressionism. "The staccato beat of jazz is fused with
biomorphic form in paintings which never become totally
abstract, but hold the picture plane in the
Cubist
Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...
tradition," wrote
art historian Peter Selz
Peter Howard Selz (March 27, 1919 – June 21, 2019) was a German-born American art historian and museum director and curator who specialized in German Expressionism.
Biography
Peter Selz was born in Munich of Jewish parents. In 1936, aged 17, h ...
(1994) about Gentry's work. Gentry creates a foil for feelings and for emotion, and orchestrates his subjective figuration in dialogue with the immediacy of the painted gesture.
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 ...
(1981) wrote that Gentry's "method is conceptual rather than realistic. One senses in the chromatic emotionalism, and in the biomorphic forms of the figures that often appear in Gentry's paintings, the strong pull of the unconscious."
Biography
Harlem Renaissance childhood
Herbert Alexander Gentry was born in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...
, on July 17, 1919. He was the son of
James Jentry of Madison Courthouse, Virginia, and
Violet Howden of
Kingston, Jamaica. By 1924 Gentry was living in
Harlem, New York City, with his mother and her family.
The
Harlem Renaissance provided the backdrop for Gentry's childhood. His mother worked as a dancer and actress. Under the name
Teresa Gentry, she danced in the chorus with
Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker (born Freda Josephine McDonald; naturalised French Joséphine Baker; 3 June 1906 – 12 April 1975) was an American-born French dancer, singer and actress. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in her adopted Fran ...
and
Bessye Buchanen. Later, she was in the cast of the original rendition of the
Ziegfeld musical ''
Show Boat
''Show Boat'' is a musical with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It is based on Edna Ferber's best-selling 1926 novel of the same name. The musical follows the lives of the performers, stagehands and dock worke ...
'' in 1927, as well as its revival in 1932. His mother's friends included
Langston Hughes,
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson ( ; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert artist, stage and film actor, professional American football, football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplish ...
and
Duke Ellington.
As a youngster Gentry had a role in the play ''
Scarlet Sister Mary
''Scarlet Sister Mary'' is a 1928 novel by Julia Peterkin. It won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1929. The book was called obscene and banned at the public library in Gaffney, South Carolina. ''The Gaffney Ledger'' newspaper, however, se ...
'', which toured the country with actress
Ethel Barrymore and opened on
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
in 1931. Gentry took inspiration from artists, musicians, writers, dancers, and actors, all of whom reinforced his belief in the creative world that lay beyond Harlem.
Educated in the New York City public schools, Gentry attended Cooper Junior High and George Washington High School. He pursued drawing in school took art classes at the
Harlem YMCA and later studied art as part of the under the
Federal Art Project
The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administrati ...
of the WPA (
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 ...
) at
Roosevelt High School.
In 1939, the leadership of Harlem protest demonstrations against
employment discrimination is said to have included besides Rev.
Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Gentry's older cousin Arnold P. Johnson. Protester Gentry, who was studying business at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, th ...
, is said to have been
Consolidated Edison New York's first Black employee in a
white-collar position and to have tolerated being told by company directors to the effect that, "If you do well, we'll hire others."
[Attestation unable to locate]
He served in the
U.S. Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...
(1942–45), serving in the 90th Coast Guard Artillery / Anti-Aircraft Regiment working in Special Services. His U.S. Army Service in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
took him to different countries in the
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...
and
Northern Europe:
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...
,
Algeria
)
, image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Algiers
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, relig ...
, Madeline Island (
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
),
Corsica,
Marseille
Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...
s,
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
,
Alsace-Lorraine (
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
), and
Salzburg
Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label= Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872.
The town is on the site of the Roman settlement of ''Iuvavum''. Salzburg was founded ...
(
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
). At the end of the war, Gentry was stationed in the Paris suburb of
Crepy-en-Vallois. He took every opportunity to visit Paris.
[Kirwin, Liza (1991)]
"Oral history interview with Herbert Gentry"
Archives of American Art, May 23, 1991. Washington, D.C.: Archives of American Art Smithsonian.
The expatriate years
Paris, 1946–58
The center of the Art World before World War II, Paris still held that title in 1946. Paris touched other memories for ex-soldier Gentry, who as a youth had heard many of his mother's friends speak of their travel and performances in Paris. Home in Harlem after his discharge from the Army, he wanted to study art in Paris. Not waiting for the administration of the
GI Bill to be organized in Paris, and warned that the basic amenities were still rationed, Gentry arrived for the Fall 1946 academic term.
His first year back in Paris, Gentry resided at the American House at the
Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris
Cité may refer to: Places
* Cité (Paris Métro), the metro station on the ''Île de la Cité''
* Cité (Quebec), type of municipality in Quebec
* Citadel, the historical centre of an old city, originally fortified
* Housing estate
A hou ...
, where he met fellow American students: sculptor
Kosta Alex, pianist
Julian Ketcham, and writers
Marc Behm and
Dan Kurzman Daniel Halperin Kurzman (27 March 1922, San Francisco – 12 December 2010, Manhattan), was an American journalist and writer of military history books. He studied at the University of California in Berkeley, served in the U.S. Army from 1943 to 1 ...
. Moving beyond student circles, he sought out author
Richard Wright, who encouraged him in his art; he got to know writer
James Baldwin.
Gentry studied French at the
Alliance Française
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
, and was enrolled at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Sociales.
Académie de la Grande Chaumière
The Académie de la Grande Chaumière is an art school in the Montparnasse district of Paris, France.
History
The school was founded in 1904 by the Catalan painter Claudio Castelucho on the rue de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, near the Acad ...
had an approach to art teaching that matched his need for freedom. He spent three years studying with
Ossip Zadkine
Ossip Zadkine (russian: Осип Цадкин; 28 January 1888 – 25 November 1967) was a Belarusian-born French artist. He is best known as a sculptor, but also produced paintings and lithographs.
Early years and education
Zadkine was born on ...
and French painter
Yves Brayer
Yves Brayer (18 November 1907 – 29 May 1990) was a French painter known for his paintings of everyday life.
He was born in Versailles. He studied in Paris at the academies in Montparnasse starting in 1924, and then at the École des Beaux-Art ...
. By 1949 Gentry was teaching visiting Americans at the
Académie de la Grande Chaumière
The Académie de la Grande Chaumière is an art school in the Montparnasse district of Paris, France.
History
The school was founded in 1904 by the Catalan painter Claudio Castelucho on the rue de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, near the Acad ...
and had his first solo Parisian exhibition at Galerie de Seine.
Gentry lived the café life in
Montparnasse
Montparnasse () is an area in the south of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail. Montparnasse has bee ...
, meeting his fellow American artists at
Le Dôme Café
Le Dôme Café () or Café du Dôme is a restaurant in Montparnasse, Paris that first opened in . Based on the example established by La Closerie des Lilas (created in 1847) and followed by Café de la Rotonde (created in 1911), Le Select (creat ...
, Le Select café and
La Coupole
''La Coupole'' ( en, The Dome), also known as the ''Coupole d'Helfaut-Wizernes'' and originally codenamed ''Bauvorhaben'' 21 ('Building Project 21') or ''Schotterwerk Nordwest'' (Northwest Gravel Works), is a Second World War bunker complex in the ...
: sculptors
Shinkichi Tajiri
Shinkichi Tajiri (Los Angeles, December 7, 1923 – Baarlo, Netherlands, March 15, 2009) was an American sculptor who resided in the Netherlands from 1956 onwards. He was also active in painting, photography and cinematography.
Childhood and ...
, Kosta Alex, and
Harold Cousins, painters
Herbie Katzman,
John Hultberg
John Hultberg (February 8, 1922 – April 15, 2005) was an American Abstract expressionist and Abstract realist painter. Early in his career he was related to the Bay Area Figurative Movement; he was also a lecturer and playwright.
Early life a ...
,
Burt Hasen
Burt is a given name and also a shortened form of other names, such as Burton and Herbert, or a place name.
Burt may refer to:
People
*Burt Alvord
Albert "Burt" Alvord (September 11, 1867 – after 1910) was an American lawman and later outla ...
,
Haywood "Bill" Rivers,
Sam Francis
Samuel Lewis Francis (June 25, 1923 – November 4, 1994) was an American painter and printmaker.
Early life
Sam Francis was born in San Mateo, California, ,
Avel DeKnight, and painter-filmmaker
Carmen D'Avino; as ex-GIs, students and young artists, they casually rubbed shoulders with the greats such as
Alberto Giacometti and
Georges Braque. There were many others, including
Jimmy "Loverman" Davis,
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 ...
,
Serge Charchoune
Serge Charchoune or Sergey Sharshun (russian: Сергей Иванович Шаршун) was a Russian painter and the first Russian Dada poet. Born August 4, 1888, in Buguruslan, Russia, Charchoune lived most of his life in France where he di ...
,
George Spaventa, Corneille,
Wifredo Lam
Wifredo Óscar de la Concepción Lam y Castilla (; December 8, 1902 – September 11, 1982), better known as Wifredo Lam, was a Cuban artist who sought to portray and revive the enduring Afro-Cuban spirit and culture. Inspired by and in conta ...
, and
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the s ...
.
Between 1948 and 1951, Gentry opened Chez Honey, a club-galerie in
Montparnasse
Montparnasse () is an area in the south of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail. Montparnasse has bee ...
, an exhibition space by day and a jazz club by night. Featuring his first wife,
Tadea Werfelman, known as
Honey Johnson, a singer who had come to Europe with
Rex Stewart
Rex William Stewart Jr. (February 22, 1907 – September 7, 1967) was an American jazz cornetist who was a member of the Duke Ellington orchestra.
Career
As a boy he studied piano and violin; most of his career was spent on cornet. Stewart drop ...
's Band, the club was known as the place to hear modern jazz.
Pete Matz accompanied on piano, as would
Dick Allen
Richard Anthony Allen (March 8, 1942 – December 7, 2020) was an American professional baseball player. During his fifteen-year-long Major League Baseball (MLB) career, he played as a first baseman, third baseman, and outfielder, most notably ...
,
Art Simmons
Arthur Eugene Simmons (February 5, 1926 – April 23, 2018) was an American jazz pianist.
Simmons was born in Glen White, West Virginia in February 1926. He played in a band while serving in the U.S. military in 1946, then remained in Germany af ...
and
Don Byas
Carlos Wesley "Don" Byas (October 21, 1912 – August 24, 1972) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, associated with swing and bebop. He played with Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Art Blakey, and Dizzy Gillespie, among others, and also led ...
. The club attracted an international crowd. Patrons included
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and lit ...
,
Simone de Beauvoir,
Juliette Gréco
Juliette Gréco (; 7 February 1927 – 23 September 2020) was a French singer and actress. Her best known songs are "Paris Canaille" (1962, originally sung by Léo Ferré), "La Javanaise" (1963, written by Serge Gainsbourg for Gréco) and "Désh ...
,
Eartha Kitt,
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
,
Jean-Louis Barrault
Jean-Louis Bernard Barrault (; 8 September 1910 – 22 January 1994) was a French actor, director and mime artist who worked on both screen and stage.
Biography
Barrault was born in Le Vésinet in France in 1910. His father was 'a Burgundia ...
, and
Marcel Marceau
Marcel Marceau (; born Marcel Mangel; 22 March 1923 – 22 September 2007) was a French actor and mime artist most famous for his stage persona, "Bip the Clown". He referred to mime as the "art of silence", and he performed professionally worldw ...
. Painter
Larry Rivers
Larry Rivers (born Yitzroch Loiza Grossberg) (1923 – 2002) was an American artist, musician, filmmaker, and occasional actor. Considered by many scholars to be the "Godfather" and "Grandfather" of Pop art, he was one of the first artists ...
, who arrived in 1950, jammed with the professional musicians.
In November 1951 Gentry left for New York. It proved a difficult adjustment; in 1953 he returned to Paris on the same boat as two painters who would become important friends:
Beauford Delaney
Beauford Delaney (December 30, 1901 – March 26, 1979) was an American modernist painter. He is remembered for his work with the Harlem Renaissance in the 1930s and 1940s, as well as his later works in abstract expressionism following his mo ...
and
Larry Potter. No longer on the GI Bill, Gentry got work in Paris jazz clubs; by 1955 he was arranging entertainment shows for the
Allied and American Armed Forces in France and Germany. He met many American musicians and dancers, including
Mary Lou Williams
Mary Lou Williams (born Mary Elfrieda Scruggs; May 8, 1910 – May 28, 1981) was an American jazz pianist, arranger, and composer. She wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements and recorded more than one hundred records (in 78, 45, an ...
,
Maya Angelou, and others in Paris such as
Art Buchwald
Arthur Buchwald (October 20, 1925 – January 17, 2007) was an American humorist best known for his column in ''The Washington Post''. At the height of his popularity, it was published nationwide as a syndicated column in more than 500 newspaper ...
and
Moune de Rivel (fr). He studied privately with painter
Georges Braque. Active in Parisian café life, he and Larry Potter congregated with African-American writers
Chester Himes
Chester Bomar Himes (July 29, 1909 – November 12, 1984) was an American writer. His works, some of which have been filmed, include '' If He Hollers Let Him Go'', published in 1945, and the Harlem Detective series of novels for which he is be ...
,
Ollie Harrington
Oliver Wendell Harrington (February 14, 1912 – November 2, 1995) was an American cartoonist and an outspoken advocate against racism and for civil rights in the United States. Of multi-ethnic descent, Langston Hughes called him "America's great ...
, among others at the Café Tournon; Gentry socialized with visual artists at café Le Select and La Coupole in Montparnasse, where he also met the Dutch, Belgian and Scandinavian artists of the
COBRA-group:
Ejler Bille
Ejler Bille (6 March 1910 – 1 May 2004) was a Danish artist.
Biography
Ejler Bille was born in Odder, Denmark. He was the son of Torben Holger Bille and Anna Kirstine Lysabild Jensen. Bille graduated from Birkerød State School in 1930, and then ...
,
Robert Jacobsen,
Karel Appel,
Carl-Henning Pedersen
Carl-Henning Pedersen (23 September 1913 – 20 February 2007) was a Danish painter and a key member of the COBRA movement. He was known as the "Scandinavian Chagall", and was one of the leading Danish artists of the second half of the 20th ...
,
Bram Bogart
Bram Bogart (July 12, 1921 – May 2, 2012) was a Belgian expressionist painter most closely associated with the COBRA group.
Early life and education
Abraham van den Boogaart was born in Delft, the Netherlands, the son of Abraham van den Boogaa ...
, and
Guillaume Cornelis van Beverloo
Corneille – Guillaume Cornelis van Beverloo (3 July 1922 – 5 September 2010), better known under his pseudonym Corneille, was a Dutch artist.
Corneille was born in Liège, Belgium, although his parents were Dutch and moved back to the Nether ...
(aka Corneille). Gentry accepted the opportunity to exhibit at Galerie Hybler in Copenhagen in 1959, and relocated to Copenhagen to prepare.
Copenhagen, 1958–62
Copenhagen was an important jazz capital in Europe, and hosted a lively African-American community of musicians and artists. After his successful solo exhibition at Galerie Hybler, Gentry remained in Copenhagen to prepare for a series of solo exhibitions in Northern Europe, in Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, and Netherlands. He was soon exhibiting paintings in galleries across Northern Europe. While associating Gentry's paintings with art of the
COBRA movement, Danish critics
Jen Jorgen Thorsen and Uffe Harder declared his work distinctly American.
Over the next five years Gentry had solo exhibitions at Galerie Suzanne Bollag, Zurich, 1959; Galerie Die Insel, Hamburg, 1960; Kunstudstillningsbygning, Odense, DK, 1960; Galerie Aestetica, Stockholm, SE, 1960; Galerie Perron, Geneva, 1961; Galerie Passpartout, Copenhagen, 1961, 1963; Galerie Leger, Malmö, 1962; Galerie Rudolph Meier, Davos, 1962. He was invited to exhibit at
Den Frie, Copenhagen, in 1960 with the group 6 + 2; in 1964 at Den Frie Gentry was included in "10 American Negro Artists" with Harvey Cropper,
Beauford Delaney
Beauford Delaney (December 30, 1901 – March 26, 1979) was an American modernist painter. He is remembered for his work with the Harlem Renaissance in the 1930s and 1940s, as well as his later works in abstract expressionism following his mo ...
, Clifford Jackson,
Sam Middleton, Larry Potter, Walter Williams, and others.
Stockholm, 1963–76
Gentry moved to
Gothenburg, Sweden in 1963, and had relocated to
Stockholm by 1965. In Sweden he developed friendships with sculptors Torsten Rehnqvist and
Willy Gordon, and painters
Bengt Lindström, and
Gösta Werner
Gösta Werner (May 15, 1908 – July 20, 2009) was a Swedish film director. He was married to Kaj Björkdahl. He primarily made his mark on European cinema during the 1940s. During the 1970s, Werner was first associate professor at Stockholm Un ...
. Important
solo exhibitions included Galerie Doktor Glas, Stockholm, 1967; Galerie Marya, Copenhagen, 1967; Galerie Zodiaque, Brussels, 1967 and Vikingsborg Museum, Helsingborg, 1966.
While living in
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...
, Gentry kept a studio in Paris through 1980. His dedication to mobility differentiated Gentry from most of his fellow American
expatriate
An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. In common usage, the term often refers to educated professionals, skilled workers, or artists taking positions outside their home country, either ...
s. He followed the model of artists like
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
n
Surrealist
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...
Wifredo Lam
Wifredo Óscar de la Concepción Lam y Castilla (; December 8, 1902 – September 11, 1982), better known as Wifredo Lam, was a Cuban artist who sought to portray and revive the enduring Afro-Cuban spirit and culture. Inspired by and in conta ...
, who kept studios in more than one country. Montparnasse in Paris remained a central hub for the European art world.
In Stockholm in 1975 Gentry was honored with a retrospective exhibition at the
Royal Swedish Academy of Arts
The Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts ( sv, Kungliga Akademien för de fria konsterna), commonly called the Royal Academy, is located in Stockholm, Sweden. An independent organization that promotes the development of painting, sculpture, archite ...
, which traveled to Norrköpings Museum, and Amos Andersson Museum in
Helsinki, Finland.
[Blatt, K., N'Namdi, J., and Rose, M. A. (eds) (2008), ''Herbert Gentry: The Man, The Master, The Magic. Essays by Najjar Abdul-Musawwir, Brenda Delany, Herbert Gentry, Mary Anne Rose, Wim Roefs, Lewis Tanner Moore, George R. N'Namdi.'' Chicago: G. R. N'Namdi Gallery.]
Paris, 1976–80
Gentry was awarded a studio at the
Cité internationale des arts
The Cité internationale des arts is an artist-in-residence building complex which accommodates artists of all specialities and nationalities in Paris. It comprises two sites, one located in the Marais and the other in Montmartre. Approximatel ...
in Paris and worked there for four years. During this period he experimented, working in acrylic on raw linen. He befriended many artists he met at the Cité:
Mordecai Ardon, Gerald Jackson, Francisca Lindberg, Christine O'Loughlin, Vicente Pimentel, Mary Anne Rose,
Grace Renzi, and Ulla Waller. He had solo exhibitions in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
and Sweden: Randall Gallery, NYC, 1978; Fabien Carlsson Gallery, Gothenburg, Sweden, 1977;
Montclair State College
Montclair State University (MSU) is a public research university in Montclair, New Jersey, with parts of the campus extending into Little Falls. As of fall 2018, Montclair State was, by enrollment, the second largest public university in New ...
,
Montclair, New Jersey
Montclair () is a township in Essex County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Situated on the cliffs of the Watchung Mountains, Montclair is a wealthy and diverse commuter town and suburb of New York City within the New York metropolitan area. ...
, 1977.
Malmö, Sweden, 1980–2003
In later years, he worked less in France and spent more time in New York City. He returned to Sweden and established his studio in
Malmö
Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal pop ...
across the
Øresund
Øresund or Öresund (, ; da, Øresund ; sv, Öresund ), commonly known in English as the Sound, is a strait which forms the Danish–Swedish border, separating Zealand (Denmark) from Scania (Sweden). The strait has a length of ; its width ...
from
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
. He enjoyed its slower pace, milder climate and location near the continent. He reconnected with old friends in Copenhagen. He prepared paintings and prints for gallery exhibitions in Sweden, as well as in Copenhagen,
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
,
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
, and other continental cities. Artist friendships from this period included Uno Svensson and Olle Bonnier. Between 1981 and 1993 he had numerous solo exhibitions in Europe and Scandinavia: Galerie Futura, Stockholm, 1993, 1989; Ragnarpers, Gärsnäs, SE, 1993; Falsterbo Konsthall, Falsterbo, SE, 1992; Lilla Galleriet, Helsingborg, SE, 1992, 1985; Gallerihuset, Copenhagen, DK, 1991; Bülowska Gallery, Malmö, 1991, 1987; Gallery Altes Rathaus, Inzlingen (Basel), DE, 1990; Gooijer Fine Arts, Amsterdam, NE, 1985; Galleria del Naviglio, Milan, Italy, 1984; Biblioteca Comunale di Milano, Milan, 1984; Gallery Asbæk, Copenhagen, DK, 1983; Galerie Oscar, Stockholm, 1981.
Home in New York, 1969–2003
In 1971,
Moderna Museet
Moderna Museet ("the Museum of Modern Art"), Stockholm, Sweden, is a state museum for modern and contemporary art located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, opened in 1958. In 2009, the museum opened a new branch in Malmö i ...
Director
Pontus Hulten recommended the
Chelsea Hotel as an ideal residence for Gentry and his family to take an apartment for a year's stay in New York City. Welcomed by hotel manager Stanley Bard, Gentry discovered a number of artist colleagues from Paris already living and working there. An ideal fit, having a home in New York made it possible for Gentry to return many times and be active in the New York art world. He had exhibitions at Andre Zarre Gallery (New York), 1974 and
Selma Burke Art Center,
Carnegie Institute (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 1972. Gentry became a "permanent resident" of the Chelsea Hotel in 1982. He renewed old artistic friendships:
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 ...
,
Ed Clark
Edward E. Clark (born May 4, 1930) is an American lawyer and politician who ran for governor of California in 1978, and for president of the United States as the nominee of the Libertarian Party in the 1980 presidential election.
Clark is an h ...
,
Bill Hutson, and
Robert Blackburn, and made new ones.
Between 1975 and 1995, Gentry's creative production was fueled by mobility. He was in continuous movement, traveling several times a year. He commuted between New York and Paris (or Sweden), while he established an artistic reputation in the United States. During this period he showed in Europe as an American artist, while in the United States he was exhibited as an African-American artist.
Beginning in 1987, Gentry had many one-person exhibitions in the United States: Alitash Kebede Gallery, Los Angeles, California, 2004, 1994, 1987; Quick Art Center,
St. Bonaventure University, Olean, New York, 1995; Stella Jones Gallery, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1998; Stella Jones Gallery, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1998;
Molloy College
Molloy University is a private Roman Catholic university in Rockville Centre, New York. It provides more than 50 academic undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degree programs for over 5,000 undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students.
His ...
,
Rockville Centre, New York, 2000; and Macy Gallery,
Teachers College, Columbia University
Teachers College, Columbia University (TC), is the graduate school of education, health, and psychology of Columbia University, a private research university in New York City. Founded in 1887, it has served as one of the official faculties and ...
, New York, 2000; Steve Turner Gallery, Beverly Hills, California, 2002; Parish Gallery, Georgetown, Washington, D.C., 2003. He had nine solo shows at G. R. N’Namdi Gallery between 1991 and 2008: in New York, 2008, 2003; in
Chicago, Illinois
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
, 2004, 2000, 1998; in
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
, 2003; and
Birmingham, Michigan
Birmingham is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a northern suburb of Detroit located along the Woodward Corridor ( M-1). As of the 2010 census, the population was 20,103.
History
The area comprising what is now the ...
, 1999, 1996, 1991.
Two significant exhibitions—organized by and exhibited at the
Studio Museum in Harlem—were "An Ocean Apart" in 1982, and "Explorations in the City of Light" (1996), which traveled to
Chicago Cultural Center
The Chicago Cultural Center, opened in 1897, is a Chicago Landmark building operated by Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events that houses the city's official reception venue where the Mayor of Chicago has welcomed presid ...
,
Milwaukee Museum of Art,
Fort Worth Art Museum and
New Orleans Museum of Art
The New Orleans Museum of Art (or NOMA) is the oldest fine arts museum in the city of New Orleans. It is situated within City Park, a short distance from the intersection of Carrollton Avenue and Esplanade Avenue, and near the terminus of the ...
.
Important retrospective exhibitions since the artist's death in 2003 include: "Herbert Gentry: Moved by Music",
Wadsworth Atheneum
The Wadsworth Atheneum is an art museum in Hartford, Connecticut. The Wadsworth is noted for its collections of European Baroque art, ancient Egyptian and Classical bronzes, French and American Impressionist paintings, Hudson River School lands ...
, Amistad Center for Art and Culture, Hartford, Connecticut, 2006; "Herbert Gentry: the Man the Magic the Master", James E. Lewis Museum at
Morgan State University
Morgan State University (Morgan State or MSU) is a public historically black research university in Baltimore, Maryland. It is the largest of Maryland's historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). In 1867, the university, then known a ...
in Baltimore, Maryland, 2007; "Herbert Gentry: the Man the Magic the Master", Diggs Gallery,
Winston-Salem State University
Winston-Salem State University (WSSU) is a historically black public university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It is part of the University of North Carolina.
History
Winston-Salem State University was founded as Slater Industrial Academy o ...
, North Carolina, 2008; "Herbert Gentry: Facing Other Ways",
Rush Rhees Library Rare Books and Special Collections,
University of Rochester
The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants Undergraduate education, undergraduate and graduate degrees, including Doctorate, do ...
, Rochester, New York, 2007; "Face to Face", Phillips Museum of Art,
Franklin & Marshall College
Franklin & Marshall College (F&M) is a private liberal arts college in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It employs 175 full-time faculty members and has a student body of approximately 2,400 full-time students. It was founded upon the merger of Fran ...
, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 2005.
Selected collections
Gentry's work is in the collections of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
(New York); the American Art Museum and
Hirshhorn Museum
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., the United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was desi ...
(
Smithsonianbr>
Washington, D.C.); the Studio Museum in Harlem (New York); the
Masur Museum of Art, Masur Museum (
Monroe, Louisiana); the
Wadsworth Atheneum
The Wadsworth Atheneum is an art museum in Hartford, Connecticut. The Wadsworth is noted for its collections of European Baroque art, ancient Egyptian and Classical bronzes, French and American Impressionist paintings, Hudson River School lands ...
Museum of Art and the Amistad Center for Art and Culture (Hartford, Connecticut); the
Dayton Art Institute (Dayton, Ohio); and the
Brooklyn Museum
(Brooklyn, New York). In Europe and beyond, his work is collected by the
Moderna Museet
Moderna Museet ("the Museum of Modern Art"), Stockholm, Sweden, is a state museum for modern and contemporary art located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, opened in 1958. In 2009, the museum opened a new branch in Malmö i ...
(Stockholm, Sweden), Norrköpings Art Museum (Norrköping, Sweden),
Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam, Netherlands),
National Gallery of Modern Art
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, c ...
(New Delhi, India) and
Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris (France), as well as many private collections.
Further reading
*Blatt, K., J. N'Namdi, and M. A. Rose (eds) (2008)
''Herbert Gentry: The Man, The Master, The Magic'' Essays by Najjar Abdul-Musawwir, Brenda Delany, Herbert Gentry, Mary Anne Rose, Wim Roefs, Lewis Tanner Moore, George R. N'Namdi. Chicago: G. R. N'Namdi Gallery.
*Bearden, R., and H. Henderson (1993), ''A History of African American Artists from 1792 to the Present''. New York: Pantheon Books.
*Bomani, A., and B. Rooks (eds) (1992), ''Paris Connections: African American artists in Paris''. Essays by
Ted Joans, Theresa Leininger, Marie-Françoise Sanconie. Fort Bragg, California: Q.E.D. Press.
*Bowker, R. R. (1993), ''Who's Who in American Art-1994: 1993-1994'', 20th Edition, New York: Bowker.
*Delany, B. K. (2003), ''Post-World War II Expatriate Painters: The Question of a Black Aesthetic''. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University. Doctoral dissertation.
*Gardner, Paul, "When France was home to African-American Artists", ''The Smithsonian Magazine'', Volume 26, No. 12, March pp. 106–112.
*Harrisberg, Halley K. (ed.) (2001), ''African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks'', VIII. Exhibition Catalogue New York: Michael Rosenfeld Gallery.
*Igoe, Lynn Moody (1981), ''Two Hundred and Fifty Years of African American Art: An Annotated Bibliography''. New York: R.R. Bowker.
*Kirwin, L. (1991)
"Oral History Interview with Herbert Gentry, 1991, May 23" Archives of American Art
The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washingt ...
, Smithsonian, Washington, D.C
Online transcript.*Patton, S. F. (1998), ''African-American Art''. Oxford and New York: Oxford University, pp. 161, 164, 167, 176, 177, 178.
*Phillips Museum (2005), ''Face to Face: Herbert Gentry''. Essays by Brenda Delany, Bill Hutson, Mary Anne Rose. Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Franklin and Marshall College.
*Riggs, T. (1997), ''St. James Guide to Black Artists''. Detroit, Michigan: St. James Press and Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
*Schwartzman, Myron (2004), "Romare Bearden and Herbert Gentry, Tribute to a Friendship" Alitash Kebede Gallery, Los Angeles, California. Exhibition Brochure.
*Schwartzman, M. (1990), ''Romare Bearden: His Life and his Art''. New York: Harry N. Abrams. pp. 116, 162–72, 167, 168.
*Selz, Peter, "Herbert Gentry". Essay for gallery exhibition, 1994. Los Angeles, California: Alitash Kebede Gallery. Exhibition brochure.
*Studio Museum in Harlem (1982), ''An Ocean Apart: African American Artists Abroad''. New York: Studio Museum in Harlem, October 8, 1982 – January 9, 1983.
*Studio Museum in Harlem (1996), ''Explorations in the City of Light''. Essays by Michel Fabre, Valerie Mercer and
Peter Selz
Peter Howard Selz (March 27, 1919 – June 21, 2019) was a German-born American art historian and museum director and curator who specialized in German Expressionism.
Biography
Peter Selz was born in Munich of Jewish parents. In 1936, aged 17, h ...
. New York: Studio Museum in Harlem. January 18-June 2, 1996. Texts by Kinshasa Holman Conwill, Catherine Bernard, Peter Selz, Michel Fabre, Valerie J. Mercer.
References
External links
Herbert Gentry Website
See also
*
Avel de Knight
Avel de Knight (1923-1995) was an African-American artist, art educator, and art critic. His works are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center, and the University of Richmond Museums.
Early life and education
...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gentry, Herbert
American expatriates in Denmark
American expatriates in France
American expatriates in Sweden
20th-century American painters
American male painters
21st-century American painters
American people of Jamaican descent
1919 births
2003 deaths
Modern painters
People from Harlem
Alumni of the Académie de la Grande Chaumière
20th-century African-American painters
21st-century African-American artists
20th-century American male artists