New York School - African-American Abstract Expressionists of The 1950s

African-American Abstract Expressionists of The 1950s

For African American artists a barrier to success in the post-War era was the prevailing blight of racism and segregation. This resulted in exclusion of artists of African-American origin from major exhibitions and critical attentions. The best evidence of this is the absence of African-American artists in the New York School Annuals between 1951 and 1957. These annual exhibitions represented a total of 265 New York School artists, none of whom were African-American.

Those artists would include the following:

• Charles Alston (1907–1977)
• Romare Bearden (1911–1988)
• Edward Clark (born 1926)
• Beauford Delaney (1901–1979)
• Harlan Jackson (born 1918)
• Norman Lewis (1909–1979)
• Thomas Sills (1914–2000)
• Merton Simpson (born 1928)
• Alma Thomas (1891–1978)
• Hale Woodruff (1900–1980)