November 28th is Charles Alston Day!!! "Charles Alston was born in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1907 to the Reverend Primus Priss Alston and Anna Elizabeth Miller Alston. Alston’s father, who nicknamed him Spinky, died when Alston was three. His mother subsequently married Harry Bearden, uncle of Romare Bearden. In 1915, the family moved to Harlem, but Alston continued to spend summers in North Carolina until he was fifteen. As a teenager, Alston painted and sculpted from life, mastering an academic-realist style, and in 1925, he was offered a scholarship to the Yale School of Fine Arts, but attended Columbia University instead. In 1929, Alston received his BA with a concentration in fine arts, and decided to continue on for a master’s degree at Columbia University Teachers College, where he became increasingly interested in African art and aesthetics. While in graduate school, he taught at the Utopia Children’s House, where he became a mentor to Jacob Lawrence. After receiving his MA in 1931, Alston continued to work in the Harlem community, co-founding the Harlem Art Workshop in 1934. When the Workshop needed more space, he found it at 306 West 141st Street. Aided by funding from the Works Progress Administration (WPA), “306” (as it was known) became a center for the most creative minds in Harlem; regulars included Bearden, Lawrence, Augusta Savage, Richard Wright, Robert Blackburn, Countee Cullen, Ralph Ellison, and Gwendolyn Knight. In 1935, Alston became the first black supervisor in the Federal Art Project when he was assigned to direct the WPA’s Harlem Hospital murals." Thank you Mr. Alston for all of your contributions and inspiration! Please click the link below and learn more about Charles Alston. :-)
http://www.michaelrosenfeldart.com/artists/charles-alston-1907-1977
“the basically important thing is making a good picture … out of what your experience has been, and mine has been the experience of a black man in a fairly racist country.” - Charles Alston
