Charles Alston
6932
226124210
2008-07-16T22:38:56Z
Modernist
1653549
List of WPA artists
[[Image:Ben banneker.jpg|thumb|260px|"A drawing of [[Benjamin Banneker]]."]]
[[Image:alston africa.jpg|thumb|260px|"Again The Springboard Of Civilization", 1943 cartoon by Charles Alston featuring WWII African American soldier.]]
'''Charles Henry Alston''' ([[November 28]], [[1907]] – [[April 27]], [[1977]]) was an [[African American]] [[artist]], [[muralist]], and [[teacher]]. Alston graduated from [[DeWitt Clinton High School]] in New York City, then attended [[Columbia College of Columbia University|Columbia College]] and [[Teachers College, Columbia University|Teachers College]] at [[Columbia University]] where he obtained his [[Master of Fine Arts]].
Alston began his art career while still a student, illustrating [[album cover]]s for jazz musician [[Duke Ellington]] and book covers for poet [[Langston Hughes]]. He was influenced by Mexican muralists, [[Diego Rivera]], in particular, who tied their murals into early twentieth century social movements. Alston painted murals throughout [[Harlem]], including [[Great Depression|depression]]-era murals as part of the [[Works Progress Administration]]'s [[Federal Art Project]]. The best known of his mural works is one of a series of murals created by Alston and other [[Harlem, New York|Harlem]] artists for the [[Harlem Hospital Center]]. They can be viewed online at <ref>[http://www.columbia.edu/cu/iraas/wpa/index.html Harlem Hospital WPA Murals<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> The sketches proposed for the murals raised the objections of two of the hospital's leaders, [[Lawrence T. Dermody]] and [[S. S. Goldwater]], because of what they considered the excessive numbers of African Americans prominent in the murals. With financial assistance from [[Louis T. Wright]], the first African American physician to serve on the hospital's staff, the matter received enough publicity and support for the murals to allow the artists to go forward with production.<ref>{{cite web |
title = Harlem Hospital WPA Murals|
work = Institute for Research in African-American Studies Credits |
publisher = Columbia University|
date = 2006|
url = http://www.columbia.edu/cu/iraas/wpa/index.html|
accessdate = 2007-08-06}}</ref> Master artists who worked on murals included [[Georgette Seabrooke]], muralist [[Vertis Hayes]], Sicilian-American [[fresco]] painter [[Alfred Crimi]]; assistants included modernist painter [[Beauford Delaney]], and photographer [[Morgan Smith]].
Alston's artwork often incorporated features of African art. During the [[Great Depression]], he and sculptor [[Henry Bannarn]] directed the [[Harlem Art Workshop]] where Alston and Bannarn were mentors to African American painter [[Jacob Lawrence]], among others. Alston was the first African-American instructor at the [[Art Students League of New York]] (1950-1971) and the [[Museum of Modern Art]] (1956). He became a full professor at the [[City University of New York]] (CUNY) in 1973. In addition to the murals, some of his paintings, sculptures, and illustrations are held in the permanent collections of the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], and the [[Whitney Museum of American Art]].
==External links==
*[http://posters-art.us/biography/Charles_Alston.html Charles Alston Biography]
==See also==
*[[List of WPA artists]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
* Marika Herskovic, [http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/oclc/50253062&tab=holdings ''American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s An Illustrated Survey,''] (New York School Press, 2003.) ISBN 0-9677994-1-4
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alston, Charles}}
[[Category:1907 births]]
[[Category:1977 deaths]]
[[Category:American painters]]
[[Category:Abstract expressionist artists]]
[[Category:Modern painters]]
[[Category:African American artists]]
[[Category:Columbia University alumni]]
[[Category:Muralists]]
[[Category:Members of Art Students League of New York]]
{{US-artist-stub}}
{{US-painter-stub}}
[[fr:Charles Alston (peintre)]]
[[pt:Charles Alston]]
[[tg:Чарлз Алстон]]