biography of Charles Henry ALSTON (1907-1977)

Birth place: Charlotte, NC

Addresses: NYC

Profession: Painter, educator, sculptor, graphic artist, illustrator

Studied: ASL; Arthur Wesley Dow fel., Columbia Univ., BA, MA.

Exhibited: High Mus., Atlanta, GA; Univ. of Calif.; Oppenheimer Gallery, Chicago, IL; Dunbarton Gallery, Boston, MA; Harmon Foundation, 1933-34; ACA Gallery, NYC, 1936; MoMA, 1936,1970 (retrospective); Baltimore Mus., 1937, 1939; American Negro Exh., 1940; Dillard Univ., 1941; MMA, 1950; Pyramid Club, Philadelphia, PA, 1952; Downtown Gallery, NYC; Univ. of Nebraska; WMAA, 1954-1956; PAFA, 1955-1965; John Heller Gallery, NYC, 1956; Brussels World's Fair, 1958; CGA; ASL; Feingarten Gallery; City College of NYC, 1967; La Jolla Mus. of Art; Gallery Mod Art, New York, 1969 (retrospective); Kennedy Galleries, NYC, 1970s Awards: Dow Fellowship; Rosenwald Fellowship; Grant for achievement in arts, Inst Arts & Lett, 1958; Atlanta Univ.; Dillard Univ.; Joe & Emily Lowe Award; DeWitt Clinton Alumni Award, 1961; Thomas B Clarke Award, NAD, 1971; Golden State Insurance Co. Award.

Member: Nat. Soc. Mural Painters (dir., 1966).

Work: WMAA; MMA; Butler Art Inst.; Detroit Mus.; Ford College; IBM Corp; Atlanta Univ.; Univ. of Nebraska; Howard Univ.; ASL; Johnson Pub. Co. Commissions: Oil mural, History of California, Golden State Mutual Life Ins Co, 1948; Mosaic, Emerging Man, Harlem Hospital, New York; Man on the Threshold of Space, Harriet Tubman Sch., New York, 1967; bronze, Martin Luther King, Community Church, New York; two mosaic murals, Bronx Co Family & Criminal Court Bdlg; many priv. colls.

Comments: Preferred media: oil, stone, wood, mosaic. Positions: mem., Nat. Coun Arts, 1967; painter mem., New York City Art Comn., 1970-. Teaching: instr. drawing & painting, ASL 1950-; assoc. prof., City Col. New York, 1960-.

Sources: WW73; Alain Locke, The Negro in Art (Assocs Negro Folklore, Washington, DC, 1940); Bardolph, The Negro Vanguard (Rinehart, 1959); Cedric Dover, American Negro Art (Studio Press, London, Eng, 1960). More recently, see Cederholm, Afro-American Artists.