David Driskell

Highly regarded as an artist, scholar and curator, David Driskell is one of the world’s leading authorities on African American Art. He has been the recipient of thirteen honorary doctorates and has contributed significantly to scholarship in the history of art on the role of Black artists in America. Born in 1931 in Eatonton, Georgia. He was educated at Howard University and received a Master of Fine Arts from The Catholic University Of America. In 1953 he attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. In 1961 he became a summer resident of Maine. He currently holds the title of Distinguished University Professor of Art, Emeritus, at the University of Maryland, College Park. In 1997, Driskell was awarded the President’s Medal, the highest honor the University of Maryland bestows on a member of its faculty. In the 1998, the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora was founded to promote his scholarship and service to the University. In December of 2000, President Bill Clinton bestowed the National Humanities Medal on Driskell.

Trained as a painter and art historian, Driskell works principally in collage and mixed media. His paintings and prints have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions in galleries and museums throughout the USA, including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Oakland Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art. He has been the recipient of several foundation fellowships among which are the Harmon Foundation, three Rockefeller Foundation Fellowships and the Danforth Foundation.

To learn more about Driskell’s enduring impact and legacy, be sure to check out the HBO documentary Black Art: In The Absence Of Light. The film is Inspired by Driskell’s landmark 1976 exhibition, “Two Centuries of Black American Art” and offers an illuminating introduction to the work of some of the foremost Black visual artists working today. Learn more about the documentary HERE.

Also, watch the PBS News Hour piece celebrating Driskell’s work HERE.