Benny Andrews (American,1930-2006) NY Cafe Print. Title - New York Cafe. 1966 Lithograph. Signed along the bottom, 9/250, New York Cafe, Benny Andrews in pencil. Tape hinged at the top, not glued down. Image size 11.2 inches high,14.5 inches wide. Sheet size 13.2 inches high, 17.2 inches wide. In good condition. African American artist.

Biography from Morris Museum of Art Benny Andrews was born on November 13, 1930, in Plainview, Georgia, a rural farming community sixty miles east of Atlanta. His parents, George and Viola (Perryman) Andrews, provided an encouraging and creative environment for their ten children despite their poverty and the realities of segregation. Although isolated geographically, the tight-knit family had access to newspapers, magazines, and radio programs, and attended the movies in nearby Madison, Georgia. They developed a rich narrative tradition based on their complex racial heritage, local legends, and observations of members of their community. Benny's distinctive figurative style is a result of his continued exploration of American life that was informed by his youth. The family worked as sharecroppers, and Viola, knowing the importance of education, made sure that her children attended school when it rained or when they were not needed as field hands. Although Benny's education was sporadic, he distinguished himself with his talent in drawing and used it as a survival tool to get through school. After several years at Plainview Elementary School, he walked three miles to attend Burney Street High School in Madison, and in 1948 he was the first member of the family to graduate. A two-year scholarship from the 4-H Club enabled him to enroll at Fort Valley State College in Fort Valley, Georgia. His grades were dismal and, with only a single art appreciation course available, his two years there were unsuccessful; but Benny served as an example to his siblings of the possibilities that existed beyond the farm. In 1950 he left school and enlisted in the United States Air Force. Benny used the G.I. Bill to partially fund his art education when he received his honorable discharge in 1954.

In the fall of that year, Benny began classes at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He had never before visited a museum or had a formal art lesson. Benny studied the collection of the Art Institute, wandered the city, frequented the jazz clubs, and sketched the gestures and expressions of the people he observed. His drawings and paintings employed an economy of line, figures were elongated in order to emphasize gesture, and for the first time, he experimented with collage. The dominant art movement at the time was abstract expressionism, but Benny adhered to his figural expressionistic style, which bears the influences of abstraction, social realism, surrealism, and the American scene.

When he was awarded a B.F.A. degree in 1958, he left Chicago having had his work rejected from every art show at his school. Benny headed for New York City and within a decade became a nationally recognized artist, teacher, author, activist, and advocate of the arts. His work was quickly accepted for exhibition in New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, Provincetown, and Virginia. He married and his family grew to include three children — Christopher, Thomas, and Julia. In 1965 he received a John Hay Whitney Fellowship award to visit Georgia. He produced the Autobiographical series as a result of the trip. It also established his penchant for producing a series of works that are unified by a theme. Subsequent series are Bicentennial, Women I've Known, Completing the Circle, Mule, Southland, American, Cruelty and Sorrows, Revival, Music, Langston Hughes, and Migration. Benny's commitment to the arts is expressed in his work as a teacher, activist, and advocate. He began his teaching career at Queens College (C.U.N.Y.) and, after twenty-nine years, retired as a full professor. He continues to serve as a visiting lecturer at numerous colleges and universities across the country. Benny initiated an art program in the New York state prison system that serves as a model for other programs throughout the country. He was a cofounder of the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition, which led protests and negotiations with large public institutions in order to include the work of minority and women artists in their permanent collections and exhibitions.

Benny served as the Director of the Visual Arts of the National Endowment for the Arts from 1982 through 1984. When his brother Raymond published his first novel, Appalachee Red, Benny illustrated it. He illustrated his brother's subsequent novels and continues to illustrate books by other authors. Recently he and his wife, Nene Humphrey, established the Benny Andrews Foundation, which is committed to projects designed to bring art enrichment to a diverse audience. Benny has served as a curator, critic, and writer. He was elected to the National Academy of Design in 1997 and has received numerous awards and accolades. He maintains studios in Brooklyn, New York, and Litchfield, Connecticut.

His work is found in more than thirty major museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Hirshhorn Museum, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Morris Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Newark Museum, Studio Museum in Harlem, Detroit Institute of Arts, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, and the National Museum of African Art, as well as many private collections.

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