Herbert Gentry
Encyclopedia
Herbert Gentry was an African American Expressionist painter lived and worked in Paris, France, (1946–1970; 1976–1980), Copenhagen, Denmark (1958–1963), In the Swedish cities of Gothenburg (1963–1965), Stockholm (1965–1976; 2001–2003), and Malmo (1980–2001), and in New York City (1970–2000) as a permanent resident of the Hotel Chelsea
.
The faces evoke subtle expressions and moods. Rather than using images to depict a concrete story, Gentry releases his experiences upon the canvas. The act of spontaneous painting uses consciousness itself, and each painting reveals the self. When asked about direct influences, he avoids imposing external meanings upon primary experience, describing instead his creative process.
Philosophically near the jazz musician, Gentry breathes rhythms into a personally inflected expressionism. "The staccato beat of jazz is fused with biomorphic form in paintings which never become totally abstract, but hold the picture plane in the Cubist tradition" wrote art historian Peter Selz (1994) about Gentry’s work. Gentry creates a foil for feelings and for emotion, and orchestrates his subjective figuration in dialogue with the immediacy of the painted gesture. Romare Bearden (1981) wrote that Gentry’s "method is conceptual rather than realistic. One senses in the chromatic emotionalism, and in the biomorphic forms of the figures that often appear in Gentry’s paintings, the strong pull of the unconscious."
The Harlem Renaissance provided the backdrop for Gentry’s childhood. His mother worked as a dancer and actress. Under the name Teresa Gentry, she danced in the chorus with Josephine Baker
and Bessye Buchanen. Later, she was in the cast of the original rendition of the Zeigfeld musical Show Boat
in 1927, as well as its revival in 1932. His mother’s friends included Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, and Duke Ellington.
As a youngster he had a role in the play Scarlet Sister Mary
which toured the country with actress Ethel Barrymore
and opened on Broadway in 1931. *http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=11274 Gentry took inspiration from artists, musicians, writers, dancers, and actors, all of whom reinforced his belief in the creative world which lay beyond Harlem.
Educated in the New York City Public Schools, Gentry attended Cooper Junior High and George Washington High School. He pursued drawing in school took art classes at the Harlem YMCA and later studied art as part of the under the Federal Art Project
of the WPA (Works Progress Administration
) at Roosevelt High School.
In 1939, Gentry demonstrated with his friends for better employment opportunities for Black people, in connection with his cousin Arnold P. Johnson, who worked with Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.
As a result, he became the first white collar worker for Consolidated Edison
in New York. At the same time, he studied business at New York University. "If you do well, we'll hire others," he was told by the company directors.
Herbert Gentry was in the U.S. Army (1942–1945) serving in the 90th Coast Guard Artillery / Anti-Aircraft Regiment working in Special Services. His U.S. Army Service in World War II took Gentry to different countries in the Mediterranean and Northern Europe: Morocco, Algeria, Madeline Island, (Italy), Corsica, Marseilles, Paris, Alsace-Lorraine, (France), and Salzburg (Austria). At the end of the war, Gentry was stationed in the Paris suburb of Crepy-en-Vallois. He took every opportunity to visit Paris.
His first year back in Paris, Gentry resided at the American House at the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris
, where he met fellow American students: sculptor Kosta Alex, pianist Julian Ketcham, and writers Marc Behm
, and Dan Kurzman. Moving beyond student circles, he sought out Richard Wright (author)
, who encouraged him in his art; he got to know James Baldwin (writer)
.
Gentry studied French at the Alliance Francaise, and was enrolled at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Sociales. Académie de la Grande Chaumière
had an approach to art teaching that matched Gentry's need for freedom. He spent three years studying with Ossip Zadkine
and French painter Yves Brayer
. By 1949 Gentry was teaching visiting Americans at L' Academie de la Grand Chaumiere and had his first solo Parisian exhibition at Galerie de Seine.
Gentry lived the cafe life in Montparnasse
, meeting his fellow American artists at cafe Dome, Le Select and La Coupole
: sculptors Shinkichi Tajiri
, Kosta Alex, and Harold Cousins, painters Herbie Katzman, John Hultberg, Burt Hasen, Haywood Bill Rivers, Sam Francis
, Avel DeKnight, and painter-filmmaker Carmen D'Avino
; as ex-GI's, students and young artists, they casually rubbed shoulders with the greats like Alberto Giacometti
and Georges Braque
. There were many others, such as Jimmy 'Loverman' Davis, Romare Bearden
, Serge Charchoune, George Spaventa, Corneille, Wilfredo Lam, and Jean Cocteau
.
Between 1948 and 1951, Gentry opened Chez Honey, a club-galerie in Montparnasse, an exhibition space by day and a jazz club by night. Featuring his wife, Honey Johnson, a singer who had come to Europe with Rex Stewart's Band, the club was known as the place to hear modern jazz. Pete Matz accompanied on piano, as would Dick Allen, and Art Simmons
. Don Byas, The club attracted an international crowd. Patrons included Jean-Paul Sartre
, Simone de Beauvoir
, Juliette Greco
, Eartha Kitt, Orson Welles
, Jean-Louis Barrault
, and Marcel Marceau
. Painter Larry Rivers
, who arrived in 1950, jammed with the professional musicians.
In November 1951 Gentry left for New York. It proved a difficult adjustment; in 1953 he returned to Paris on the same boat as two painters who would become important friends: Beauford Delaney
and Larry Potter. No longer on the GI Bill, Gentry got work in Paris jazz clubs; by 1955 he was arranging entertainment shows for the Allied and American Armed Forces in France and Germany. He met many American musicians and dancers including Mary Lou Williams
, Maya Angelou
, and others in Paris like Art Buchwald
, and Moune de Rivel. He studied privately with painter Georges Braque
. Active in Parisian cafe life, he and Larry Potter (painter) congregated with African American writers Chester Himes
, Ollie Harrington
, among others at the cafe Tournon; Gentry socialized at with visual artists at cafe le Select and la Coupole in Montparnasse where he also met the Dutch, Belgian and Scandinavian artists of the COBRA-group: Ejler Bille
, Robert Jacobsen
, Karel Appel
, Carl-Henning Pedersen
, Bram Bogard, and Guillaume Cornelis van Beverloo
aka Corneille. Gentry accepted the opportunity to exhibit at Galerie Hybler in Copenhagen in 1959, and relocated to Copenhagen to prepare.
Over the next five years he had solo exhibitions at Galerie Suzanne Bollag, Zurich, 1959; Galerie Die Insel, Hamburg, 1960; Kunstudstillningsbygning, Odense, DK, 1960; Galerie Aestetica, Stockholm, SE, 1960; Galerie Perron, Geneva, 1961; Galerie Passpartout, Copenhagen, 1961, 1963; Galerie Leger, Malmö, 1962; Galerie Rudolph Meier, Davos, 1962. He was invited to exhibit at Den Frie, Copenhagen, in 1960 with the group 6 + 2; in 1964 at Den Frie Gentry was included in "10 American Negro Artists"
with Harvey Cropper, Beauford Delaney
, Clifford Jackson, Sam Middleton, Larry Potter, Walter Williams, and others.
, and painters Bengt Lindström
, and Gösta Werner (painter). Important solo exhibitions included Galerie Doktor Glas, Stockholm, 1967; Galerie Marya, Copenhagen, 1967; Galerie Zodiaque, Brussels, 1967 and Vikingsborg Museum, Helsingborg, 1966.
While living in Scandinavia, Gentry kept a studio in Paris through 1980. His dedication to mobility differentiated Gentry from most of his fellow American expatriates. He followed the model of artists like Cuban Surrealist Wifredo Lam
, who kept studios in more than one country. Montparnasse in Paris remained a central hub for the European art world.
In Stockholm in 1975 he was honored with a retrospective exhibition at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts
(Kungliga Akademien för de fria konsterna), which traveled to Norrkopings Museum, and Amos Andersson Museum in Helsinki, Finland.
Director Pontus Hulten
recommended the Chelsea Hotel
as an ideal residence for Gentry and his family to take an apartment for a year's stay in New York City. Welcomed by hotel manager Stanley Bard, Gentry discovered a number of artist colleagues from Paris already living and working there. An ideal fit, having a home in New York made it possible for Gentry to return many times and be active in the New York art world. He had exhibitions at Andre Zarre Gallery (New York, NY), 1974 and Selma Burke Art Center, Carnegie Institute (Pittsburgh, PA), 1972. Gentry became a "permanent resident" of the Chelsea Hotel in 1982. He renewed old artistic friendships: Romare Bearden
, Ed Clark, Bill Hutson, and Robert Blackburn, and made new ones.
Between 1975 and 1995, Gentry's creative production was fueled by mobility. He was in continuous movement, traveling several times a year. He commuted between New York and Paris (or Sweden), while he established an artistic reputation in the United States. During this period he showed in Europe as an American artist, while in the United States he was exhibited as an African American artist.
Beginning in 1987, Gentry had many one-person exhibitions in the United States: Alitash Kebede Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 2004, 1994, 1987; Quick Art Center, St. Bonaventure University, Olean, NY, 1995; Stella Jones Gallery, New Orleans, LA, 1998; Stella Jones Gallery, New Orleans, LA, 1998; Molloy College, Rockville Centre, NY, 2000; and Macy Gallery, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, 2000; Steve Turner Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA, 2002; Parish Gallery, Georgetown, Washington, DC, 2003. He had nine solo shows at G. R. N’Namdi Gallery between 1991 and 2008: in New York, NY, 2008, 2003; in Chicago, IL, 2004, 2000, 1998; in Detroit, MI, 2003; and Birmingham, MI, 1999, 1996, 1991.
Two significant exhibitions—organized by and exhibited at the Studio Museum in Harlem—were "An Ocean Apart" in 1982, and "Explorations in the City of Light" (1996), which traveled to Chicago Cultural Center, Milwaukee Museum of Art, Fort Worth Art Museum and New Orleans Museum of Art.
Important retrospective exhibitions since the artist's death in 2003 include: "Herbert Gentry: Moved by Music," Wadsworth Atheneum, Amistad Center for Art and Culture, Hartford, CT, 2006; "Herbert Gentry: the Man the Magic the Master," James E. Lewis Museum at Morgan State University in Baltimore, MD, 2007; "Herbert Gentry: the Man the Magic the Master," Diggs Gallery, Winston Salem State University, NC, 2008; "Herbert Gentry: Facing Other Ways," Rush Rhees Library Rare Books and Special Collections, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, 2007; "Face to Face," Phillips Museum of Art, Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, PA, 2005.
(New York, NY); the American Art Museum and Hirshhorn Museum (Smithsonian http://hirshhorn.si.edu/visit/collection_object.asp?key=32&subkey=2739, Washington, DC); the Studio Museum in Harlem (New York, NY); the Masur Museum (Monroe, LA); the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art and the Amistad Center for Art and Culture (Hartford, CT); the Dayton Art Institute (Dayton, OH); and the Brooklyn Museum
http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/155580/Centered_and_Friends (Brooklyn, NY). In Europe and beyond, his work is collected by the Moderna Museet (Stockholm, Sweden), Norrköpings Art Museum (Norrköping, Sweden), Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam, Netherlands), National Gallery of Modern Art (New Delhi, India) and Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris (France), as well as many private collections.
Bearden, R. and Henderson, H. (1993) A History of African American Artists from 1792 to the Present. New York: Pantheon Books
Bomani, A. and Rooks, B., eds. (1992) Paris Connections : African American artists in Paris, Essays by Ted Joans, Theresa Leininger, Marie-Francoise Sanconie. Fort Bragg, CA: Q.E.D. Press.
Bowker, R. R. (1993) Who’s Who in American Art-1994: 1993-1994, 20th Edition, New York: Bowker.
Delany, B. K. (2003) Post-World War II Expatriate Painters: The Question of a Black Aesthetic. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University. Doctoral dissertation.
Gardner, Paul, “When France was home to African-American Artists” The Smithsonian Magazine, Volume 26, No. 12, March pp. 106–112.
Harrisberg, Halley K. (Ed) (2001) African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, VIII. Exhibition Catalogue New York: Michael Rosenfeld Gallery.
Igoe, Lynn Moody (1981) Two Hundred and Fifty Years of African American Art: An Annotated Bibliography. New York : R.R. Bowker
Kirwin, L., (1991) Herbert Gentry Oral History Interview for the Archives of American Art, May 23, 1991. Washington, DC: Archives of American Art Smithsonian. Available on line: http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/gentry91.htm
Patton, S. F. (1998) African-American Art. Oxford and New York: Oxford University, p. 161, 164, 167, 176, 177, 178.
Phillips Museum (2005) Face to Face: Herbert Gentry, Essays by Brenda Delany, Bill Hutson, Mary Anne Rose. Lancaster, PA: Franklin and Marshall College.
Riggs, T. (1997) St. James Guide to Black Artists. Detroit, MI: St. James Press and Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
Schwartzman, Myron. (2004) “Romare Bearden and Herbert Gentry, Tribute to a Friendship” Alitash Kebede Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. Exhibition Brochure.
Schwartzman, M. (1990) Romare Bearden : His Life and his Art. New York: Harry N. Abrams. pp. 116, 162-72,167,168.
Selz, Peter “Herbert Gentry” Essay for gallery exhibition, 1994. Los Angeles, CA: Alitash Kebede Gallery. Exhibition brochure.
Studio Museum in Harlem. (1982) An Ocean Apart: African American Artists Abroad. New York: Studio Museum in Harlem, October 8, 1982-January 9, 1983.
Studio Museum in Harlem (1996) Explorations in the City of Light. Essays by Michel Fabre, Valerie Mercer and Peter Selz. New York: Studio Museum in Harlem. January 18-June 2, 1996. Texts by Kinshasha Holman Conwill, Catherine Bernard, Peter Selz, Michel Fabre, Valerie J. Mercer.
Hotel Chelsea
The Hotel Chelsea, also known as the Chelsea Hotel, or simply the Chelsea, is a historic New York City hotel and landmark, known primarily for its history of notable residents...
.
The art of Herbert Gentry
Gentry’s paintings juxtapose faces and masks, shifting orientations of figures and heads—human and animal—into profiles, to the left, to the right, above and below. The direction of the head, as face or profile, leading right or left, or facing front, is played against the relative scale of each head, its position on the canvas, and in relationship to the others.The faces evoke subtle expressions and moods. Rather than using images to depict a concrete story, Gentry releases his experiences upon the canvas. The act of spontaneous painting uses consciousness itself, and each painting reveals the self. When asked about direct influences, he avoids imposing external meanings upon primary experience, describing instead his creative process.
Philosophically near the jazz musician, Gentry breathes rhythms into a personally inflected expressionism. "The staccato beat of jazz is fused with biomorphic form in paintings which never become totally abstract, but hold the picture plane in the Cubist tradition" wrote art historian Peter Selz (1994) about Gentry’s work. Gentry creates a foil for feelings and for emotion, and orchestrates his subjective figuration in dialogue with the immediacy of the painted gesture. Romare Bearden (1981) wrote that Gentry’s "method is conceptual rather than realistic. One senses in the chromatic emotionalism, and in the biomorphic forms of the figures that often appear in Gentry’s paintings, the strong pull of the unconscious."
Harlem Renaissance childhood
Herbert Alexander Gentry was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 17, 1919. He was the son of James Jentry of Madison Courthouse, VA and Violet Howden of Kingston, Jamaica. By 1924 he was living in Harlem, New York City with his mother and her family.The Harlem Renaissance provided the backdrop for Gentry’s childhood. His mother worked as a dancer and actress. Under the name Teresa Gentry, she danced in the chorus with Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker was an American dancer, singer, and actress who found fame in her adopted homeland of France. She was given such nicknames as the "Bronze Venus", the "Black Pearl", and the "Créole Goddess"....
and Bessye Buchanen. Later, she was in the cast of the original rendition of the Zeigfeld musical Show Boat
Show Boat
Show Boat is a musical in two acts with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It was originally produced in New York in 1927 and in London in 1928, and was based on the 1926 novel of the same name by Edna Ferber. The plot chronicles the lives of those living and working...
in 1927, as well as its revival in 1932. His mother’s friends included Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, and Duke Ellington.
As a youngster he had a role in the play Scarlet Sister Mary
Scarlet Sister Mary
Scarlet Sister Mary is a 1928 novel by Julia Peterkin. It won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1929.The book was called obscene and banned at the public library in Gaffney, South Carolina. The Gaffney Ledger newspaper, however, serially published the complete book.Dr. Richard S...
which toured the country with actress Ethel Barrymore
Ethel Barrymore
Ethel Barrymore was an American actress and a member of the Barrymore family of actors.-Early life:Ethel Barrymore was born Ethel Mae Blythe in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the second child of the actors Maurice Barrymore and Georgiana Drew...
and opened on Broadway in 1931. *http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=11274 Gentry took inspiration from artists, musicians, writers, dancers, and actors, all of whom reinforced his belief in the creative world which lay beyond Harlem.
Educated in the New York City Public Schools, Gentry attended Cooper Junior High and George Washington High School. He pursued drawing in school took art classes at the Harlem YMCA and later studied art as part of the under the Federal Art Project
Federal Art Project
The Federal Art Project was the visual arts arm of the Great Depression-era New Deal Works Progress Administration Federal One program in the United States. It operated from August 29, 1935, until June 30, 1943. Reputed to have created more than 200,000 separate works, FAP artists created...
of the WPA (Works Progress Administration
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
) at Roosevelt High School.
In 1939, Gentry demonstrated with his friends for better employment opportunities for Black people, in connection with his cousin Arnold P. Johnson, who worked with Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.
Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.
Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., was an American politician and pastor who represented Harlem, New York City, in the United States House of Representatives . He was the first person of African-American descent elected to Congress from New York and became a powerful national politician...
As a result, he became the first white collar worker for Consolidated Edison
Consolidated Edison
Consolidated Edison, Inc. is one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the United States, with approximately $14 billion in annual revenues and $36 billion in assets...
in New York. At the same time, he studied business at New York University. "If you do well, we'll hire others," he was told by the company directors.
Herbert Gentry was in the U.S. Army (1942–1945) serving in the 90th Coast Guard Artillery / Anti-Aircraft Regiment working in Special Services. His U.S. Army Service in World War II took Gentry to different countries in the Mediterranean and Northern Europe: Morocco, Algeria, Madeline Island, (Italy), Corsica, Marseilles, Paris, Alsace-Lorraine, (France), and Salzburg (Austria). At the end of the war, Gentry was stationed in the Paris suburb of Crepy-en-Vallois. He took every opportunity to visit Paris.
Paris 1946–1958
The center of the Art World before World War II, Paris still held that title in 1946. Paris touched other memories for ex-soldier Gentry, who as a youth had heard many of his mother's friends speak of their travel and performances in Paris. Home in Harlem after his discharge from the Army, Gentry wanted to study art in Paris. Not waiting for the administration of the GI Bill to be organized in Paris, and warned that the basic amenities were still rationed, Gentry arrived for the Fall 1946 academic term.His first year back in Paris, Gentry resided at the American House at the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris
Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris
The Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris , also known under its abbreviation of CIUP or often as Cité U among Parisiens, is a private park and foundation located in Paris, France...
, where he met fellow American students: sculptor Kosta Alex, pianist Julian Ketcham, and writers Marc Behm
Marc Behm
Marc Behm was an American novelist, actor and screenwriter, who lived as an expatriate in France....
, and Dan Kurzman. Moving beyond student circles, he sought out Richard Wright (author)
Richard Wright (author)
Richard Nathaniel Wright was an African-American author of sometimes controversial novels, short stories, poems, and non-fiction. Much of his literature concerns racial themes, especially those involving the plight of African-Americans during the late 19th to mid 20th centuries...
, who encouraged him in his art; he got to know James Baldwin (writer)
James Baldwin (writer)
James Arthur Baldwin was an American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic.Baldwin's essays, for instance "Notes of a Native Son" , explore palpable yet unspoken intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societies, most notably in mid-20th century America,...
.
Gentry studied French at the Alliance Francaise, and was enrolled at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Sociales. Académie de la Grande Chaumière
Académie de la Grande Chaumière
The Académie de la Grande Chaumière is an art school in the VIe arrondissement of Paris, France. The school was founded in 1902 by the Swiss Martha Stettler , who refused to teach the strict academic rules of painting of the École des Beaux-Arts. It opened the way to the "Art Indépendant"...
had an approach to art teaching that matched Gentry's need for freedom. He spent three years studying with Ossip Zadkine
Ossip Zadkine
Ossip Zadkine was a Belarusian-born artist who lived in France. He is primarily known as a sculptor, but also produced paintings and lithographs.-Early years and career:...
and French painter Yves Brayer
Yves Brayer
Yves Brayer is a French painter known for his paintings of every-day life.He was born in Versailles and became prominent in the years between World War I and World War II...
. By 1949 Gentry was teaching visiting Americans at L' Academie de la Grand Chaumiere and had his first solo Parisian exhibition at Galerie de Seine.
Gentry lived the cafe life in Montparnasse
Montparnasse
Montparnasse is an area of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail...
, meeting his fellow American artists at cafe Dome, Le Select and La Coupole
La Coupole
La Coupole , codenamed Bauvorhaben 21 , Schotterwerk Nordwest or Wizernes, is a Second World War bunker complex built by the forces of Nazi Germany between 1943 and 1944 to serve as a launch base for V-2 rockets against London and southern England...
: sculptors Shinkichi Tajiri
Shinkichi Tajiri
Shinkichi Tajiri was a Dutch-American sculptor of Japanese ancestry . He was also active in painting, photography and cinematography....
, Kosta Alex, and Harold Cousins, painters Herbie Katzman, John Hultberg, Burt Hasen, Haywood Bill Rivers, Sam Francis
Sam Francis
Samuel Lewis Francis was an American painter and printmaker.-Early life:...
, Avel DeKnight, and painter-filmmaker Carmen D'Avino
Carmen D'Avino
Carmen D'Avino was a pioneer in animated short film. As one of the leading figures in the avant-garde film movement of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, his films were regularly seen at Cinema 16, the most successful and influential membership film society in North American history...
; as ex-GI's, students and young artists, they casually rubbed shoulders with the greats like Alberto Giacometti
Alberto Giacometti
Alberto Giacometti was a Swiss sculptor, painter, draughtsman, and printmaker.Alberto Giacometti was born in the canton Graubünden's southerly alpine valley Val Bregaglia and came from an artistic background; his father, Giovanni, was a well-known post-Impressionist painter...
and Georges Braque
Georges Braque
Georges Braque[p] was a major 20th century French painter and sculptor who, along with Pablo Picasso, developed the art style known as Cubism.-Early Life:...
. There were many others, such as Jimmy 'Loverman' Davis, Romare Bearden
Romare Bearden
Romare Bearden was an African American artist and writer. He worked in several media including cartoons, oils, and collage.-Education:...
, Serge Charchoune, George Spaventa, Corneille, Wilfredo Lam, and Jean Cocteau
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...
.
Between 1948 and 1951, Gentry opened Chez Honey, a club-galerie in Montparnasse, an exhibition space by day and a jazz club by night. Featuring his wife, Honey Johnson, a singer who had come to Europe with Rex Stewart's Band, the club was known as the place to hear modern jazz. Pete Matz accompanied on piano, as would Dick Allen, and Art Simmons
Art Simmons
Arthur Eugene Simmons is an American jazz pianist.Simmons played in a band while serving in the U.S. military in 1946. He remained in Germany after the war, studying music, and moved to Paris in 1949...
. Don Byas, The club attracted an international crowd. Patrons included Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy, particularly Marxism, and was one of the key figures in literary...
, Simone de Beauvoir
Simone de Beauvoir
Simone-Ernestine-Lucie-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir, often shortened to Simone de Beauvoir , was a French existentialist philosopher, public intellectual, and social theorist. She wrote novels, essays, biographies, an autobiography in several volumes, and monographs on philosophy, politics, and...
, Juliette Greco
Juliette Gréco
Juliette Gréco, — also Michelle – is a French actress and popular chanson singer.-Early life and family:Juliette Gréco was born in Montpellier to a Corsican father and a mother who became active in the Résistance, in the Hérault département of southern France. She was raised by her maternal...
, Eartha Kitt, Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
, Jean-Louis Barrault
Jean-Louis Barrault
Jean-Louis Barrault was a French actor, director and mime artist, training that served him well when he portrayed the 19th-century mime Jean-Gaspard Deburau in Marcel Carné's 1945 film Les Enfants du Paradis .Jean-Louis Barrault studied with Charles Dullin in whose troupe he acted...
, and Marcel Marceau
Marcel Marceau
Marcel Marceau was an internationally acclaimed French actor and mime most famous for his persona as Bip the Clown.-Early years:...
. Painter Larry Rivers
Larry Rivers
Larry Rivers was an American artist, musician, filmmaker and occasional actor. Rivers resided and maintained studios in New York City, Southampton, New York and Zihuatanejo, Mexico.-Biography:...
, who arrived in 1950, jammed with the professional musicians.
In November 1951 Gentry left for New York. It proved a difficult adjustment; in 1953 he returned to Paris on the same boat as two painters who would become important friends: Beauford Delaney
Beauford Delaney
Beauford Delaney was an American modernist painter.-Early life:Beauford Delaney was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, in 1901. Delaney’s parents were prominent and respected members of Knoxville's black community. His father Samuel was both a barber and a Methodist minister...
and Larry Potter. No longer on the GI Bill, Gentry got work in Paris jazz clubs; by 1955 he was arranging entertainment shows for the Allied and American Armed Forces in France and Germany. He met many American musicians and dancers including Mary Lou Williams
Mary Lou Williams
Mary Lou Williams was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. Williams wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements, and recorded more than one hundred records...
, Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou is an American author and poet who has been called "America's most visible black female autobiographer" by scholar Joanne M. Braxton. She is best known for her series of six autobiographical volumes, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first and most highly...
, and others in Paris like Art Buchwald
Art Buchwald
Arthur Buchwald was an American humorist best known for his long-running column in The Washington Post, which in turn was carried as a syndicated column in many other newspapers. His column focused on political satire and commentary...
, and Moune de Rivel. He studied privately with painter Georges Braque
Georges Braque
Georges Braque[p] was a major 20th century French painter and sculptor who, along with Pablo Picasso, developed the art style known as Cubism.-Early Life:...
. Active in Parisian cafe life, he and Larry Potter (painter) congregated with African American writers Chester Himes
Chester Himes
Chester Bomar Himes was an American writer. His works include If He Hollers Let Him Go and a series of Harlem Detective novels...
, Ollie Harrington
Ollie Harrington
Oliver Wendell Harrington , of multi-ethnic descent, was called by Langston Hughes, "America's greatest African-American cartoonist," an assessment that has stood the test of time...
, among others at the cafe Tournon; Gentry socialized at with visual artists at cafe le Select and la Coupole in Montparnasse where he also met the Dutch, Belgian and Scandinavian artists of the COBRA-group: Ejler Bille
Ejler Bille
Ejler Bille was a Danish artist. He studied at the Kunsthåndværkerskolen in Copenhagen, with Bizzie Høyer 1930-32 and the Royal Danish Academy of Art, 1933. In 1934 he joined Linien, Corner in 1940 and CoBrA in 1949. He had concentrated on small sculptures, but moved into painting after joining...
, Robert Jacobsen
Robert Jacobsen
Robert Julius Tommy Jacobsen was a Danish sculptor and painter. The Danish Robert award was named after him.-Biography:...
, Karel Appel
Karel Appel
Christiaan Karel Appel was a Dutch painter, sculptor, and poet. He started painting at the age of fourteen and studied at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam in the 1940s...
, Carl-Henning Pedersen
Carl-Henning Pedersen
Carl-Henning Pedersen was a Danish painter and a key member of the COBRA movement. He was known as the "Scandinavian Chagall", and was one of the leading Danish artists of the second half of the 20th century....
, Bram Bogard, and Guillaume Cornelis van Beverloo
Guillaume Cornelis van Beverloo
Guillaume Cornelis van Beverloo , better known under his pseudonym Corneille, was a Dutch artist.Corneille was born in Liege, Belgium, although his parents were Dutch and moved back to the Netherlands when he was 12. He studied art at the Academy of Art in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands...
aka Corneille. Gentry accepted the opportunity to exhibit at Galerie Hybler in Copenhagen in 1959, and relocated to Copenhagen to prepare.
Copenhagen 1958–1962
Copenhagen was an important jazz capital in Europe, and hosted a lively African-American community of musicians and artists. After his successful solo exhibition at Galerie Hybler, Gentry remained in Copenhagen to prepare for a series of solo exhibitions in Northern Europe, in Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, and Netherlands. Gentry was soon exhibiting paintings in galleries across Northern Europe. While associating Gentry's paintings with art of the COBRA movement, Danish critics Jen Jorgen Thorsen and Uffe Harder declared his work distinctly American.Over the next five years he had solo exhibitions at Galerie Suzanne Bollag, Zurich, 1959; Galerie Die Insel, Hamburg, 1960; Kunstudstillningsbygning, Odense, DK, 1960; Galerie Aestetica, Stockholm, SE, 1960; Galerie Perron, Geneva, 1961; Galerie Passpartout, Copenhagen, 1961, 1963; Galerie Leger, Malmö, 1962; Galerie Rudolph Meier, Davos, 1962. He was invited to exhibit at Den Frie, Copenhagen, in 1960 with the group 6 + 2; in 1964 at Den Frie Gentry was included in "10 American Negro Artists"
with Harvey Cropper, Beauford Delaney
Beauford Delaney
Beauford Delaney was an American modernist painter.-Early life:Beauford Delaney was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, in 1901. Delaney’s parents were prominent and respected members of Knoxville's black community. His father Samuel was both a barber and a Methodist minister...
, Clifford Jackson, Sam Middleton, Larry Potter, Walter Williams, and others.
Stockholm 1963–1976
Gentry moved to Gothenburg, Sweden in 1963, and had relocated to Stockholm by 1965. In Sweden he developed friendships with sculptors Torsten Rehnqvist and Willy GordonWilly Gordon
Willy Gordon was a Swedish-Jewish sculptor and artist. Gordon was born at Ringen in the Russian gubernia Courland and later emigrated with his family to Malmö, Sweden when he was seven years old...
, and painters Bengt Lindström
Bengt Lindström
Bengt Karl Erik Lindström was a Swedish artist. Lindström was one of Sweden's best known contemporary artists with a characteristic style of distinct colors, often including contorted faces....
, and Gösta Werner (painter). Important solo exhibitions included Galerie Doktor Glas, Stockholm, 1967; Galerie Marya, Copenhagen, 1967; Galerie Zodiaque, Brussels, 1967 and Vikingsborg Museum, Helsingborg, 1966.
While living in Scandinavia, Gentry kept a studio in Paris through 1980. His dedication to mobility differentiated Gentry from most of his fellow American expatriates. He followed the model of artists like Cuban Surrealist Wifredo Lam
Wifredo Lam
Wifredo Óscar de la Concepción Lam y Castilla , better known as Wifredo Lam, was a Cuban artist who sought to portray and revive the enduring Afro-Cuban spirit and culture...
, who kept studios in more than one country. Montparnasse in Paris remained a central hub for the European art world.
In Stockholm in 1975 he was honored with a retrospective exhibition at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts
Royal Swedish Academy of Arts
The Royal Swedish Academy of Arts or Kungl. Akademien för de fria konsterna, founded in 1773 by King Gustav III, is one of the Royal Academies in Sweden...
(Kungliga Akademien för de fria konsterna), which traveled to Norrkopings Museum, and Amos Andersson Museum in Helsinki, Finland.
Paris 1976–1980
Gentry was awarded a studio at the Cite Internationale des Arts in Paris and worked there for four years. During this period he experimented, working in acrylic on raw linen. He befriended many artists he met at the Cite: Mordecai Ardon, Gerald Jackson, Francisca Lindberg, Christine O'Loughlin, Vicente Pimentel, Mary Anne Rose, Grace Renzi, and Ulla Waller. He had solo exhibitions in the United States and Sweden: Randall Gallery, NYC, 1978; Fabien Carlsson Gallery, Gothenburg, Sweden, 1977; Montclair State College, Montclair, NJ, 1977.Malmo, Sweden 1980–2003
In later years, he worked less in France and spent more time in New York City. He returned to Sweden and established his studio in Malmö across the Oresund from Copenhagen. He enjoyed its slower pace, milder climate and location near the continent.He reconnected with old friends in Copenhagen. He prepared paintings and prints for gallery exhibitions in Sweden, as well as Copenhagen, Milan, Amsterdam, and other continental cities. Artist friendships from this period included Uno Svensson, and Olle Bonnier. Between 1981 and 1993 he had numerous solo exhibitions in Europe and Scandinavia: Galerie Futura, Stockholm, 1993, 1989; Ragnarpers, Gärsnäs, SE, 1993; Falsterbo Konsthall, Falsterbo, SE, 1992; Lilla Galleriet, Helsingborg, SE, 1992, 1985; Gallerihuset, Copenhagen, DK, 1991; Bülowska Gallery, Malmö, 1991, 1987; Gallery Altes Rathaus, Inzlingen (Basel), DE, 1990; Gooijer Fine Arts, Amsterdam, NE, 1985; Galleria del Naviglio, Milan, Italy, 1984; Biblioteca Comunale di Milano, Milan, 1984; Gallery Asbæk, Copenhagen, DK, 1983; Galerie Oscar, Stockholm, 1981.Home in New York 1969–2003
In 1971, Moderna MuseetModerna Museet
Moderna museet, the Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm, Sweden, is a state museum located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, that was first opened in 1958. Its first manager was Pontus Hultén...
Director Pontus Hulten
Pontus Hultén
Karl Gunnar Vougt Pontus Hultén was a Swedish art collector and museum director. Pontus Hultén is regarded as one of the most distinguished museum professionals of the twentieth century...
recommended the Chelsea Hotel
Chelsea Hotel
Chelsea Hotel can refer to:*Hotel Chelsea in New York City*"Chelsea Hotel #2", a song from the 1974 Leonard Cohen album New Skin for the Old Ceremony*Chelsea Hotel, a book of photographs by Claudio Edinger, published in 1983See also...
as an ideal residence for Gentry and his family to take an apartment for a year's stay in New York City. Welcomed by hotel manager Stanley Bard, Gentry discovered a number of artist colleagues from Paris already living and working there. An ideal fit, having a home in New York made it possible for Gentry to return many times and be active in the New York art world. He had exhibitions at Andre Zarre Gallery (New York, NY), 1974 and Selma Burke Art Center, Carnegie Institute (Pittsburgh, PA), 1972. Gentry became a "permanent resident" of the Chelsea Hotel in 1982. He renewed old artistic friendships: Romare Bearden
Romare Bearden
Romare Bearden was an African American artist and writer. He worked in several media including cartoons, oils, and collage.-Education:...
, Ed Clark, Bill Hutson, and Robert Blackburn, and made new ones.
Between 1975 and 1995, Gentry's creative production was fueled by mobility. He was in continuous movement, traveling several times a year. He commuted between New York and Paris (or Sweden), while he established an artistic reputation in the United States. During this period he showed in Europe as an American artist, while in the United States he was exhibited as an African American artist.
Beginning in 1987, Gentry had many one-person exhibitions in the United States: Alitash Kebede Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 2004, 1994, 1987; Quick Art Center, St. Bonaventure University, Olean, NY, 1995; Stella Jones Gallery, New Orleans, LA, 1998; Stella Jones Gallery, New Orleans, LA, 1998; Molloy College, Rockville Centre, NY, 2000; and Macy Gallery, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, 2000; Steve Turner Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA, 2002; Parish Gallery, Georgetown, Washington, DC, 2003. He had nine solo shows at G. R. N’Namdi Gallery between 1991 and 2008: in New York, NY, 2008, 2003; in Chicago, IL, 2004, 2000, 1998; in Detroit, MI, 2003; and Birmingham, MI, 1999, 1996, 1991.
Two significant exhibitions—organized by and exhibited at the Studio Museum in Harlem—were "An Ocean Apart" in 1982, and "Explorations in the City of Light" (1996), which traveled to Chicago Cultural Center, Milwaukee Museum of Art, Fort Worth Art Museum and New Orleans Museum of Art.
Important retrospective exhibitions since the artist's death in 2003 include: "Herbert Gentry: Moved by Music," Wadsworth Atheneum, Amistad Center for Art and Culture, Hartford, CT, 2006; "Herbert Gentry: the Man the Magic the Master," James E. Lewis Museum at Morgan State University in Baltimore, MD, 2007; "Herbert Gentry: the Man the Magic the Master," Diggs Gallery, Winston Salem State University, NC, 2008; "Herbert Gentry: Facing Other Ways," Rush Rhees Library Rare Books and Special Collections, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, 2007; "Face to Face," Phillips Museum of Art, Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, PA, 2005.
Selected collections
Gentry's work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of ArtMetropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
(New York, NY); the American Art Museum and Hirshhorn Museum (Smithsonian http://hirshhorn.si.edu/visit/collection_object.asp?key=32&subkey=2739, Washington, DC); the Studio Museum in Harlem (New York, NY); the Masur Museum (Monroe, LA); the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art and the Amistad Center for Art and Culture (Hartford, CT); the Dayton Art Institute (Dayton, OH); and the Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum is an encyclopedia art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At 560,000 square feet, the museum holds New York City's second largest art collection with roughly 1.5 million works....
http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/155580/Centered_and_Friends (Brooklyn, NY). In Europe and beyond, his work is collected by the Moderna Museet (Stockholm, Sweden), Norrköpings Art Museum (Norrköping, Sweden), Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam, Netherlands), National Gallery of Modern Art (New Delhi, India) and Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris (France), as well as many private collections.
Further reading
Blatt, K., N'Namdi, J., and Rose, M. A., (Eds.) (2008) Herbert Gentry: The Man, The Master, The Magic . Essays by Najjar Abdul-Musawwir, Brenda Delany, Herbert Gentry, Mary Anne Rose, Wim Roefs, Lewis Tanner Moore, George R. N'Namdi. Chicago: G. R. N'Namdi Gallery http://www.amazon.com/dp/1606438352Bearden, R. and Henderson, H. (1993) A History of African American Artists from 1792 to the Present. New York: Pantheon Books
Bomani, A. and Rooks, B., eds. (1992) Paris Connections : African American artists in Paris, Essays by Ted Joans, Theresa Leininger, Marie-Francoise Sanconie. Fort Bragg, CA: Q.E.D. Press.
Bowker, R. R. (1993) Who’s Who in American Art-1994: 1993-1994, 20th Edition, New York: Bowker.
Delany, B. K. (2003) Post-World War II Expatriate Painters: The Question of a Black Aesthetic. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University. Doctoral dissertation.
Gardner, Paul, “When France was home to African-American Artists” The Smithsonian Magazine, Volume 26, No. 12, March pp. 106–112.
Harrisberg, Halley K. (Ed) (2001) African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, VIII. Exhibition Catalogue New York: Michael Rosenfeld Gallery.
Igoe, Lynn Moody (1981) Two Hundred and Fifty Years of African American Art: An Annotated Bibliography. New York : R.R. Bowker
Kirwin, L., (1991) Herbert Gentry Oral History Interview for the Archives of American Art, May 23, 1991. Washington, DC: Archives of American Art Smithsonian. Available on line: http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/gentry91.htm
Patton, S. F. (1998) African-American Art. Oxford and New York: Oxford University, p. 161, 164, 167, 176, 177, 178.
Phillips Museum (2005) Face to Face: Herbert Gentry, Essays by Brenda Delany, Bill Hutson, Mary Anne Rose. Lancaster, PA: Franklin and Marshall College.
Riggs, T. (1997) St. James Guide to Black Artists. Detroit, MI: St. James Press and Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
Schwartzman, Myron. (2004) “Romare Bearden and Herbert Gentry, Tribute to a Friendship” Alitash Kebede Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. Exhibition Brochure.
Schwartzman, M. (1990) Romare Bearden : His Life and his Art. New York: Harry N. Abrams. pp. 116, 162-72,167,168.
Selz, Peter “Herbert Gentry” Essay for gallery exhibition, 1994. Los Angeles, CA: Alitash Kebede Gallery. Exhibition brochure.
Studio Museum in Harlem. (1982) An Ocean Apart: African American Artists Abroad. New York: Studio Museum in Harlem, October 8, 1982-January 9, 1983.
Studio Museum in Harlem (1996) Explorations in the City of Light. Essays by Michel Fabre, Valerie Mercer and Peter Selz. New York: Studio Museum in Harlem. January 18-June 2, 1996. Texts by Kinshasha Holman Conwill, Catherine Bernard, Peter Selz, Michel Fabre, Valerie J. Mercer.