Biographical Information Gwendolyn Knight

Gwendolyn Knight

Gwendolyn Knight was born in Bridgetown, Barbados, in 1913. She moved to St. Louis, Missouri, with a family friend at the age of seven following her father’s death. However, she spent most of her teenage and youth years in Harlem, New York. She attended college at Howard University in Washington DC but had to drop out in her second year due to financial challenges brought about by the Great Depression of the 1930s. She returned to Harlem and joined the Savage School of Arts and Crafts (founded by sculptor Augusta Savage) to study sculpture and painting. In 1941, she married Jacob Lawrence, a fellow artist, whom she met as a result of her networks at the Savage School, and from whom she drew a life-long artistic inspiration. She served as an itinerant artist through the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, teaching art in several institutions, including the University of Washington in Seattle, and Black Mountain College (The Johnson Collection n.pag). She and her husband eventually moved to Seattle, Washington, in 1971, after her husband took up a teaching position at the University of Washington’s School of Art. Her first solo exhibition was hosted at the Seattle Art Museum in 1976, with a number of other exhibitions following in Washington DC, Oregon, Georgia, and New York. Knight passed on in 2005 aged 91. Her work is held in the Seattle Art Museum, St. Louis Art Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art (Seattle Art Museum n.pag).

Training

Knight received most of her training at the Savage School of Art in Harlem, where she was mentored by activists and writers of the Harlem Renaissance, including Charles Alston, Aaron Douglas, Romare Bearden, and Alain Locke. While studying at the Savage School, Knight also took part in the Works Progress Administration mural project, an initiative started by the federal government in 1935 for the employment and support of artists. Following Savage’s recommendation, Knight got an opportunity to work with Alston in a mural for the Harlem Hospital’s children’s ward in the 1930s. Knight also drew a significant artistic inspiration from her spouse, Jacob Lawrence, and learned from accompanying him as he sought out new opportunities and grants to support his artistic work.

Movements

Knight exhibited a strong love for art, theatre, and dance from a young age. As a teenager, she joined the Harlem Renaissance, which focused on re-conceptualizing the African-American culture through arts and music, and breaking free from the white stereotypes that influenced the way black people perceived themselves and their heritage. She continued to work with artists from the Harlem Renaissance throughout her time in college and her years as an artist. Her works advanced the foundations of the Harlem Renaissance by focusing on the history and culture of African Americans.