HISTORY HISTORY

Before Kadir Nelson could read, sing or spell he began his journey as one of today’s most brilliant oil painters. The Black Art Depot, an art gallery in Georgia that sells Nelson’s and other talented black artists’ work, briefly shares Nelson’s life story, where he states that “[art is a] part of my DNA”.

Growing up, Nelson’s knowledge of the world of art and its culture was influenced by his uncle.

“My uncle gave me my foundation in art,” Nelson said on The Black Art Depot’s website.

Under his uncle’s wing, Nelson was able to experiment with many different forms of art, specifically in drawing and painting. At age 16, Nelson began oil painting, quickly growing attached to the art form.

Nelson also received mentoring from his high school art teacher at Will C. Crawford Senior High School in El Cerrito, San Diego. Nelson’s art was later recognized by the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York through which he received a scholarship to attend.

“My art is inspired primarily by great stories,” Nelson said in an interview with Scholastic. “I really like the story of being able to overcome great odds, becoming the hero or the hero to ourselves that we know we can be.”

Nelson’s realist art celebrates and echoes African American culture, specifically in terms of his figurative paintings that focus on past and present Black narratives. His art is presented in places all around the world and in many different forms, from magazines to books to album covers.

“I feel that art’s highest function is that of a mirror, reflecting the innermost beauty and divinity of the human spirit; and is most effective when it calls the viewer to remember one’s highest self,” Nelson said in an interview with Reading Rockets, a national public media literacy initiative.

Nelson concentrates his work on the illumination of the best in people, his work is comforting to people’s minds and souls, always highlighting a greater idea. This is executed flawlessly in one of his illustrations for Scholastic, “Read Every Day.” The illustration depicts a little boy reading a huge book with reverence. A sun shines from behind his head, symbolizing his mind “being brightened, illuminated by what he’s reading,” according to the same Scholastic interview.

As Nelson’s work began to reach the public eye, The New Yorker Magazine began displaying his work on their front covers that reflected the ideas of justice.

His art is richly colorful and eye-catching and is beyond any words The New Yorker could ever put on their covers. Many of his portraits illustrate people in real time, which is why they are so eye-catching; viewers can relate to them. His portraits portray the way the world was, is, and will be. They speak both good and bad, but they also speak for change.

Nelson’s work became world-renowned, so much so that he has illustrated album covers for both Michael Jackson’s “Michael” album and Drake’s “Nothing Was The Same” album.

Nelson’s illustrations have been presented in over 25 books, including one of his most famous, “We Are The Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball”.

Nelson endeavors to bring comfort to those that seek it, and joy to those that need it. A San Diego native, he has received worldwide recognition with awards such as the Caldecott Medal, Coretta Scott King Author and Illustrator Awards, the New York Times Best Illustrated Book Award, several NAACP Image Awards, and arguably the coolest of all, an Olympic Art Bronze medal.

Nelson has become one of the masters in his field, as he stands as one of today’s most noteworthy turn-of-the-century artists. by Elsa Goodman