NELSON STEVENS (B. 1938)
Steven’s career has spanned over 5 decades and a multitude of media and style, yet has remained consistently grounded in the black experience and his exuberant celebration of color. One of the highlights of his career was getting involved with the Black Art Movement in Chicago in the 1960’s. He had recently completed his M.F.A. at Kent State University. He recalled during this period he had to convince his teachers and fellow classmates that Black art existed as its own entity. Prior to the movement, there was no literature to back up Black art as an absolute genre. Murals like the Wall of Respect, painted in 1967 by Stevens and other members of the Organization of Black American Culture helped change that. Stevens was also one of the founding members of AFRICOBRA, along with Wadsworth Jarrell and others, and exhibited widely with them.
When artist Nelson Stevens looks at a person he sees a broad palette of colors. That vision illuminates his portraits with a multi-hued, mosaic-like style. “I look at people and see the image in them,” said the professor emeritus of art and Afro-American studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst . “My art is anthems in praise of people.”
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Stevens’ work may be found in many private and public collections, including the Smithsonian, Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City , and the Art Institute of Chicago. His work is now being shown in the exhibition, Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, which originated at Tate Modern in London, UK. He currently lives and works in Maryland. Spirit Brother (Jimi Hendrix), c. 1960’s; colored pencil on paper, 27 x 22 inches, signed.