Herbert Gentry

Herbert Gentry

Born: July 17, 1919 in Pittsburgh, PA

Died: September 8, 2003 in Stockholm, Sweden

Herbert Gentry painting in Falsterbo, August 1990

Herbert Gentry (1919-2003) 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 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 stacatto 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.”

Biography

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 Jentry, 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. *[1] 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.

The Expatriate Years

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, 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 Brailler. 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 Stuart'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 Revelle]. 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.

Copenhagen 1958 - 1962

After his successful solo exhibition at Hybler, Gentry remained in Copenhagen to prepare for a series of solo exhibitions in Northern Europe, in Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, and Netherlands. The city was an important jazz capital in Europe, and hosted a lively African-American community of musicians and artists. Gentry was soon exhibiting paintings in galleries across Northern Europe. Associating Gentry's paintings with art of the COBRA movement, critics Jen Jorgen Thorsen and Uffe Harder described his work as distinctly American.

• Galerie Hybler, Copenhagen, 1959,
• Galerie Suzanne Bollag, Zurich, 1959
• Galerie Die Insel, Hamburg, 1960
• Kunstudstillningsbygning, Odense, Denmark, 1960
• Galerie Aestetica, Stockholm, 1960
• Den Frie, Copenhagen, 1960, 1964
• Galerie Perron, Geneva, 1961
• Galerie Passpartout, Copenhagen, 1961, 1963
• Galerie Leger, Malmö, 1962
• Galerie Rudolph Meier, Davos, 1962

Stockholm 1963 - 1976

He relocated to Gothenburg, Sweden in 1963, and was in Stockholm in 1965.

In Sweden he developed friendships with sculptors Torsten Rehnqvist and Willy Gordon, 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 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.

The Hotel Chelsea

In 1971, Moderna Museet 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 become part of the New York art world that had emerged in the years since he had left for Paris in 1946. 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 in 1982. A Gentry painting is exhibited in the Hotel lobby.

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 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, after working in France and continuing to work in New York, he based himself in Malmo, Sweden, an ideal city to work on paintings and prints for exhibition in art galleries in Sweden, in Copenhagen, Milan, Amsterdam, and other continental cities. Artist friends from this period included Uno Svensson and Olle Bonnier.

Home in New York 1969 - 2003

"Explorations in the City of Light" at Studio Museum in Harlem (1996) traveled to Chicago Cultural Center, Milwaukee Museum of Art, Fort Worth Art Museum and New Orleans Museum of Art. Other important group exhibitions included "An Ocean Apart," Studio Museum in Harlem (1982).

Major exhibitions in the United States since the artist's death 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 Solo Exhibitions

• G. R. N’Namdi Gallery, New York, NY, 2008, 2003
• G. R. N’Namdi Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2004, 2000, 1998
• G. R. N’Namdi Gallery, Birmingham, MI, 1999, 1996, 1991
• G. R. N’Namdi Gallery, Detroit, MI, 2003
• Alitash Kebede Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 2004, 1994, 1987
• Parish Gallery, Georgetown, Washington, DC, 2003
• Steve Turner Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA, 2002
• Macy Gallery, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, 2000
• Molloy College, Rockville Centre, NY, 2000
• Stella Jones Gallery, New Orleans, LA, 1998
• Quick Art Center, St. Bonaventure University, Olean, NY, 1995
• Galerie Futura, Stockholm, Sweden, 1993, 1989
• Ragnarpers, Gärsnäs, Sweden, 1993
• Falsterbo Konsthall, Falsterbo, Sweden, 1992
• Lilla Galleriet, Helsingborg, Sweden, 1992, 1985
• Gallerihuset, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1991
• Bülowska Gallery, Malmö, Sweden, 1991, , 1987
• Gallery Altes Rathaus, Inzlingen (Basel), Germany, 1990
• La Maison Francaise, New York University, NY, 1986
• Gooijer Fine Arts, Amsterdam, Holland, 1985
• Galleria del Naviglio, Milan, Italy, 1984
• Biblioteca Comunale di Milano, Milan, Italy, 1984
• Gallery Asbæk, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1983
• Galerie Oscar, Stockholm, Sweden, 1981

Selected Collections

His work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY); the American Art Museum and Hirshhorn Museum (Smithsonian[2], 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[3] (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 Biblioteque 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 [[4]]

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: www.aaa.si.edu

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.

Links

• Herbert Gentry Website http://www.herbertgentry.com