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An exhibition of drawings by the late Benny Andrews, whose association with SCAD included several exhibitions and lectures, opens Feb. 8 at SCAD-Atlanta’s Trois Gallery.
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2/8/2007  The Trois Gallery at the Savannah College of Art and Design-Atlanta, 1600 Peachtree St., is hosting “Benny Andrews: Works on Paper,” Feb. 8–March 16. The exhibition features drawings by the late Andrews, a noted black artist whose work included collage, painting, sculpture, prints, writing and book illustrations. According to press materials for the exhibition, “Describing a unique juxtaposition of sensitivity and strength, each individually drawn figure has a presence beyond the frame and finds a relationship with the viewer. Andrews’ works on paper remain a fascinating part of his dynamic oeuvre and showcase his illustrative brilliance.”Andrews and his wife, sculptor and installation artist Nene Humphrey, were involved with SCAD in numerous ways. Both regularly exhibited work at the college, presented lectures and were slated to serve as part of the SCAD-Atlanta Distinguished Faculty Program prior to Andrews’ final illness. He died in November 2006. Andrews was born to sharecropper parents in 1930 and, along with nine siblings, grew up in segregated rural Georgia. He was the first member of his family to graduate from high school, and, after a stint in the U.S. Air Force, he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In addition to teaching at Queens College, City University of New York, for 29 years, Andrews was an active arts advocate, creating a prison arts program, serving as director of the National Endowment for the Arts and organizing the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition to support other black artists.  His work, which often dealt with themes such as the struggles of black people all over the world, the Holocaust, Native American suffering, and Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, drew from influences such as expressionism, surrealism, anti-modernism, Southern folk art and minimalism. His first solo show appeared in New York in 1962, and his work is part of the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Chicago; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art and the Studio Museum of Art in New York City; the Hirshhorn Museum and the Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C.; the High Museum of Art in Atlanta; the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego; the Detroit Institute of Art; and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans.In Atlanta, Andrews is represented by the Mason Murer Fine Art Gallery, 199 Armour Drive N.E., which is featuring his work Feb. 22, 7-10 p.m., at a fundraiser for CARE to benefit Darfur, Sudan. The event is free and open to the public. An opening reception for Andrews’ “John Lewis Series” is scheduled Feb. 23, 7-10 p.m. Two books featuring Andrews’ illustrations — “Delivering Justice: W.W. Law and the Fight for Civil Rights” and “John Lewis in the Lead” — are available from shopSCAD, 340 Bull St., or www.shopscadonline.com. “Benny Andrews: Works on Paper” is free and open to the public.
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