Gwendolyn Knight With Gratitude

Gwendolyn Knight, born in Barbados in 1913, moved with her foster family to St. Louis and then, just six years later, to Harlem, NY, where she became involved in the African American music, arts, and cultural movement at the height of the Harlem Renaissance Knight spent two years at Howard University until the Great Depression interrupted her studies She then moved back to Harlem and began to study under the tutelage of the artist and sculptor Augusta Savage

In the 1930s, Gwendolyn Knight was employed by the Works Progress Administration and was the assistant of Charles Alston At Alston's studio, she met her husband and fellow artist, Jacob Lawrence. Knight helped Lawrence with the preparation for his painting series, The Migration of the Negro, a series of works that depict the migration of African Americans from the South to the North and the West.

Gwendolyn Knight's first solo exhibition occurred in Seattle, Washington 1976. It was sponsored by the Seattle Links, Incorporated when they hosted their National Links Incorporated conference Knight stated, "after that, Francine Seders asked me to join her gallery, and that's where it all started. Before that I was just exhibited once here or once there, whenever somebody would ask me. That's the way it was.”

Knight's first retrospective was exhibited when she was 90 years old, entitled "Never Late for Heaven: The Art of Gwen Knight," at the Tacoma Art Museum in 2003. With this issue, we honor the dedication and work of Gwendolyn Knight and remember the many African American female artists that paved the way for publications such as ours today.

I just knew that I wanted to do it, so I did it whenever I could. And I didn't feel any pressure to work. I work when I want to work.... Even in getting in a gallery here, I never went out and asked anybody to put my works in a gallery. I guess my temperament is such that I don't depend on outer stimulation.”

Gwendolyn Knight