Top 12 Famous Black Artists Who Achieved Greatness

For many years, Black artists were shunned away by the general art historical narrative, but that did not stop them from creating exceptional works of art. Black art is not necessarily political, but, just like any art, it is still deeply rooted in the identity of its creator. Below is by no means a definitive list of 12 outstanding Black artists everyone needs to know.

Norman Lewis was truly a great American artist and the only Black Abstract Expressionist of the first generation. A social realist in his early career, Lewis moved to abstraction in the mid-1940s. By that time, Lewis grew tired of depicting the American life that was so exclusive and so merciless to a large part of the country’s population.

Lewis spent years trying to find a way for artists to affect the political situation with their art, trying to find a cure for systemic racism and violence. Despite working with various anti-racism groups, towards the end of his life, Lewis was not so sure about the world-changing power of art. He argued that art was useless in the political struggle and that protesting would give more chances of bringing change.

11. Sam Gilliam (1933 – 2022)

Gilliam explained his deliberate choice of form by stating that his works did not need frames. The space around them becomes their frame. Unlike traditional painting, Gilliam’s works also allow the viewer to move around them, making the engagement with paintings much more personal and interactive.

10. Chéri Samba (1956 – )

Chéri Samba, one of the most renowned contemporary African artists, started his artistic career in 1972 at the age of sixteen. Although, he was first painting signs and not filling gallery walls with his works. The situation changed soon enough when three years later, Samba already had his own studio in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Today, Samba’s works hang in the world’s most prestigious museums and sell in major auction houses. His style may seem naive to some, with thick contours, bold colors, and glitter, but at the heart of his work is the African daily life and the dialogue of tradition and modernity.

Horace Pippin was a celebrated self-taught American painter. Born in Pennsylvania to a single mother, Pippin had to work to support his family from an early age. At the same time, the young boy often sketched racehorses on spare pieces of fabric.

In 1917, Pippin went to fight in World War I, coming back home a year later with his right arm partially paralyzed because of a bullet wound. After finishing his time in the military Pippin became a full-time painter. He started painting in order to train his injured arm, but he quickly gained recognition for his distinctive style. Many of his works were anti-war scenes, while many others showed Bible illustrations or scenes from everyday life in America.

8. Kara Walker (1969 -)

Kara Walker is one of the most influential and recognizable contemporary Black artists. Walker is a multidisciplinary artist working with drawing, painting, and sculpture. She is best known for her black-on-white silhouettes. These cut-outs were a popular hobby for the white middle and upper classes in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

While the technique suggests a romantic and cheerful narrative, Walker’s collages are full of sex, violence, and torture. Walker’s shocking and grotesque imagery combined with the traditional pretty-looking cut-outs leaves an unsettling effect on the viewer, revealing the abhorrent side of life before slavery was abolished.

7. Faith Ringgold (1930 -)

Faith Ringgold is undoubtedly one of the greatest African American artists ever. Her techniques range from traditional painting to performance and mask-making. Most of her early works were paintings. She later moved on to sewing and mixing various types of media. Ringgold is a deeply political artist, frequently addressing systemic racism and the history of slavery in her works.

In her series called the French Collection, Ringgold establishes a connection between the realities of African American people and the art historical canon. By creating quilts showing the most iconic modernist paintings and placing her character, a Black American woman traveling to 1920s Paris into them, she is seamlessly integrating Black art into the traditional Euro-centered perspective.

A British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare is one of the wittiest and most knowledgeable commentators on colonialism and post-colonialism. Shonibare explores African identity through traditional African wax print fabrics. Now they are worn by many Africans with pride, but they were invented in the Netherlands where they were a part of the colonial trade process. This did not stop them from becoming a symbol of shared culture. From these fabrics, Shonibare creates authentic Western Victorian-era dresses. Combining the material and the cut, Shonibare simultaneously explores the hypocrisy and cruelty of the colonial era and fantasizes about the alternative route of history where Africans were accepted by the West.

5. Zanele Muholi (1972 -)

South African photographer Zanele Muholi explores and celebrates Black queer identity. Their works are often self-portraits frequently focused on the doubled Otherness of the Black queer community. As Black people, they are subject to racism, while also not fitting into the heterosexual cisgender norm. Another focus of Muholi’s work revolves around documenting gender-based and sexuality-based violence in South Africa. This activity puts Muholi’s life and well-being at constant risk. In 2012, their apartment was robbed; the intruders took nothing but the records of Muholi’s five-year research on hate crimes against lesbians in South Africa. Muholi’s work is an intersection of art, activism, and research.

4. El Anatsui (1944 -)

The great Ghanaian sculptor El Anatsui became famous for his installations made out of everyday materials that are usually considered trash like metal seals, bottle caps, and newspapers. By mixing African craft tradition with abstract forms, El Anatsui addresses the issues of overconsumption and environmental impact, while also focusing on the history of the African continent. For example, the liquor bottles he uses belong to Western brands, yet all of them were made in Africa. The crucial element of El Anatsui’s installation is motion. The cloth woven from bottle caps is fluid just like a piece of regular fabric and it readily takes the shape of every object it is placed upon.

Alma Thomas is undoubtedly one of the superstars of American Abstract Expressionism. Working as an art teacher her whole life, Thomas started a full-time artistic career in her seventies. However, her age did not stop her from creating truly remarkable works. Thomas’ work is frequently compared to the Pointillist art of Paul Signac or to Byzantine mosaics.

Unlike many other Black artists, Alma Thomas avoided mixing social and political issues with her work. For Thomas, the main inspiration came from nature where it made no difference if she was Black or white, male or female, young or old. Another inspiration came from outer space. After the 1969 moon landing, Thomas produced a series of space-related works.

2. Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960 – 1988)

The legend of American art Jean-Michel Basquiat is undoubtedly one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century. His earliest artistic influence came from anatomical drawings his mother brought him while he was recovering after a car accident. However, his biggest inspiration came from graffiti. Kicked out of his parents’ house at seventeen, Basquiat had to work odd jobs during the day so that he could paint during the night.

The art world quickly noticed Basquiat. At the age of nineteen, he was already selling upcycled clothing designs through upscale Manhattan boutiques. Yet the real rise to fame happened in his twenties when he found himself in the center of New York’s bohemian life. Basquiat’s oeuvre mixed abstract art, graffiti, poetry, and political commentary, turning him into an icon of his generation.

The first place on our list goes to a true pioneer who proudly called himself a self-taught genius. Joshua Johnson was the first known African American painter who made a career out of art. The rediscovery of his oeuvre happened more than a century after his death. However, the details about his life came to light much later. In the 1990s, art historians discovered that Johnson was a son of an enslaved woman and a white man. His father purchased Johnson from another slave owner and freed him when the artist was nineteen years old. Soon after he finally became free, Johnson began offering his services as a portraitist, so Johnson probably learned to paint while he was enslaved.