As a child in the early 1930s, Robert Colescott was already immersed in creativity. His mother was a pianist and his father was a jazz violinist. Initially, Colescott took up drumming, but then turned to the fine arts. Growing up in Oakland, California, Colescott was close to the sculptor Sargent Claude Johnson, who brought him into the colorful world of the Harlem Renaissance. Drafted in 1942, Colescott served in Europe during W.W. II and became acquainted with Paris, to which he returned in 1950, to study under the French artist Fernand Léger. With 30 works, this exhibition focuses on female subjects, painted upon his return to America. —E.C.
