Benny Andrews

Date1983

MediumBlack and white photograph

DimensionsImage Size: 7 3/4 × 11 1/2 in. (19.7 × 29.2 cm) Frame Size: 16 1/8 × 20 1/8 in. (41 × 51.1 cm)

ClassificationsPhotograph

Credit LineGift of the artist, 2024

Object numberUAC7828.01

DescriptionBenny Andrews, the subject of this photograph, was an acclaimed American artist whose practice hinged on figurative and material experimentation; he worked in oil, mixed media collage, sculpture, print, and drawing, often exploring themes of autobiography, race, and structures of power. Community engagement, activism, and a broader commitment to education accordingly informed Andrew’s career in equal (or even greater) measure. In a 1972 documentary, he clarifies:

In a case like ours, and I keep going back to “ours” because there are a lot of unanswered questions for us as Black artists – and of course this is in the context of, really, us as Black people in this country… If I get a little publicity or make a sale or two, that is not really necessarily a plus in terms of what I visualize as my aim in becoming an artist, in becoming what you call a successful artist. I’m trying to find a way to involve more people from the community and to involve myself more in the community. So, when you say, “making it,” I’m looking for that bigger thing.

Armed with a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Andrews moved to New York City in the late 1950s. Having established himself as a professional artist by 1962, Andrews began a career in arts education, one that would continue in various capacities until his death in 2006. Starting in 1966, he taught at the New School for Social Research; in 1967, he taught through an arts initiative in the South Bronx; in 1968, he started a 30 year stint at Queens College, working with a program that served the city’s poorest Black and Puerto Rican communities; later, in 1987, Andrews served as a visiting professor to the University of Michigan. Throughout his tenure, Andrews was an unwavering advocate for Black artists and regularly and effectively protested their exclusion from cultural conversations and institutions. Alongside artists including Romare Bearden, Henri Ghent, and Cliff Joseph, Andrews founded the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition (BECC) in 1969 to formalize this mission: “We are entitled to have representations of people that look like us and talk and feel like us.” Andrews and the BECC would eventually champion arts education programs in prisons and detention centers.

Benny Andrews, the 1983 photograph by Peter J. Manschot for Detroit Focus Quarterly, captures Andrews during a visit to Detroit during his service as Director of the Visual Arts Program for the National Endowment for the Arts. He appears to sit comfortably near a window, his head cocked and resting on the palm of his left hand; his left arm and elbow extend beyond the lower right corner of the frame, creating a delightful asymmetry against the emptiness of the upper left corner. Andrews wears a tweed sport coat complete with leather knot-style buttons, and his graying hair and beard catch the light that illuminates him from the right. He appears relaxed and approachable as he meets the viewer’s eye. In keeping with his community praxis, Andrews “made the N.E.A. seem really accessible” and enthusiastically encouraged local artists to apply for funding, according to the photograph’s accompanying article.

Peter J. Manschot (American, b. 1948) received his BFA from Michigan State University in 1971 and his MFA in photography from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1982. Like Andrews, his commitment to arts education gave significant texture and dimension to his career as a professional artist. From 1979-2010, Manschot was an art instructor for Birmingham Public Schools with experience at almost every grade level and school in the district; he also taught a variety of adult classes and led summer workshops as well as ancillary classes for Wayne State University. Now retired, Manschot continues to work in the Detroit area as a copier-, photo-, and mixed media collagist, though he still makes artist portraits on occasion. Many of Manschot’s artist portraits appear in Wayne State University’s collection, all of which (including Benny Andrews) were on display at the Undergraduate Research Library earlier this year.

Written by Sarah Teppen

1.https://www.bennyandrews.com/overview
2.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOEHyoLealg&t=9s
3.https://www.bennyandrews.com/biography
4.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOEHyoLealg&t=9s
5.https://cdm17409.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/det-focus/id/47/rec/1
6.https://kolajmagazine.com/artistdirectory/peter-manschot
7.https://www.downtownpublications.com/single-post/peter-manschot
8.https://www.instagram.com/p/CK7FU80HAic/

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