David Driskell Biography Favorites Color Maybe blue Food Gumbo Time of Year Summer Vacation Spot Falmouth, Maine

Artist and scholar David Driskell is regarded as one of the world's leading authorities on African American art. Driskell was born on June 7, 1931 in Eatonton, Georgia. Educated in North Carolina's public schools, he earned his undergraduate degree at Howard University and an M.F.A. from Catholic University in Washington, D.C. Driskell also pursued post-graduate studies in art history at the Netherlands Institute for the History of Art in the Hague and studied African and African American cultures independently in Europe, Africa and South America.

In 1976, Driskell opened his groundbreaking exhibition, "Two Centuries of Black American Art", at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The show prompted the creation of similar shows around the country. Driskell also penned the show's catalogue, an invaluable text to art scholars who previously had very little information available on African American artists.

Since 1977, Driskell has served as cultural advisor to Camille and Bill Cosby and curator of the Cosby Collection of Fine Arts. He placed works of African American artists on the set of The Cosby Show. This is credited with creating a new class of African American art collectors.

Driskell has contributed significantly to the study of the role of African American artists in society. He has written five exhibition books, co-authored four others and published more than forty catalogues from exhibitions he has curated. Driskell has lectured extensively in North America, Europe, Africa and South America, and has taught at numerous universities.

In 1998, the University of Maryland established the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the African Diaspora. The Center honors Driskell's forty-four-year career as artist, educator, philanthropist, collector and art historian.

Driskell has been a practicing artist since the 1950s and has exhibited his work widely around the world. He is highly sought after as a major stained glass artist. The celebrated of such projects being sixty-five stained glass windows he designed for DeForest Chapel at Talladega College in Alabama. In December of 2000, President William Jefferson Clinton bestowed the National Humanities Medal on Driskell noting that "...he has focused attention on black artists sparking worldwide interest among art lovers, critics and historians and enriching the cultural heritage and history of our Nation."

Driskell was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on June 23, 2001.