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Ellen Banks

Ellen Banks (1938 - 2017) was active/lived in Massachusetts.  Ellen Banks is known for Geometric abstract painting.

Ellen Banks (June 7, 1938 - May 18, 2017) is an African-American painter and multi-media artist using only printed musical scores as inspiration for her paintings.

Born in Boston, Banks spent her childhood exploring both painting and music and was inspired by Piet Mondrian.  Banks received her bachelor's degree from the Massachusetts College of Art, studying also at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. Her first solo exhibition took place in 1962.  Only five years later, in 1967, she received the Prix de Paris, and her work has been widely exhibited.  Since 1981 she has been using musical scores as the visual basis for her work.
Banks began her career in 1962 with her first solo gallery.  In addition to her formal education at the Massachusetts College of Art, Banks received training from César Domela and Hans Jaffé. She has drawn inspiration from only printed musical scores since 1981. She refers to herself as "a representational painter of abstracts f   ...  [Displaying 1000 of 2629 characters.]  Artist bio

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Facts about Ellen Banks

   Ellen Banks  Born:  1938 - Boston, Massachusetts
Died:   2017
Known for:  Geometric abstract painting
Name variants:  E Banks Feld

Biography from the Archives of askART

Ellen Banks (June 7, 1938 - May 18, 2017) is an African-American painter and multi-media artist using only printed musical scores as inspiration for her paintings.

Born in Boston, Banks spent her childhood exploring both painting and music and was inspired by Piet Mondrian.  Banks received her bachelor's degree from the Massachusetts College of Art, studying also at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. Her first solo exhibition took place in 1962.  Only five years later, in 1967, she received the Prix de Paris, and her work has been widely exhibited.  Since 1981 she has been using musical scores as the visual basis for her work.
Banks began her career in 1962 with her first solo gallery.  In addition to her formal education at the Massachusetts College of Art, Banks received training from César Domela and Hans Jaffé. She has drawn inspiration from only printed musical scores since 1981. She refers to herself as "a representational painter of abstracts forms", and her unique work has been featured in galleries across the United States and Europe including Galerie Spandow, Artu Gallery, and Museum of Modern Art (NYC). She taught painting courses at the School of the Museum of Fine Art in Boston (1974-1996), where she garnered a number of awards and grant funding.
Banks has been based in Brooklyn for much of her career.

Notable works:
Bovadra, 1975, Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts
Scott Joplin, 1982, Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts

Source:  Wikipedia, January 2020

Submitted by:  Deborah T. Haynes


Biography from the Archives of askART

Known for her non-representational paintings, Ellen Banks is an African-American artist from Boston, Massachusetts.  She studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and obtained her Bachelor's degree from the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston.

In 1962 Banks's work was displayed at the Dunbarton Galleries of Boston in her first solo exhibition.  She was the recipient of the Prix de Paris, France in 1967.  A strong representative of her work at that time is an acrylic piece from 1970, entitled Black and White Plus #194 for its cool combination of two-dimensional shapes on a board.

In addition to private collections, Ellen Banks's artwork is part of the permanent collections of institutions in Canada and the United States.


Submitted March 2006 by Jenna Wuensche, Researcher

Source: Jules Heller and Nancy G. Heller, North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century
 


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