Eldzier Cortor

At 99 years old, Eldzier Cortor physical status not available right now. We will update Eldzier Cortor's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

In 1940 he worked with the Works Progress Administration (WPA), where he drew scenes of Depression-era Bronzeville, a neighborhood on Chicago's South Side. Cortor often painted intimate scenes of the home. These surreal works emphasis the subject's role in society and relationship to the outer world. In 1949, he studied in Jamaica, Cuba, and Haiti on a Guggenheim Fellowship, and taught at the Centre d'Art in Port-au-Prince from 1949 to 1951.

In 1944 and in 1945, Cortor won the Julius Rosenwald Foundation Fellowships consecutively, which allowed him to travel to the Sea Islands off the coast of Georgia and South Carolina. The Gullah people resided in these islands and Cortor was particularly interested in this area because of how untouched their culture had been by white people and American culture. In this regard, Cortor decided to explore a different African diasporic culture that had more African elements prevalent overall in their culture. He spent two years living on the islands and immersed himself into the Gullah culture. "As a Negro artist I have been particularly concerned with painting Negro racial types not only as such but in connection with particular problems in color, design and composition…I have felt an especial interest in…painting Negroes whose cultural traditions had been only slightly influenced by whites…I should like to…paint a series of pictures which would reflect the particular physical and racial characteristics of the Gullahs." Cortor incorporated hints of traditional Africanisms within his art during his stay at the Gullah Islands. He would paint individuals with elongated necks, arms, legs, and faces. This elongation was a tribute to traditional African sculptures which often incorporated this elongation. Cortor through his time with the Gullah people, became passionate about the beauty of African Women, which he referenced in many of his paintings. He painted black women in a way to encapsulate their beauty, he wanted to bring light to the beauty of black women. He went against the beauty standards of his, as white, Eurocentric standards were the standard. Cortor rebelled against this standard, as he painted black women in a surrealistic style, surrealism being very common is Europe, this showed deep skin tones are just as beautiful as white skin tones. He painted black woman as he believed the black woman represented the black race as a whole he once stated, "“The Black woman represents the Black race. She is the Black spirit. She conveys a feeling of eternity and a continuance of life.”"

Through Cortor's life his style varied wildly, he shifted from surrealism to print making and many other mediums. This changed in style could be attributed to the many places he traveled to and the vastly differing experiences he had. As well as to his desire to always learn new techniques and styles from the places he visited. Cortor expressed in an interview through Bomb Magazine, that he often enjoyed changing his art style, and that he was proud of how his art style had evolved and shifted over the course of his very lengthy career. When an artists begins creating works in childhood and continues through their entire life it is highly likely the art style would change.

Source

• Recipient Bertha A. Florsheim award Art Institute Chicago, 1945; recipient William H. Bartels award, 1946, Carnegie Institute award, 1947; Julius Rosenwald fellow, Chicago, 1945–47; John Simon Guggenheim fellow, New York City, 1949-50.