karlie.com :: Humbert Howard

“The aesthetic values of creative painting, it seems to me, occur when human values are captured through sensitive and innate observations. I also feel my paintings touch the abstract way of seeing. They reflect and relate to me and my time. The human values observed in my choice of subject matter reinforce the creative inspiration through the use of distortion that I employ during the representational phase of my working. This treatment of my subject gives me my identity and acts as my signature.

I love the power of the paint and the fascination of distortion for emphasis. My paintings are of things I have looked at and transformed into a truth. I search for the mystery that caused my interest. I go to the heart of my painting and proceed to interpret that which is a personal observation with daring and subtle power which is emotionally imaginative.”

Humbert Howard of Philadelphia, born in 1905, is an important figure among contemporary African-American artists. Howard was educated at Howard University in Washington, D.C., the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania. He was also art director of the Pyramid Club, a popular and respected black cultural center in Philadelphia. His integrationist approach to art broke down traditional boundaries that often had separated black and white artists. As director of the club's art exhibitions, he selected works by both black and white artists for display.

In the late fifties, because of changing politics within the organization, Howard's involvement with the Pyramid Club waned. At that time, he began studies at the Barnes Foundation, which he continued through 1961. That experience had a tremendous impact on him, revealed in the growing exaggeration, distortion, and abstraction of forms that became evident in his work.

Although Howard enjoyed success as an artist, he worked as a mail carrier to “further of my favorite pastime - eating.” By the time he retired in 1971, he had developed a loyal following of collectors and dealers in the Philadelphia area. In the eighties, he became increasingly involved with younger members of the local art scene. Often called the “dean of Philadelphia's black artists,” he hosted meetings of the local chapter of the National Conference of Black Artists in his Hamilton Street living room.

At the time of his death in 1990 Humbert Howard had become a mentor to emerging black artists. Ernest Berry, a long time friend and collector of Howard's work, said, “He was not just a painter. He was a person who believed in sharing his feelings with people through his paintings. He was the kindest friend I had in the art world.”

Presently Mr. Howard's paintings are part of the permanent collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, the Museum of the Philadelphia Civic Center and the Philadelphia Afro-American Museum.