Allen Stringfellow: Artist (1923-2004)
"We may have been poor, but we weren't hungry. We were happy. When we were young, we were allowed to go to all the churches. Today, people don't feel they have to go to church on Sundays. It's sort of an off day for some. For us, Sunday was an `on' day.
Allen Stringfellow was born on July 9th, 1923 and was raised in Champagne, Illinois by his great--grandmother, Hazel Briggs along with 7 other children. He primarily grew up in the church and often witnessed water baptisms, which can be seen in many of his artwork. Growing up, his sister Silvia Stringfellow remembered her brother for constantly drawing in elementary school. His parents lived in Chicago, Illinois where his father who is a jazz musician himself, owned a jazz club called Club De Lisa. Stringfellow designed clothing for some of the musicians and worked for a millinery shop as a young adult to make money. After high school, he received his undergraduate degree at the University of Illinois. His pursued the rest of his artistic training at the Art Institute in Milwaukee, Wisconsin before he moved to Chicago.
On the south side of Chicago, Stringfellow started off teaching printing techniques at the Community Arts Center as a part of the National Youth Administration program. In 1941, he was the first black printing instructor in Chicago. Later on, Stringfellow was promoted general manager at a framing company owned by Armand Lee in which he encountered some of the most prestigious designers in the United States. In 1960, Stringfellow opened his own gallery in the Old Town Community of Chicago. "Because we were black, the white galleries just weren't open," (Stringfellow). He counteracted the resistance to black artists by opening up his own art gallery, which his niece Diane Dixon, describes as Chicago's first black-owned art gallery. Stringfellow loved to travel and has presented some of his work in art expos in Atlanta, Georgia.
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Once Stringfellow began creating more black art in his later years, celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and Whitney Houston began to purchase his works, along with other private collectors such as the Playboy Club International, The Honorable Percy E Sutton, Dr. Walter Evans, Les Payne, and The Max Robinson Collection. His pieces have been featured in The Art institute of Chicago, The Museum of Science and Industry, DuSable Museum of African American History, and The Schaumburg Research Center for Research in Black Culture. In 1957, Stringfellow presented his work for the "No Jury Exhibition" for Chicago Artists, a showcase sponsored by the Art Institute and Chicago Art Organizations affiliated with Mayor Richard J. Daley.
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As a watercolor and collage artist, Stringfellow's artwork is widely appreciated by the black community in Chicago while also possessing the ability to represent the city's culture. Some of his most famous works include "The Red Umbrella," as mentioned, "The Gallery," and "All That Jazz". Stringfellow's favorite color had always been red. At some point in his life, according his his niece Denise, he simply decided to always wear red, a color that is vibrantly accented in a wide variety of his artwork. He wore red hats, dashikis, or anything that had a red accent according to his niece, Silvia Stringfellow. At 80 years old, Stringfellow died on June 23, 2004. His work continues to live on throughout Chicago culture, never failing to spread the feeling of joy.