Raymond Saunders

Place: Pittsburgh

Born: 1934

Biography:

Raymond Saunders (born 1934) is an American artist known for his multimedia paintings which often have sociopolitical undertones, and which incorporate assemblage, drawing, collage and found text. Saunders is also recognized for his installation, sculpture, and curatorial work. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and attended the city's public school system. He lives and works primarily in Oakland, California. Saunders is a former professor emeritus of Painting at California College of the Arts, Oakland, and professor emeritus at California State University, Hayward. He had his debut New York solo in 1962. He had one painting, 'Night Poetry', in the Third Philadelphia Arts Festival. In the late 1960s, he was represented by the Terry Dintenfass Gallery. Raymond Saunders works are in collections including the Museum of Modern Art, National Gallery of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Walker Art Center. In 1964 Saunders was awarded a Rome Prize Fellowship in painting. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1976 and two National Endowment for the Arts Awards the following year. Saunders curated Paris Connections in 1992 at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Saunders' work overall combines expressionism and abstraction with his own personal ideas and experiences. His paintings pick up elements from his life and surroundings, and incorporate them into the canvas. Saunders has been a professor of painting at California College of the Arts since 1968. He has also taught at the San Francisco Art Institute and the University of California, Berkeley.