Eldzier Cortor, artist, Died at 99

  Artists

Eldzier Cortor was born on January 10, 1916, and died on November 26, 2015.

He was an African-American artist and print maker.

Eldzier work typically features elongated nude figures in intimate settings, influenced by both traditional African art and European surrealism.

Eldzier Cortor was born in Richmond, Virginia, to John and Ophelia Cortor.

His family moved to Chicago when Eldzier was about a year old, eventually settling on that city’s South Side, where Eldzier attended Englewood High School.

Fellow students at Englewood included the African-American artists Charles Wilbert White and Margaret Burroughs.

Eldzier attended the Art Institute of Chicago, gaining a degree in 1936.

In 1940, Eldzier worked with the Works Progress Administration (WPA), where he drew scenes of Depression-era Bronzeville, a neighbourhood on Chicago’s South Side.

In 1949, Eldzier Cortor 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.

Eldzier passed away at age 99 on November 26, 2015.