Consigning the works of Emma Amos

2. Emma Amos was born to a middle-class Atlanta family that was active in the Black artistic, literary, and political scenes.  Her parents regularly hosted such guests as W.E.B.  DuBois and Zora Neale Hurston; these early associations would prove invaluable to Amos’s artistic and philosophical development.  At the age of sixteen, Amos enrolled in Antioch College, where she took classes and traveled to major cities including London and New York.  

3. During the next decade, Amos worked under New York print masters LetterioCalapai and Robert Blackburn and the textile artist Dorothy Liebes.  In 1964, Amos became the first—and only—woman to join the renowned Spiral Collective, working alongside Romare Bearden and Norman Lewis.  She would go on to join the Heresies and Guerilla Girls collectives, collaborating and clashing with many of the most decorated artists of the latter 20th century, and working tirelessly to make space for women and artists of color in leading galleries and museums.

4. Amos had difficulty finding gallery representation, selling her work, and breaking into the exclusive, white, male-dominated art world.  Despite institutional barriers, Amos was an integral part of the visual contemporary culture.  She influenced artists and students for five decades, constantly challenging herself, her students, and her audiences with new work, and carving a space in the archive for herself despite a lifelong lack of public recognition.