Raymond Saunders, Renowned Artist Known for His Unique Use of Black, Passes Away at 90

Raymond Saunders, a prominent American artist known for his collage-based paintings and installations that adeptly navigated themes of identity and sociopolitical issues, passed away on July 19 in Oakland, California, at the age of 90. His death was due to aspiration pneumonia, as reported by the New York Times.

Saunders lived and worked in the San Francisco Bay Area since the early 1960s and became renowned for his notable assemblage-style works, resembling blackboard surfaces with white chalk notations, vibrant paint smears, and diverse found objects. His artistry has been cited as an influence on artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat and compared to Robert Rauschenberg’s Combine paintings.

Saunders’s demise coincided with the closing of his first major museum retrospective, “Raymond Saunders: Flowers from a Black Garden,” at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. This exhibition marked a significant moment in his career, acknowledging the historical negligence of artists like him who were often pigeonholed by race, an issue he decried in his 1967 essay “Black Is a Color.” He argued against the reductive grouping of Black artists, advocating for a broader recognition of art’s universal reality.

While rejecting confined labels, Saunders’s work frequently addressed race and personal observations to intellectually explore life and society. His works, including references to figures like Charlie Parker and Malcolm X, interwove personal and cultural narratives in complex, layered compositions.

Born in 1934 in Homestead, Pennsylvania, Saunders’s early exposure to art was through Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum, which facilitated his scholarship to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He later achieved academic success, earning a BFA from Carnegie-Mellon University and an MFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts, later contributing to these institutions as an influential educator.

During his career, Saunders held his debut exhibition in New York City in 1966, breaking through racial barriers in the art world. His process, described as ongoing due to his reluctance to part with works, was characterized by continual evolution, with multiple projects simultaneously unfolding in his studio.

Saunders’s legacy extends to his profound influence on students and the art community in the Bay Area, characterized by a dynamic use of color and introspective examination of identity. His friend and colleague Dewey Crumpler memorialized him as both an aesthetic innovator and a profound educator, leaving a lasting impact on both the art world and his community.