Timeline

1920

Born in Brooklyn, NY

1951

Enrolls in Brooklyn Museum School of Art

1953

Earns scholarship to Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture; Fellow scholarship recipient David Driskell is his roommate

1953

His painting, Poultry Market, is selected for inclusion in the Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting at the Whitney Museum (later, the museum purchased the painting)

1954

Earned a grant from the National Institute of Arts and Letters

1955

Completes his studies at the Brooklyn Museum School of Art

1955

His painting, Dawn, is selected for inclusion in the Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting at the Whitney Museum

1955

Awarded a John Hay Whitney Foundation Fellowship

1956

Leaves the U.S. for Denmark

1956

He’s included in Art in America’s Third Annual Listing of New Talent

1957

Returns to the U.S. from Denmark

1957

Another painting is selected for inclusion in the Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting at the Whitney Museum

1958

Ebony Magazine includes him in its cover story, Leading Young Artists

1959

Leaves the U.S. for Mexico

1960

Receives a grant from the National Institute of Arts and Letters (he was one of five painters and two sculptors who received the grant out of thousands of artists who applied)

1963

Returns to the U.S. from Mexico

1964

Leaves the U.S. for Denmark

1964

Organizes an exhibition titled Ten American Negro Artists Living and Working in Europe

1964

He marries a Danish woman named Marlena Jacobsen

1967

He’s invited by David Driskell to Fisk University as an Artist-in-Residence

1969

He and his wife return to Denmark

1979

He becomes a Danish citizen

1985

represents Denmark at the International Art Fair, Tokyo, Japan

1998

Dies in Copenhagen, Denmark