1. Benjamin Franklin Britt was a figurative, surrealist and abstract painter, and art teacher.
24 Facts About Benjamin Britt
2.
Benjamin Britt's subjects were African American culture, religion and children, which he captured in oil and charcoals.
3.
Benjamin Britt's parents changed their surname to Britt after being forced to flee from their home state to Philadelphia.
4.
When his family moved to Philadelphia, Benjamin Britt was around six or seven years old.
5.
Benjamin Britt grew up in North Philadelphia and attended Dobbins Technical High School where he met his future wife Marjorie who was studying to be a beautician.
6.
For two years, Benjamin Britt served in the Coast Guard, traveling to France and England.
7.
Benjamin Britt was described as a "surrealist painter" in a 1951 news article about an exhibit by the Guild of Allied Arts at the Richard Allen Auditorium.
8.
Benjamin Britt was a member of a panel of artists who displayed their works and took questions from the audience.
9.
Benjamin Britt gave up the day jobs and started painting full time in 1963.
10.
Benjamin Britt acknowledged to a reporter that it was not the traditional way to paint but it beat working an eight-hour job that he hated.
11.
Benjamin Britt was being practical and esthetic at the same time.
12.
In between painting by commission, Benjamin Britt created paintings that pleased him.
13.
Benjamin Britt was happiest, he said, when he was at his easel.
14.
In 1969, Benjamin Britt was commissioned to paint a portrait of Dr Martin Luther King Jr.
15.
Benjamin Britt was a member of the board of directors, art director and art teacher.
16.
Benjamin Britt was a member of the Les Beaux Arts club and worked on its art committee in the late 1940s into 1950s.
17.
Benjamin Britt won the group's first prize for best abstract.
18.
Benjamin Britt taught at YMCAs in Germantown and Center City, a Salvation Army branch and the Kensington Neighbors United Civic Association.
19.
Benjamin Britt was a staple at the Rittenhouse Square Fine Art Show and the Atlantic City Show on the Boardwalk.
20.
The Benjamin Britt piece was "Man with a Conscience" from a private collection.
21.
Benjamin Britt was joined in its 1960 show by Howard N Watson, Reba Dickerson-Hill, Robert Jefferson, Samuel J Brown Jr.
22.
In 2015, an untitled abstract that Benjamin Britt completed in the 1950s was featured in an exhibition of Black artists at the Woodmere Art Museum.
23.
In 2021, Benjamin Britt was included in the re-creation of artist Percy Ricks exhibition titled "Afro-American Images 1971" at the National Guard Armory in Wilmington, DE.
24.
Benjamin Britt, who was divorced, died in his home in Kensington, Philadelphia on June 26,1996, of heart failure.