1. Herbert Alexander Gentry was an African-American Expressionist painter who lived and worked in Paris, France, Copenhagen, Denmark, in the Swedish cities of Gothenburg, Stockholm, and Malmo, and in New York City as a permanent resident of the Hotel Chelsea.
Herbert Gentry creates a foil for feelings and for emotion, and orchestrates his subjective figuration in dialogue with the immediacy of the painted gesture.
Herbert Alexander Gentry was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on July 17,1919.
Herbert Gentry was the son of James Jentry of Madison Courthouse, Virginia, and Violet Howden of Kingston, Jamaica.
Herbert Gentry's home was frequently visited by artists, musicians and dancers.
Under the name Teresa Herbert Gentry, she danced in the chorus with Josephine Baker and Bessye Buchanen.
Herbert Gentry took inspiration from artists, musicians, writers, dancers, and actors, all of whom reinforced his belief in the creative world that lay beyond Harlem.
Herbert Gentry pursued drawing in school took art classes at the Harlem YMCA and later studied art as part of the under the Federal Art Project of the WPA at Roosevelt High School.
Not waiting for the administration of the GI Bill to be organized in Paris, and warned that the basic amenities were still rationed, Herbert Gentry arrived for the Fall 1946 academic term.
Alongside drawing and painting courses, Herbert Gentry managed to complete a Civilization course.
Herbert Gentry studied French at the Alliance Francaise, and was enrolled at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Sociales.
Herbert Gentry spent three years studying with Ossip Zadkine and French painter Yves Brayer.
Herbert Gentry lived the cafe life in Montparnasse, meeting his fellow American artists at Le Dome Cafe, Le Select cafe and La Coupole: sculptors Shinkichi Tajiri, Kosta Alex, and Harold Cousins, painters Herbie Katzman, John Hultberg, Burt Hasen, Haywood "Bill" Rivers, Sam Francis, Avel DeKnight, and painter-filmmaker Carmen D'Avino; as ex-GIs, students and young artists, they casually rubbed shoulders with the greats such as Alberto Giacometti and Georges Braque.
Between 1948 and 1951, Herbert Gentry opened Chez Honey, a club-galerie in Montparnasse, an exhibition space by day and a jazz club by night.
Active in Parisian cafe life, he and Larry Potter congregated with African-American writers Chester Himes, Ollie Harrington, among others at the Cafe Tournon; Herbert Gentry socialized with visual artists at cafe Le Select and La Coupole in Montparnasse, where he met the Dutch, Belgian and Scandinavian artists of the COBRA-group: Ejler Bille, Robert Jacobsen, Karel Appel, Carl-Henning Pedersen, Bram Bogart, and Guillaume Cornelis van Beverloo.
Herbert Gentry accepted the opportunity to exhibit at Galerie Hybler in Copenhagen in 1959, and relocated to Copenhagen to prepare.
Herbert Gentry was exhibiting paintings in galleries across Northern Europe.
Herbert Gentry was invited to exhibit at Den Frie, Copenhagen, in 1960 with the group 6 + 2; in 1964 at Den Frie Gentry was included in "10 American Negro Artists" with Harvey Cropper, Beauford Delaney, Clifford Jackson, Sam Middleton, Larry Potter, Walter Williams, and others.
Herbert Gentry moved to Gothenburg, Sweden in 1963, and had relocated to Stockholm by 1965.
Herbert Gentry followed the model of artists like Cuban Surrealist Wifredo Lam, who kept studios in more than one country.
In Stockholm in 1975 Herbert Gentry was honored with a retrospective exhibition at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts, which traveled to Norrkopings Museum, and Amos Andersson Museum in Helsinki, Finland.
Herbert Gentry was awarded a studio at the Cite internationale des arts in Paris and worked there for four years.
Herbert Gentry became acquainted with members of the CoBrA group who introduced him to ideas of automatism and the concept of the artist as an inherently social being.
Herbert Gentry befriended many artists he met at the Cite: Mordecai Ardon, Gerald Jackson, Francisca Lindberg, Christine O'Loughlin, Vicente Pimentel, Mary Anne Rose, Grace Renzi, and Ulla Waller.
Herbert Gentry had solo exhibitions in the United States and Sweden: Randall Gallery, NYC, 1978; Fabien Carlsson Gallery, Gothenburg, Sweden, 1977; Montclair State College, Montclair, New Jersey, 1977.
Herbert Gentry enjoyed its slower pace, milder climate and location near the continent.
Herbert Gentry prepared paintings and prints for gallery exhibitions in Sweden, as well as in Copenhagen, Milan, Amsterdam, and other continental cities.
Herbert Gentry had exhibitions at Andre Zarre Gallery, 1974 and Selma Burke Art Center, Carnegie Institute, 1972.
Herbert Gentry became a "permanent resident" of the Chelsea Hotel in 1982.
Herbert Gentry renewed old artistic friendships: Romare Bearden, Ed Clark, Bill Hutson, and Robert Blackburn, and made new ones.
Herbert Gentry was in continuous movement, traveling several times a year.
Herbert Gentry commuted between New York and Paris, while he established an artistic reputation in the United States.
Herbert Gentry's work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art ; the American Art Museum and Hirshhorn Museum ; the Studio Museum in Harlem ; the Masur Museum ; the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art and the Amistad Center for Art and Culture ; the Dayton Art Institute ; and the Brooklyn Museum[2].