1. Rose Theodora Piper was an American painter best known for her semi-abstract, blues-inspired paintings of the 1940s.
18 Facts About Rose Piper
1. 2.
For nearly thirty years, she worked as Rose Ransier, designing knit fabrics.
3.
At the time, Rose Piper was one of only four African-American abstract painters to have had solo shows in New York.
4.
Rose Piper was born Rose Theodora Sams in New York on October 7,1917.
5.
Rose Piper grew up in the Bronx, where her father was a public schoolteacher who taught Latin and Greek.
6.
Rose Piper went to Evander Childs High School where she majored in art earning her a four year scholarship to Pratt Institute due to earning the highest graduating GPA in art.
7.
In 1946, Piper received a Julius Rosenwald fellowship and spent the summer traveling in the American South, "imbibing" the atmosphere, as she put it, and studying blues music.
Related searches
Julius Rosenwald 8.
Rose Piper never embraced pure abstraction preferring to keep the human figure at the center of her work.
9.
Rose Piper's work attracted national attention in the fall of 1947, when Piper gave her first solo exhibition at the Roko Gallery in New York.
10.
At that time, Rose Piper was one of only four African-American abstract painters to have had solo shows in New York.
11.
Rose Piper scored another win in 1948 when her work was included in the 7th Annual Exhibition of Paintings, Sculpture and Prints by Negro Artists.
12.
Rose Piper kept a studio in Greenwich Village, and exhibited in the ACA Gallery.
13.
Rose Piper's work was reviewed in The New York Times, Art Digest, and ARTnews.
14.
When Rose Piper returned from Paris, a series of financial and family misfortunes forced her to put her painting career on hold.
15.
Rose Piper then worked as a textile designer, using the name Rose Ransier.
16.
Rose Piper still drew inspiration from African-American music, and her sense of political purpose had not changed.
17.
Rose Piper died of a stroke on May 11,2005, in a Connecticut nursing home, aged 87.
18.
Rose Piper had two children, a son and a daughter, and was an aunt of the conceptual artist Adrian Rose Piper.