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Ann Tanksley brings to art tender scenes of a fertile culture through her intimate renderings of daily life.
Her sensitivity to humanity, particularly to her Black heritage, portrays a kinship of people with their natural environment. Her works a re saturated with vivid abstract symbolism.
A Pittsburgh native and New York resident, Ann has enjoyed a long and illustrious professional career highlighted by numerous honors and artistic achievements. A graduate of the Carnegie
Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) in Pittsburgh, PA, she also studied at the Art Student League, Parsons School of Design, the Printmaking Workshop and the
New School for Social Research all in New York, NY. Notable masters with whom she has studied include Norman Lewis, Balcom Green, Sam Rosenberg, Robert Blackburn and Paulette Singer.
One of her major accomplishments was the creation and publication of a masterful portfolio of monoprints based on the writings of Zora Neale Hurston entitled, “Images of Zora”.
Described by the writer Maya Angelou as “dazzling”, the prints were unveiled at two New York exhibitions and went on a national tour.
Among the anthologies and publications in which the artist and her work have been featured are: “Gumbo Ya Ya: Anthology of
Contemporary African American Women Artists”; “Time Capsule: A Concise Encyclopedia of of Women Artists” by Robin Kahn; “The Art of Black American Women: Works of Twenty Four Artists of the Twentieth Century” by Robert
Henkes; “Forever Free: Art by African-American Women 1862-1980”, Edited by Anna Alexander Bontemps.
Ann has received numerous commissions including Coors Brewing Company, Pepsi Cola Company, Absolut Vodka and
Colgate-Palmolive. Her work is in several permanent collections including the Johnson Publishing Company and the Studio Museum in Harlem. She is also in prominent private collections including the Hewitt Collection and Oprah
Winfrey’s.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
Henkes, Robert The Art of Black American Women: Works of Twenty-Four Artists of the Twentieth Century.
Jefferson, NC.: McFarland, 1993.
Moore, Sylvia (Editor) Gumbo Ya Ya: Anthology of Contemporary African-American Women Artists. New York, NY.: Midmarch Arts Press, 1995
Bontemps, Arna Alexander Forever Free: Art by African-American Women. Alexandria, VA.: Stephenson,
1980
Kahn, Robin (Editor) Time Capsule: A Concise Encyclopedia by Women Artists. New York, NY.: Time Inc, 1995
Magazine & Newspaper Articles
Art Times, March 1991.
Black Arts New York, May 1993, p. 6.
New Art Examiner, October 1999, p. 18.
New York Times, December 24, 1995; February 11, 1996, p. LI27; June 30, 2002, p. WE10.
Pittsburgh HB News, January 28, 1987, p. 3.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 14, 1992.
Pittsburgh Press, March 13, 1992, p. C3.
SunStorm/Fine Art, summer 1993, p. 20.
Winston-Salem Journal, August 3, 1997, p. E2..
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