Artist Info
Emma Amos
Emma Amos (16 March 1937 – 20 May 2020) was a postmodern African-American painter and printmaker.
Her work combined printmaking, painting and textile in her self-referential works, usually on linen, large scale, and unframed. During her time at Central School of Art, Amos studied abstract painting, and produced some Abstract Expressionist work for a period. After a while she deemed abstraction too easy and arbitrary, so she returned to painting the figure because it was more challenging. This influence remained present in her figurative work.
Amos studied at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. During her fourth year at Antioch, she went to England and studied at the London Central School of Arts & Crafts, where she learned to print and etch under Anthony Harrison, and began to paint with oils, which she had not done before. Amos received her BFA degree from Antioch in 1958, then went back to London for her degree in etching, which she received in 1959 after two years of study. The following year Amos moved to New York City to start working with two printmaking studios. Later on she received her MA at New York University (NYU).