1999
oil wash and mixed media on canvas
24 x 30 inches
signed and dated
Provenance: the estate of the artist
Raymond Howell was born in Oakland, California on September 7, 1927.
Howell’s journey from a difficult childhood defined by foster care and reform school to becoming a self-supporting, institutionally recognized artist underscores a profound commitment to his craft and his community. His formal schooling ended by the fifth grade, rendering him both artistically and academically self-educated. This background fundamentally shaped his relationship with art and education. He often recounted that his artistic path began not by choice, but by penalty: at age eight, he was ordered to draw life-size images of his classmates on the blackboard as a punishment for not paying attention to the lesson. [1]
Howell’s childhood experience provided him with an intimate knowledge of marginalized communities and systemic lack of access to educational resources. This personal difficulty motivated his later endeavors in arts advocacy.
Howell’s aesthetic approach was predicated on an eclectic foundation anchored in realism, which provided narrative clarity for his depictions of everyday life, street scenes, and portraits; layered with a surrealistic depth often lending a slight, dreamlike distortion or evocative tension to the figures and settings. This stylistic fluidity was not arbitrary; it allowed Howell to address the complexities of the African-American experience with a visual language that transcended simple documentation.
1986
oil wash on canvas
43 x 36 inches
signed and dated; titled
Provenance: the estate of the artist
He was noted for employing techniques traditionally associated with the "Old Masters," specifically the "extensive layering of thin pigments for luminosity". By applying these classical, painstaking techniques to contemporary, socially relevant subjects—the lives of African Americans in the Bay Area—Howell granted his figurative works a sense of permanence and inherent dignity often reserved for classical portraiture. [2]
His paintings frequently focused on scenes from his native Oakland and adopted city, San Francisco. Key subjects included African-American culture, street scenes, children at play, and portraits of musicians.
1996
oil wash and mixed media on canvas
40 x 36 inches
signed, dated and titled
Provenance: the estate of the artist
Howell was given a one-person show at the well-known Maxwell Galleries in 1956. “He states that he has experimented with surrealism, the contemporary school, and magic realism; but decided that his own strength lay in purely emotional painting—in which conception and execution are governed by imagination.” [3]
In the mid-1960s, Howell opened Art Associates West, a gallery and art school in San Francisco’ Haight-Ashbury district (this operated for nearly a decade).
Howell’s painting, The Brown Family (1965), sometimes known as The Brown Painting, was acquired by the Oakland Museum of California in 1969, the same year the institution opened. [4]
Among Howell’s most celebrated thematic explorations are his series of paintings and prints depicting musicians and ballet dancers, particularly those from the 1990s, which focus on innovators in their art forms. This series includes iconic portraits of jazz legends such as Miles Davis and Ella Fitzgerald. By focusing on these masters of improvisation and technical fluidity, Howell drew a direct parallel between the complexity of their musical expression and his own synthesis of visual styles. His eclectic incorporation of realism, abstraction, and impressionism in painting mirrors the layered, innovative nature of jazz composition.
1990s; mixed media with collage elements on masonite, 36 x 20-1/2 inches, signed. Provenance: the estate of the artist
Howell’s commitment to self-education translated directly into a passion for educating others, particularly marginalized youth. In the mid-1960s, he established Art Associates West, a combination gallery and art school located at 85 Carl Street in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district. This establishment served as a vibrant cultural fixture for nearly a decade, allowing Howell to function simultaneously as an exhibitor and a teacher. [5]. Strategically located in the epicenter of the counter-cultural movement, the gallery affirmed Black cultural priorities and art forms amidst the era's socio-political shifts.
In 1999, Stanford University (Stanford Art Spaces Gallery) hosted a significant 40-year retrospective of his oeuvre, a profound academic validation of his long career. The exhibition included major portraits of musicians, Miles Davis and Ella Fitzgerald.
Recent Works by Raymond Howell was scheduled to open on January 6, 2002, at the Oakland Museum of California, but sadly, the artist passed away that morning. The exhibition continued as planned, and his widow, Janet Nassar presented the gallery talk on his behalf (January 17, 2002).
This information was, to a great extent, provided by the Nassar family.
Additional information was provided by Christine Osborne, registrar Oakland Museum of California and Anna in the research department there.
Footnotes
1. The Times-Herald (Vallejo, CA), August 26, 1956, p. 38; “Paintings by Raymond Howell Are Shown at Maxwell Galleries.
2. For information concerning glazing techniques: Tanja Moderscheim, Dutch Still Life painter (www.dutchfinepaintings.com
3. The Times-Herald (Vallejo, CA), August 26, 1956, p. 38; “Paintings by Raymond Howell Are Shown at Maxwell Galleries.
4. Oakland Museum of California collections:
https://portal.museumca.org/catalog/f8b47289-b863-4503-aefd-2d563b07d5ba
5. News release, Oakland Museum of California, January 5, 2002 (accompanied the exhibition, Recent Works by Raymond Howell)
1990s
oil and mixed media on canvas
24 x 31 inches
signed
Provenance: the estate of the artist
Exhibition History
1955 Sather Gate Art Festival, Berkeley, CA
1955 Harris Associates, Berkeley, CA
1956 San Francisco Nightlife, Maxwell Galleries, San Francisco, CA.
1958 Ten Years of Painting by Raymond Howell; Artists Cooperative, San Francisco, CA.
Feingarten Galleries, San Francisco, CA
1960 After New York: Paintings by Raymond Howell, San Francisco, CA; Art Unlimited.
1962 Raymond Howell; Galerie de Tours, San Francisco, CA.
1963 Raymond Howell; Galerie de Tours, San Francisco, CA
1964 Bay Artists and Craftsmen United, CA (group)
Shore Galleries, Boston, MA
1966 Raymond Howell; Gilbert Galleries, San Francisco, CA
1967 Berkeley Art Festival, CA
1968 Afro-American Art Exhibition; in honor of Negro History Week, coordinated by members of the Oakland Museum Guild (organized by EJ Montgomery)
1969 2 Black Artists, Raymond Howell and Donald Greene, Waden Branch of the San Francisco Public Library, CA
Hotel Mark Hopkins, San Francisco, CA
1970 Charles and Isabel Eaton Collection of American Paintings Exhibition, Ackland Art Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC
1971 Black American Artists/71; Illinois Arts Council and Illinois Bell Telephone Lobby Gallery, Chicago, IL (traveling)
1973 Raymond Howell; Gilbert Galleries, San Francisco, CA
1980 Art Expo West; Los Angeles Convention Center
1999 Raymond Howell; Stanford University,CA; 40 yr retrospective
2001 Oils by Raymond Howell; Oakland Museum, CA
2002 Recent Works by Raymond Howell; Oakland Museum of California. (Street scenes and portraits of jazz musicians.
Los Angeles International Black Art Show
The Charles & Isabel Eaton Collection of American Paintings
Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA
Hayward State University, Hayward, CA
Heritage Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Boston Art Festival, Boston, MA
Cape Cod Art Association, Barnstable, MA
The Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA
Gump’s, San Francisco, CA