Elizabeth Colomba Explained

Elizabeth Colomba (born 1976)^[1] is a French painter of Martinique heritage known for her paintings of black people in historic settings. Her work has been shown at the Gracie Mansion, the Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia University, the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, the Musée d'Orsay, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.^{[2] [3] [4]}

Early life

Colomba was born in Èpinay-sur-Seine, where her parents had immigrated to from Martinique. As a child, she told her mother she wanted to become a painter after learning about Picasso. She began painting early, making watercolors as a child to decorate her parents' Caribbean restaurant. As a teenager, she read The Image of the Black in Western Art by John and Dominique de Menil, which inspired her to paint a portrait of her great-grandmother in the style of Whistler’s Mother. She continued study the paintings of Louvre, especially the Dutch masters, and attended the École des Beaux-Arts. In 1998, she moved to Los Angeles and worked in storyboarding and illustration for the film industry.

Career

Colomba started spending time in New York in 2007 to further her painting career, and moved to the city permanently in 2011. She met artist Deborah Willis in 2010 after Willis saw one of her paintings at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, and Willis helped her enter the New York art world. Her work focuses on black figures from history, especially black women. Her subjects have included Biddy Mason, Laure, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, and Harriet P. Jacobs.^[5]

In 2016, she had a solo exhibition of works at the Long Gallery in Harlem, which The New Yorker described as "opulent portraits of black women [that] redress the erasures of women of color in nineteenth-century art history."^[6]

In March 2022, her first solo museum show opened at Princeton University. Her solo show "Mythologies," which included oil paintings, works on paper, and her short film Cendrillon, opened at the Portland Museum of Art in 2023.^[7]

Notable paintings

• Armelle (1997) depicts Colomba's cousin contemplating the painting Under the Palm Tree by Winslow Homer
• Biddy Mason (2006)
• Chevalier de St Georges (2010)
• Haven (2015), depicting a black couple in Weeksville, was featured in a 2019 show at the Gracie Mansion organized by Chirlane McCray^{[8] [9]}
• Laure (Portrait of a Negresse) (2018), which is a reinterpretation of a painting by Edouard Manet
• Minerva Portrait of Minerva commissioned by the Park Avenue Armory in New York. This is the first work by a Black artist in the Armory^[10]
• Riding Places (2021) was included in the exhibition Taking Space: Contemporary Women Artists and the Politics of Scale at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts^[11]

Other artworks

• In 2018, the Metropolitan Opera's streaming series premiered Colomba's short film Cendrillon, starring Grace Bol.^[12]
• Colomba illustrated the 2021 graphic novel Queenie, the Godmother of Harlem, about Stéphanie St. Clair^[13]
• 157 Years of Juneteenth, a watercolor for a New Yorker cover celebrating Juneteenth^[14]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Elizabeth Colomba . Princeton University Art Museum . 13 October 2021 . 12 December 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20191212160537/https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/es/collections/maker/20048 . dead .
2. Web site: Painter Elizabeth Colomba Is Giving Art's Hidden Figures Their Close-Up. Vogue. en. 2019-02-26.
3. News: A Publicist and D.J. Who Nurtures Underrepresented Artists. Widdicombe. Ben. 2018-03-27. The New York Times. 2019-02-26. en-US. 0362-4331.
4. Web site: Gomez-Upegui . Salome . April 18, 2022 . At Elizabeth Colomba's Debut Museum Show, Black Women Are Finally Getting Their Due . April 25, 2022 . ARTnews.
5. Web site: Shearer . Jessica . August 25, 2023 . Elizabeth Colomba's "Mythologies" Reclaims Whitewashed Narratives . 2023-08-30 . Boston Art Review . en-US.
6. Elizabeth Colomba. The New Yorker. 2019-02-26.
7. Web site: Elizabeth Colomba: Mythologies . 2023-06-10 . Portland Museum of Art . en-US.
8. News: Steinhauer . Jillian . 2019-01-20 . On Display at the People's House: A Century of Persistence . en-US . The New York Times . 2019-02-26 . 0362-4331.
9. Web site: 2019-02-11 . At the Mayor's Mansion in New York, a Powerful Art Show Honors the Diversity of 100 Years of Women's Struggles . 2019-02-26 . artnet News . en-US.
10. Web site: Dube . Ilene . Elizabeth Colomba Is Claiming Her Place in the History of Art . JerseyArts.com . 4 August 2022.
11. Web site: Stamberg . Susan . 25 February 2021 . In One Art Exhibition, Women Are 'Taking Space' They've Long Deserved . 13 October 2021 . NPR . en.
12. Web site: Musbach . Julie . April 23, 2018 . Gallery Met Shorts Presents A Film By Elizabeth Colomba Set To Music From Massenet's CENDRILLON . April 26, 2022 . BroadwayWorld.
13. News: Jackson . Eve . September 23, 2021 . Artist Elizabeth Colomba: Reclaiming a place in history for women of colour . France 24 . April 25, 2022.
14. Mouly . Françoise . 2022-06-13 . Elizabeth Colomba's "157 Years of Juneteenth" . 2022-06-16 . The New Yorker . en-US.