Ronald Joseph

Art Brokerage: Ronald Joseph British West Indies Artist: b. 1910-1992. A native of St. Kitts in the British West Indies, Ronald Joseph moved to New York as a child. He was quickly identified as a very talented young artist - his student works were included in an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and he studied at the Ethical Culture School, Fieldston School and Pratt Institute. He worked in the mural section of the Federal Art Project of the WPA, and was a representative of the Harlem Artists' Guild to the New York World's Fair (1939-1940). By 1943, Joseph had received recognition - James A. Porter described him as New York's "foremost Negro abstractionist painter." He experimented with abstraction alongside his friend Bob Blackburn through the 1950s. Joseph had met Blackburn in Reva Helfond's lithography studio at the Harlem Art Center soon after he graduated from high school. After service in the Army Air Corps, Joseph was awarded a Rosenwald Fellowship in 1948. The funds allowed him to live and work abroad--first in Peru, then Paris. His work from these travels is large undocumented; according to Rosenwald scholar. Listings wanted by Art Brokerage.