selfportraitsofcolor: Albert Adams, b. 1929, d. 2006Self PortraitSouth Africa (c. 1959)[Source]Adams
selfportraitsofcolor: Albert Adams, b. 1929, d. 2006Self PortraitSouth Africa (c. 1959)[Source]Adams was born in Johannesburg and at the age of four moved to Cape Town with his mother and sister. He attended Livingstone High School and qualified as a teacher at Hewat Teachers’ Training College in Cape Town. Denied entrance to the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, due to the colour of his skin, he subsequently applied for, and was awarded, a scholarship to study at the Slade School of Art in London (1953-1956). This training, and exposure to some of the great artistic talents and minds of the twentieth century, provided a solid foundation from which Adams could forge his own style. In 1957 he went to the Munich Academy of Arts and during the summer, he attended master classes at Oskar Kokoschka’s (1886-1980) School of Vision in Salzburg.Adams returned to Cape Town where he exhibited widely to critical acclaim and was chosen to represent South Africa in international exhibitions on more than one occasion, but in 1960 he decided to leave South Africa and permanently settle in London. Initially teaching at schools in the East End, he was appointed to the staff of the City University, London in 1979, where he lectured in art history for 18 years.The time spent with Oscar Kokoschka had an enduring influence on Adams’ philosophical and technical approach to his own creative expression. Throughout his life, he remained true to Kokoschka’s words, contained in a taped speech, specially recorded for and played at the opening of Adams’ first solo exhibition in Cape Town in 1959: never to close his eyes to ‘the misery we create on earth’. Just discovered that he wasn’t actually of African descent—he was a mix of Indian and “Cape Coloured”. -- source link