Charles H. Alston (1907-1977) Famed Muralist

The greatest cultural advancement in American history was made during the years of the federally funded Works Progress Administration, which employed thousands of artists, writers, actors, musicians, and craftsmen between 1937 and 1941. While the majority of those employed were amateurs and students, Charles H. Alston was one of the professionals. Born in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1907, Alston moved to New York when he was a child. He earned his Master of Arts degree from Columbia University in 1931 and taught at the Harlem Art Center and the Harlem Art Workshop. Bringing his background of formal education and teaching experience to his job with the New York Art Project, WPA, Alston shared his talents with many promising students in Harlem.

Alston was a distinguished easel and mural painter, sculptor, and illustrator. He won the Arthur Wesley Dow Fellowship from Columbia University, the Rosenwald Fellowship in Painting, 1939-1940 and 1940-1941, and a National Institute of Arts and Letters Grant in 1958. He won first prize at the Atlanta University Annual Exhibit in 1941 and first prize at the Dillard University Annual Exhibit the following year. In 1960 his paintings won the Joe and Emily Lowe Award.

A member of the National Society of Mural Painters, Alston completed murals for the Hall of Forestry and the Hall of Invertebrate Biology in the Museum of Natural History. He also executed a mosaic mural on “Man on the Threshold of Space” for the Hariet Tubman School in Manhattan, New York. His murals Primitive Medicine and Modern Medicine are displayed in the Harlem Hospital and others hang in the Golden State Insurance Company in Los Angeles, the Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, and the City College of New York.

Along with two other Americans, Alston represented the Museum of Modern Art and the State Department at the Children’s Creative Center at the Brussels World Fair in 1958. Named to the Advisory Council of the Arts in 1967, he joined the faculty of City College of New York the following year. His works are displayed in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum, and International Business Machines, to name a few. His illustrations have appeared on the covers of such magazines as Fortune, Red Book, Collier’s, The New Yorker, and Mademoiselle.

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