Valerie Maynard, an African-American sculptor, educator, printmaker, and designer who died at age 85, consistently addressed issues of socioeconomic inequity and the civil rights struggle in her works. The Baltimore Museum of Art, which presented a survey of her work in 2020, acknowledged her passing.
In 1937, Valerie Maynard was born in Harlem. Maynard earned a master’s degree in art/sculpture in 1977 from Vermont’s Goddard College after studying painting and drawing at the Museum of Modern Art, printmaking at the New School for Social Research. Her Maryland Institute College of Art Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts was awarded to her in 2021. (MICA).
The portraits of Black men and women that Maynard had been making for 60 years defied straightforward interpretations.
She established a sculpture program at the Baltimore School of the Arts and taught at Howard University, the College of the Virgin Islands, and the College of the Virgin Islands. In interviews, she made a point of stressing the value of her teaching methods. She frequently emphasized the value of insight. She told Baltimore Magazine, “I simply wanted them to be sincere and put their heart into their art.”
Even though Maynard may not be as widely recognized as some of the people in her circle, her artwork is displayed in public areas where it blends in with the environment, such as a set of mosaics for a Harlem subway station.
Maynard was a member of a group of hundreds of African-American artists who participated in FESTAC 77, the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture in Lagos, Nigeria, in January 1977. They were representing the North American Zone.
Polyrhythmics of Consciousness and Light is a set of glass mosaic murals that Maynard created in 2003 under commission from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The piece of public art is still permanently installed in the New York City subway station on 125th Street.
If we look it up, there is no available information regarding the Maynards’ net worth.
Amelia Warner
Amelia Warner writes all the Latest Articles. She mostly covers Entertainment topics, but at times loves to write about movie reviews as well.
