Humbert Howard

Howard was born in Philadelphia. Sources differ on Howard's birth year, some stating 1905[1][2][3][4][5] and some stating 1915.[6][7][8] Howard attended Howard University and the University of Pennsylvania. During the 1930s Howard worked for the Philadelphia Works Progress Administration's Art project (WPA).[1]

Howard was best known for being an active member of the Pyramid Club, serving as the art/exhibition director from 1940 through 1958.[6][9] The Pyramid Club was an African-American social club in Philadelphia. Howard selected works for the club's annual exhibitions in New York and Philadelphia.[7]

From 1959 to 1961[5] Howard studied at the Barnes Foundation, an experience that affected his style, making it more abstract.[1]

His work was included in the 1967 exhibition The Evolution of Afro-American Artists at the City College of New York.[5]

Howard died in 1990 in Philadelphia.[1]

Howard's work is in the collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,[8] the Philadelphia Museum of Art,[10] the Delaware Art Museum,[5] and the Woodmere Art Museum.[11] His paper are in the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution.[12]

In 2000 his work was included in An Exuberant Bounty: Prints and Drawings by African Americans at the Philadelphia Museum of Art].[13] Howard's work was included in the 2015 exhibition We Speak: Black Artists in Philadelphia, 1920s-1970s at the Woodmere Art Museum.[14]

• Humbert Howard: Philadelphia Painter, retrospective exhibition catalog, Levy Gallery for the Arts, 1996