Harvey Tristan Cropper

Cropper was born on August 4, 1931, in Sugar Hill, Harlem, New York City,{{cite book|first=Dennis |last=Thomison|title=The Black artist in America: an index to reproductions|url=https://archive.org/details/blackartistiname00thom|url-access=registration |date=1 December 1991|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-2503-1}}{{Citation|first=Ryan |last=Tebo|title=Harvey Tristan Cropper: A Video Portrait|date=2011-12-20|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUh3MzXB-ds|access-date=2019-02-17}} to West Indian parents who had migrated there from St. Vincent. His father was a pharmacist and his mother was an embroiderer in Harlem.{{Cite book|title=The Art of Harvey Tristan Cropper.|date=2015|publisher=Styx förlag|isbn=978-91-85747-35-1|oclc=942288033}} Cropper started creating art at the age of four, and was inspired by the many colors of his mother's silk threads. He studied at the Art Students League of New York, and spent time in private study in Japan.{{cite book|title=Afro-American Artists: A Bio-biographical Directory|first=Theresa Dickason|last=Cederholm|publisher=Trustees of the Boston Public Library|date=1973|page=[https://archive.org/details/afroamericanarti00cede_0/page/66 66]|isbn=978-0-89073-007-2|url=https://archive.org/details/afroamericanarti00cede_0/page/66}} In the early 1950s, while living at 4 Barrow Street in New York's Greenwich Village with the jazz musician Charlie Parker,{{cite book|first=Ira |last=Gitler|author-link=Ira Gitler|title=Swing to Bop: An Oral History of the Transition in Jazz in the 1940s|url=https://archive.org/details/swingtoboporalhi00gitl|url-access=registration |year=1985|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-505070-7|pages=[https://archive.org/details/swingtoboporalhi00gitl/page/297 297]–}} Cropper taught Parker how to paint in exchange for music lessons.{{cite book|first=Edward |last=Spargo|title=Selections from the Black|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tzjYAAAAMAAJ|year=1974|publisher=Jamestown Publishers|isbn=978-0-89061-001-5}}{{cite book|first=Brian |last=Priestley|author-link=Brian Priestley|title=Chasin' the Bird: The Life and Legacy of Charlie Parker|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ijEGzLKQY5kC&pg=PA91|date=May 2007|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-532709-0|pages=91–}}{{cite web|url=https://nwfilm.org/films/charlie-bird-parker-1920-1955/|title=Charlie "Bird" Parker, 1920-1955|date=October 31, 2016|website=NW Film Center|access-date=February 14, 2019|archive-date=September 25, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210925184330/https://nwfilm.org/films/charlie-bird-parker-1920-1955/|url-status=dead}}

In 1954, Cropper exhibited his work at the Galerie Moderne.{{cite magazine|title=Exhibition at Galerie Moderne|magazine=Arts Digest|volume=28|date=September 1954|page=25}} In 1964, his work was part of the 10 American Negro Artists Living and Working in Europe exhibition at Den Frie Udstilling in Copenhagen, Denmark.{{cite book|title=Exhibition [of] 10 American Negro Artists Living and Working in Europe: Paintings, Prints, Drawings, Collages: Den Frie, Oslo Plads, Copenhagen, June 11–30, 1964|date=1964|oclc=17333008|first=Allen|last=Polite}}

During the Vietnam War, Cropper began to focus on political paintings. His piece "Faces of Apartheid" was used by the United Nations.{{Cite book|title=Music and identity: transformation and negotiation|date=2007|publisher=Sun Press |author=Akrofi, E. A. |author2=Smit, Maria |author3=Thorsén, Stig-Magnus |isbn=978-1-919980-85-0|location=Stellenbosch|oclc=232335549}}

In the 1970s, Cropper's artistic style began to focus more on meditative creation and still life. In a conversation with Swedish artist and friend Bengt O. Björklund, he explained: "Light, texture and symbolism are important to me. I have become more meditative and once again approached the Japanese tradition and the values Zen stands for."

In 1981, Cropper moved to Stockholm, Sweden, where he spent the rest of his life working in an open studio with other artists. He died in Stockholm from cancer in 2012, aged 81.

• {{cite book|title=The Black Artist in America: An Index to Reproductions|date=1991|location=Metuchen, N.J.|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-2503-1|oclc=810452159|url=https://archive.org/details/blackartistiname00thom|last1=Thomison|first1=Dennis}}
• The Art of Harvey Tristan Cropper. 2015. Styx förlag. {{ISBN|978-91-85747-35-1}}, {{OCLC|942288033}}
• Harvey Tristan Cropper Some Comments on the 5 Senses. Nilsson & Bergholm. 1987. {{OCLC|30584797}}

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Category:1931 births

Category:2012 deaths

Category:20th-century African-American painters

Category:20th-century American painters

Category:21st-century African-American painters

Category:21st-century American painters

Category:Art Students League of New York alumni