Cleota Collins

When he made this portrait of the singer and civil rights activist Cleota Collins, in June 1932, Henry Bannarn was studying at the Minneapolis School of Art (now the Minneapolis College of Art and Design). It is his earliest known work. Born in Oklahoma, Bannarn had moved with his family to Minneapolis while still a child. Thanks to a grant from the Minnesota philanthropist James Ford Bell, Bannarn was able to move to New York, where his studio at 306 West 141st Street became a creative center and meeting place for African American artists, musicians, and poets. Within the movement known as the Harlem Renaissance, Bannarn became famous for his paintings and sculptures and was admired as a teacher and a mentor to younger artists.