LeRoy Foster (artist)

161:. The popular studio, part of a burgeoning network of local black artists, was the brainchild of Henri King and Harold Neal, along with 15 other artists, many of them alumni of the Society of Arts and Crafts. Foster’s time studying at the Society under Sarkis Sarkisian linked him with many of Detroit’s most active black artists who Sarkisian had also mentored. 149:

Foster has been referred to as “Detroit’s Own Michelangelo,” and was considered by friends to be “the dean of black artists in Detroit” at the time. He came to be known around the city as an artist with a mastery of human anatomy, an excellent portrait painter, and, perhaps most widely acknowledged,

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reported that LeRoy Foster had already won four prizes at the annual Michigan Artists Exhibition at the Detroit Art Institute and had sold more than two hundred paintings. In 1968, Foster was featured in a traveling exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Art, alongside other prominent African-American

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Foster began drawing at age five or six, and was an exceptional art student, recognized by teachers and peers at an early age. “I was nice up until I was 12,” he recalled, “then all hell broke loose. I was possessed by demons...and one way to exorcise those demons was to paint.” In 1939, at age 14,

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Foster was gay, and according to friends was “frank about his sexual persuasion,” despite the hostility towards homosexuality at the time. Several younger artists remember him as a positive role model, and parties that he threw at his studio were widely attended. Also, one of his good friends and

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In 1985, “Renaissance City” was vandalized, and only a few months afterward Foster’s home and studio burned down. Friends and fellow artists, spearhead by Dr. Charles Wright, organized donations and an art auction to support Foster and pay for the restoration of the mural, which was completed in

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contestant Felle Kelsaw created a public mural titled "LeRoy the King" honoring Foster. The 100 foot long mural is located at Market on the Avenue, a community space, on Livernois Avenue across from the University of Detroit Mercy, and near where Foster once lived.

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In 1972 Foster painted one of his most well-known murals, the 10’ x 12’ “Life and Times of Frederick Douglass,” which was installed the next year in the Frederick Douglass branch of the Detroit Public Library. The painting is based on the 1859 meeting in Detroit of

196:, shortly before Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, and also portrays Douglass’s life at several different stages. The mural was heavily influenced by Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel fresco, and also features a portrait of Foster himself attending the meeting. 214:’s 80th birthday. His friend Leno Jaxon, founder of American Black Artists, Inc. and first director of the Afro-American Museum, once attempted to convince the Detroit Institute of Art to show the work, but it was rejected, generating controversy. 306:, a 9' x 28' mural in the lobby of Southwest Detroit Hospital, a commission was a joint venture between the medical staff of Boulevard General Hospital and managers of Southwest Detroit Hospital. 86:

he painted on the walls of Detroit institutions, such as “The Life & Times of Frederick Douglass,” at the Detroit Public Library’s Frederick Douglass Branch, and “Renaissance City,” at

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Foster was born in Detroit on May 8, 1925 to Combee and Marie Coleman Foster, and lived there his entire life, except for a brief time when he studied art in Europe in the 1940s.

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Foster suffered from diabetes and his deteriorating health resulted in blindness and loss of his legs. He died of kidney failure on March 23, 1993, at Grace Hospital in Detroit.

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he won first prize at an exhibition of the Pen and Palette Club, a training and studio space for black artists sponsored by the Detroit Urban League. He was the youngest member.

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In 1990, towards the end of Foster’s life, Leno Jaxon organized a showing of his work at American Black Artists, Inc. Also in 1990, Foster signed the second floor beam in the

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Conspirators at Harper's Ferry mural, featuring John Brown, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Tubman in the courtroom of Detroit's Recorders Court Judge

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in 1976, and his 18’ x 20’ “Renaissance City,” at Cass Technical High School, made in 1979, which depicts the city rising from the ashes of the

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in Bloomfield Hills. Through the help of his teachers at Cass, he received a scholarship to study at the Society of Arts and Crafts (now the

126: 1248: 1060: 268:. Oil on canvas, circa 1942. Made in high school, when Foster was 17. Sold at auction on Feb 19, 2008 at Swann Galleries for $ 8400. 274:. Early watercolor, circa 1948. Depicts young artist with a friend. Sold at auction on Feb 6, 2007 at Swann Galleries for $ 9,600. 1050: 1238: 1258: 1243: 130: 341: 122: 1253: 348:"Foster, LeRoy", Artists In Michigan 1900-1976, A Biographical Dictionary Wayne State University Press, 1989, p, 121 277: 225:

1986. At the celebration for the restoration, Detroit Free Press columnist Susan Watson called Foster a “genius.”

200: 114: 87: 193: 786: 118: 1192:"Market on the Avenue offers a taste of Detroit's Livernois-McNichols redevelopment – Stay connected with CC!" 125:), where he studied under painter Sarkis Sarkisian. After that, Foster spent time studying in Europe, at the 298: 158: 154: 168:, who would become Foster’s friend and patron, established the International Afro-American Museum (now the 490: 464: 217:

In 1981, Foster's art work was included in the exhibit "Prominent Black Artists, Past and Present" at the

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Foster went on to paint other prominent murals in Detroit, including “Kaleidoscope,” commissioned for the

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Abayomi, N. A. (June 17, 1989). ""Controversy continues over African-American art in Detroit"".

397:(https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6KQH-KCTB : 10 February 2023), Leroy Foster, . 1119: 1056: 1024: 204: 110: 61: 42: 181: 82:(1925–1993) was an American painter from Detroit, Michigan. He is best known for the large 90:. He also painted portraits of prominent figures like singer and civil rights activist 1115:

The National Medical Association demands equal opportunity: nothing more, nothing less

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Ain't I A Woman: An exhibition catalogue (12 Notable Black women of Michigan)

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a public muralist with a commitment to African-American history and culture.

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Watson, Susan (February 26, 1986). ""Wright idea was right on the mark"".

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Watson, Susan (February 26, 1986). ""Wright idea was right on the mark"".

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Watson, Susan (February 26, 1986). ""Wright idea was right on the mark"".

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