Charles Lilly

(b. 1949) Charles Lilly has been a husband, a father, an art student, an art teacher/instructor, a photo student, a photographer’s assistant, a mentor, a summer NYC Park Department employee, a Holiday Postal Worker, a jazz enthusiast, a weekend soldier, a commercial artist, an exhibit coordinator, an award winner, an event organizer, a guest lecturer, an organization founder, an activist, an entrepreneur, a friend and companion, a lover, and a believer in God. He’s always been a loving son to his parents (deceased) and that love passed onto his son Eliott... his most impressive and in his words “my greatest work of art”. From his earliest surviving drawing at age 6 till his latest present day work, one thing is clear... Charles Lilly has always been an artist.

Upon graduating from the School of Visual Arts in 1970, Lilly became an ‘Illustrator’ and worked in this profession for over 38 years. Recently Lilly begun to focus on fine art and is creating new works for his life’s pursuit, a series he calls ‘Black Life in America’. This series chronicles the ordinary every day existence of an extraordinary people, from coast to coast and from north to south. Lilly says “It is my intention that when future African American children (or any children) and adults alike visit various museums, they will see realistic oil painted documents of us (themselves) doing what we do in our everyday lives as a part of this society, long under recorded.

Coming from a commercial art background Lilly has painted a huge assortment of people, places and things. Some of his favorites and most memorable paintings include:

2008 - A painting for the United States Air Force that hangs in the Pentagon

2007 - A Christmas Bulb for the White House representing the African Burial Ground in Manhattan

1999 - ‘Crispus Attucks’ painted for Crisis Magazine/NAACP

1992 - ‘Mt. Freedom’ painted for The Congressional Black Caucus as a stage backdrop for the 1992 Convention

1977 - ‘Hanibal’ painted for Budweiser’s ‘Great Kings of Africa’ series

1973 - ‘Malcolm X’, originally painted for Encore Magazine and the next year became the well known cover of ‘The Autobiography of Malcolm X’, by Alex Haley