James Lesesne Wells

(1902-1993)

Born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1902, James Lesesne Wells was an African American educator, painting, printmaker and photographer associated with the Harlem Renaissance.

One of the first black artists to embrace modernism, Wells developed a great interest in the process of printmaking and was influenced by the woodcuts of Albrecht Dürrer and the German Expressionists.

After retiring from Howard University in 1968 where he taught clay modeling, ceramics, sculpture, metal and block printing for nearly 40 years, Wells continued to paint and make prints into his eighties. His legacy stands in the thousands of students he inspired and shaped into the next generation of artists.