Samella Lewis, whose writing and activism helped shape Black art history, passed away on May 27. She was 99 years old. According to the Los Angeles Times, Lewis died from kidney failure at a hospital in Torrance, California.
Her death was confirmed by her younger son, Claude. The daughter of a farmer and a seamstress, Samella Sanders was born on February 27, 1923 in New Orleans.
She was first exposed to art in the city’s French Quarter, where she met an Italian portrait painter named Alfredo Gali who gave her free art lessons.
Lewis studied art at Dillard University. While there, she met Elizabeth Catlett, an esteemed sculptor who became her lifelong mentor and close friend.
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