Rehearsal (Music Series)

Benny Andrews, who died in November, 2006, is remembered as one of the leading artists of the twentieth century. The son of sharecroppers, his early life was spent in rural Georgia until left the south to serve in the Korean War.  Following the war, he studied art at the Art Institute of Chicago, and upon graduation moved to New York where he established his career as an artist, university professor, writer, and public thinker. 

Andrews is best known for his slightly abstracted, figurative portraits, set in a narrative context. Some portraits are humorous and others poignant, reflecting the joy, pain and irony of the African-American experience, and the human experience.  “Rehearsal,” with its dignified pianist playing in what appears to be a church, is probably inspired by Andrews’ own experiences in rural Georgia, and depicts what is likely an experience or memory shared by many in Birmingham and throughout the south.