1907 - 1991
Prentiss Taylor was an American illustrator, lithographer, and painter. Born in Washington D.C., Taylor began his art studies at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, followed by painting classes under Charles Hawthorne in Provincetown, MA, and training at the Art Students League in New York. A fateful class in lithography at the League led to his new focus, and his subsequent experiments with various lithographic techniques and compositions beginning in 1931 quickly led to his earning a reputation as one of the U.S.’s great practitioners of the medium.
At the same time as his experimenting with crayon on stone, he became enthralled with the rich literary and artistic movement that was peaking in Upper Manhattan during the late 1920s and early 30s. As a result, Taylor met and collaborated with many writers and musicians synonymous with the Harlem Renaissance and became one of the few white artists active in it, counting among his closest friends the poet Langston Hughes and composer Aaron Copland, as well as gay luminaries such as club owner and performer Jimmie Daniels, and writer and photographer Carl Van Vechten.
Over the course of his career, Taylor produced 142 lithographs depicting mostly narrative scenes of music, architecture, religion, and social justice. His reach, however, wasn’t limited to art. He also spent some time working as an art therapist and, it is said, was a pioneer in psychotherapy through art with Harlem Renaissance figures and various other clients, Ezra Pound, his wife, and son among them.
At the same time as his experimenting with crayon on stone, he became enthralled with the rich literary and artistic movement that was peaking in Upper Manhattan during the late 1920s and early 30s. As a result, Taylor met and collaborated with many writers and musicians synonymous with the Harlem Renaissance and became one of the few white artists active in it, counting among his closest friends the poet Langston Hughes and composer Aaron Copland, as well as gay luminaries such as club owner and performer Jimmie Daniels, and writer and photographer Carl Van Vechten.
Over the course of his career, Taylor produced 142 lithographs depicting mostly narrative scenes of music, architecture, religion, and social justice. His reach, however, wasn’t limited to art. He also spent some time working as an art therapist and, it is said, was a pioneer in psychotherapy through art with Harlem Renaissance figures and various other clients, Ezra Pound, his wife, and son among them.
