Dr. David C. Driskell (b. 1931, Eatonton, GA, d. 2020, Hyattsville, MD) was a legendary African American artist and art historian. As an artist, scholar, and curator, he made substantial contributions to these fields that have changed the way we think about American art. His paintings and collages unite a strong modernist impulse with his personal vision and memory. Driskell transformed iconic African art forms into honorific personal visions – flattened, decorated, and resurfaced in his signature style, color, and calligraphy - and melded these forms with Modernist aesthetics and the tradition of Western art. Driskell’s pioneering scholarship underpins the current field of African American art history. Among his most influential curatorial contributions is the exhibition and catalogue for the groundbreaking Two Centuries of Black American Art, which opened in 1976 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and traveled to museums across the country. In 1977, after having taught at Talladega College, Howard University, and Fisk University, Driskell joined the Department of Art at the University of Maryland where he remained until his retirement in 1998. The University of Maryland opened The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora in 2001 to celebrate his legacy as an artist and art historian.

Driskell transformed iconic African art forms like masks into honorific personal visions – flattened, decorated, and resurfaced in his signature style, color, and calligraphy - and melded these forms with Modernist aesthetics and the tradition of Western art. He engages in a dynamic dialogue between African symbolism and traditional Western practices, and seeks to exhaust the possibilities of African formalism, pushing its expressive limits, and exploring new frontiers of artistic discourse. African masks held profound significance for Driskell, fascinated by both their formal qualities and their connection to his ancestral history. These masks served as potent vehicles for expressing the enduring power of his ancestors, contrasted against Western styles of creation. Driskell's artistic journey took him to Bahia, Brazil, where he embarked on an immersive exploration in search of artistic enrichment. This transformative experience played a pivotal role in augmenting his creative vision.