Emma Amos, an acclaimed figurative artist whose high-color paintings of women flying or falling through space were charged with racial and feminist politics, died May 21 at her home in Bedford, New Hampshire. She was 83. The cause was complications of Alzheimer’s disease, said the Ryan Lee Gallery in Manhattan, which represents her.
A key event in Amos’ career came in 1964. A 27-year-old graduate student in art education at New York University, she was invited to join a newly formed artists group called Spiral. Its members, all African American, included Charles Alston, Romare Bearden, Norman Lewis and muralist Hale Woodruff — midcareer artists with substantial reputations. Organized in response to the 1963 March on Washington, the group was formed to discuss and debate the political role of black artists and their work.
As an emerging artist seeking exhibition and teaching opportunities, Amos had already experienced racial exclusion within the larger art world. Now, as the only woman admitted to Spiral, she learned that gender was also a liability to acceptance within the black art community.