Original Sylvester Britton Painting, 2001 “Welcome to Our World”

Sylvester Britton, 1926-2009. Sylvester Britton studied at the Art Institute of Chicago School of Painting & Sculpture, and also in Mexico City at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere Paris. He has exhibited at the Oak Park Library, Atlanta University, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the South Side Community Art Center in Chicago. He has had international showings in Paris and Stockholm.

Sylvester Britton was born in 1926 on the South Side of Chicago. He attended the Abraham Lincoln Center, a cultural center in Chicago, and received formal art training in Mexico City at the School of Painting and Sculpture. When Britton returned to Chicago, he studied at the School of the Art Institute. He later traveled to Europe, living and exhibiting work both in Paris and Sweden before earning enough money to move back to Chicago by making Christmas cards. When he returned to the United States, he was instrumental in the revival of the South Side Community Art Center and became its gallery director. He was also a regular exhibitor at the 57th Street Art Fair in Chicago.

Britton exhibited works at Oak Park Library, Chicago, IL; Atlanta University; Art Institute of Chicago; and the South Side Community Art Center. He was awarded the Eisendrath Prize from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1956. Most recently, in 2018, the Smart Museum, Chicago, IL, included his work in the exhibition, The Time is Now! Art Worlds of Chicago’s South Side 1960-1980. Illustrations of his work appear in the catalog on pages 72 and 139. His work is also illustrated in The Black Chicago Renaissance by Darlene Clark Hine and John McCluskey, Jr. , University of Illinois Press, 2012, cat #10:28 and 10:29.

He was awarded the Eisendrath Prize from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1956.