Illustration of silhouettes of people and flowers.

Ashley Bryan

It was Ashley Bryan’s (1923–2022) lifelong mission to fill the void of Black representation in children’s literature. He grew up in Harlem and the Bronx, and received a scholarship to Cooper Union Art School, where he was the only African American student. At age 19, he was drafted into a segregated unit of the U.S. Army. Bryan’s service on Omaha Beach during World War II greatly impacted his life and art. His vibrant tempera paintings, bold woodcut and linoleum prints, and cut-pater collages brim with life-affirming messages of hope and positive representation. Bryan created over 50 books celebrating the African and African American experience, and honoring the song, folk and oral traditions of Africa and the Caribbean.

Bryan’s work has been a recurring presence in the Museum’s galleries since its earliest days. Solo exhibitions include Ashley Bryan: Beautiful Blackbird (2003), Painter and Poet: The Wonderful World of Ashley Bryan (2005), and Ashley Bryan in Song (2021). He was a Carle Honors honoree in 2007, the second year the fundraiser was held. The Carle also organized the traveling exhibition Painter and Poet: The Art of Ashley Bryan at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta (2017) and the Portland Museum of Art in Maine (2018). Over two decades, Bryan generously donated 160 artworks from 35 picture books to The Carle.

Woodcuts of owls and foiliage in green and yellow.

Bryan is one of the earliest tellers of African tales in picture-book form in America. In the 1940s, he created a rich body of work that became the foundation for his own series of African folktales, including The Ox of the Wonderful Horns and Other African Folktales (1971) and The Adventures of Aku (1976). The original artworks for these books are precisely rendered tempera paintings in red, ochre, and black that make direct references to African sculptures, masks, and rock paintings.

Woodcut illustration of two figures dancing with instruments.

Illustration of two people using mortar and pestle.

Illustration of two people walking in woods.

Illustration of woman and child at beach with turtle.

Illustration of sun and moon with angels.

Illustration of tree with two people and large bird in branches.

Illustration of three children with hands raised.

I love the work of the Black American poets. They are at the basis of all that I do in my retelling of African folktales. . . .

Ashley Bryan

Illustration of woman breaking free of chains.

Illustration of woman playing flute and boy drumming in background.

Illustration of person with owl and black cat.

Illustration of birds mirrored in water.

Bryan’s Beautiful Blackbird is a story from the Ila speaking people of Zambia: “I grew up hearing so many stories of black being the lousy color. Well, when I came upon that tale from Zambia in Southeastern Africa, I said, ‘Oh, a story that celebrates black. I’m going to retell that.’ So that became my very first book of African folktales in full color collage. I love the spirit of the story because that blackbird is the character that all the birds look up to and admire.”

The illustrations for Let it Shine are in collage. I wanted to present them in materials that children also work with, and collage is natural to children.

Ashley Bryan

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Ashley Bryan

The celebrated artist and author Ashley Bryan committed his life to spreading joy and filling the void of Black representation in children’s literature. Photo © Emma Lee/WHYY.

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Ashley Bryan

Ashley Bryan