Raymond Saunders, author of 'Black is a Color', dies at 90

Raymond Saunders, the American artist known for mixed-media assemblage paintings and his influential 1967 essay 'Black is a Color', has died at age 90. Born in Pittsburgh in 1934, he studied under Joseph C. Fitzpatrick at Carnegie Museum of Art's Saturday program alongside Andy Warhol and Mel Bochner. He earned a BFA from Carnegie Institute of Technology and an MFA from California College of Arts and Crafts, where he taught from 1968 and became professor emeritus. His essay rebutted Ishmael Reed's article on the Black Arts Movement, arguing against isolating Black art from the broader art world. His first US institutional retrospective, 'Raymond Saunders: Flowers from a Black Garden', closed at Carnegie Museum of Art on July 13.