Visual art
Charles McGee
1924–2021 · painter, sculptor, teacher
Detroit painter and sculptor who shaped the city's art scene for seven decades, from Gallery 7 to his giant Unity mural on 28 Grand.
- Born
Clemson, South Carolina- Died
Detroit, Michigan
aged 96- Detroit years
- 1934–2021
- Field
- Visual art
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
McGee was born in rural South Carolina and moved to Detroit at about ten. After military service in World War II he studied at the art school of the Society of Arts and Crafts, now the College for Creative Studies, on the GI Bill. His paintings, collages and sculptures moved from figurative work to bold black-and-white abstractions full of interlocking forms, animals and figures, which he saw as a meditation on harmony and diversity. He was also a builder of institutions: he opened Gallery 7 and the Charles McGee School of Art, co-founded the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit in 1978, and taught for years at Eastern Michigan University and elsewhere. His public works fill the city: Noah's Ark: Genesis (1984) at the DIA, a mural at the People Mover's Broadway station, Playscape II at Marygrove College, and Unity (2018), a towering mural on the 28 Grand building downtown. In 2008 he was named the first Kresge Eminent Artist. He died in Detroit in 2021, aged 96.
Highlights
- First Kresge Eminent Artist (2008)
- Noah's Ark: Genesis (1984) at the Detroit Institute of Arts
- Unity (2018), a mural on the 28 Grand building downtown
- Founded Gallery 7 and co-founded the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit (1978)
- Named by Tyree Guyton as a key influence
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 4
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 2018
Unity mural – 28 Grand
His monumental black-and-white mural on the exterior of the 28 Grand building downtown.
Worked here · 1984
Detroit Institute of Arts (Friday Night Live!)
The museum holds his large relief work Noah's Ark: Genesis (1984).
Memorial · 2016
Dignity Detroit
Outdoor commons named for him, centered on his sculpture Playscape II.
Studied here · late 1940s
College for Creative Studies
Successor of the Society of Arts and Crafts school where he studied after the war; it later gave him an honorary doctorate.