Milton Derr

Milton Derr, also known as Milton Johnson, is a painter, illustrator and educator. Born in 1932 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Derr studied at the Layton School of Art, Milwaukee, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Independent Group of Painters and Sculptors, Tokyo, Japan. He has been featured in many exhibitions, including several sponsored by Northeastern University’s African-American Master Artists in Residency Program, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Studio Museum of Harlem. During the Korean War, he served in the United States Air Force. In 1964, Derr joined the faculty at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. He has also taught at Tufts University. Derr describes himself as a figurative painter whose style falls somewhere between expressionism and impressionism. He has been included among the blackstream artists of the 1960s and 1970s because although some of his works portray black subjects, his approach has been to universalize the black experience by focusing on themes that transcend race and employing generally accepted modern art techniques in the European tradition.

—from Northeastern University Library Digital Repository Service

Selected Exhibitions

2008 Scene in America: A Contemporary Look at the Black Male Image, Mint Museum of Art (Charlotte NC).
2004 AAMARP: The Legacy: African American Artists in Boston, Brush Art Gallery (Lowell MA).
1988 Massachusetts Masters: Afro-American Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston MA).
1970 14 Black Artists from Boston, Studio Museum in Harlem (New York NY).