Richard Yarde (1939 - 2012)

 Richard Yarde is one of America's great watercolorists. He has earned wide critical acclaim for his bold use of brilliant, vibrant colors and powerful imagery drawn from the black experience. His paintings reside permanently in nearly three dozen public collections, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, The Studio Museum of Harlem in New York City, The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and The National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
His exploration of African-American themes led him to the Savoy Ballroom:

"Music and dance have always been a source of joy and inspiration for me. When I saw photographs of dancers and musicians at the Savoy Ballroom I was struck with the drama of loving courtship in dance, the risk taking of the dancers, and the roots in African dance. And I was deeply moved by the contradiction between the joy and skill of the dancers in the fact of their circumstances in the wider world. The Savoy became a source of creativity, joy, and strength to me which I want to share and honor."
Richard Yarde is a Professor of Art at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.