Varnette Honeywood was a frustrated artist making greeting cards in the 1970s when Bill Cosby and his wife, Camille, noticed her colorful images of everyday African-American life. The Cosbys began collecting Honeywood’s paintings, and in 1984 Bill Cosby asked her to submit work for the pilot of The Cosby Show. Three of her paintings graced the fictional Huxtable family’s living room during the show’s eight-year run, while other works cycled through. “In Varnette’s work you can see teenagers doing homework, a family cooking a meal, girls doing their hair,” Cosby said.
Honeywood was raised in Los Angeles, the daughter of elementary school teachers. She had planned to major in history at Spelman College, but was encouraged by a drawing teacher there to switch to art. After earning a master’s degree in education from the University of Southern California, she taught minority students in a USC outreach program, which “fueled her desire to create positive visual images for black children,” said the Los Angeles Times. After a 1977 trip to Nigeria, her work acquired an African flavor, using simple shapes and vivid colors in a style she called “figurative abstraction.”
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The last surviving member of her immediate family, Honeywood spent recent years caring for her sick sister and mother before succumbing to cancer herself.
-
The Icelandic women’s strike 50 years onIn The Spotlight The nation is ‘still no paradise’ for women, say campaigners
-
Mall World: why are people dreaming about a shopping centre?Under The Radar Thousands of strangers are dreaming about the same thing and no one sure why
-
Why scientists are attempting nuclear fusionThe Explainer Harnessing the reaction that powers the stars could offer a potentially unlimited source of carbon-free energy, and the race is hotting up
-
Robert Redford: the Hollywood icon who founded the Sundance Film FestivalFeature Redford’s most lasting influence may have been as the man who ‘invigorated American independent cinema’ through Sundance
-
Patrick Hemingway: The Hemingway son who tended to his father’s legacyFeature He was comfortable in the shadow of his famous father, Ernest Hemingway
-
Giorgio Armani obituary: designer revolutionised the business of fashionIn the Spotlight ‘King Giorgio’ came from humble beginnings to become a titan of the fashion industry and redefine 20th-century clothing
-
Ozzy Osbourne obituary: heavy metal wildman and lovable reality TV dadIn the Spotlight For Osbourne, metal was 'not the music of hell but rather the music of Earth, not a fantasy but a survival guide'
-
Brian Wilson: the troubled genius who powered the Beach BoysFeature The musical giant passed away at 82
-
Sly Stone: The funk-rock visionary who became an addict and recluseFeature Stone, an eccentric whose songs of uplift were tempered by darker themes of struggle and disillusionment, had a fall as steep as his rise
-
Mario Vargas Llosa: The novelist who lectured Latin AmericaFeature The Peruvian novelist wove tales of political corruption and moral compromise
-
Dame Maggie Smith: an intensely private national treasureIn the Spotlight Her mother told her she didn't have the looks to be an actor, but Smith went on to win awards and capture hearts
