Artist and educator Raymond Saunders explores the intersections of race, identity, and artistic expression.

Raised in Pittsburgh, he was exposed to European modernism at the Carnegie Museum, sparking his early passion for art. Saunders studied at the Barnes Foundation and earned his BFA from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1960. The next year he moved to Oakland to pursue an MFA at the California College of Arts and Crafts. Saunders later became a professor at California State University, Hayward, and the California College of Arts and Crafts.

In 1967 he published Black Is a Color, challenging the notion that Black artists should produce art exclusively labeled as “Black art.” His work earned him several prestigious honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship (1976) and National Endowment for the Arts grants in 1977 and 1984. As an educator, Saunders focused on making higher education more accessible to working-class communities.