Ernest Alexander

Born Ehrman Alexander in Long Branch, NJ in 1921, Ernest Alexander was largely a self-taught artist. He exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1949 and was part of the Ajijic art community in Mexico. He has been represented in such exhibitions as "The Flowering: African-American Artists and Friends in 1940s Chicago: A Look at the South Side Community Art Center", April 7-May 28, Illinois Art Gallery, Illinois State Museum, 1983 and "Black on Black: The Works of Black artists from Chicago Black Collectors", February 7-February 28, 1983, University of Illinois at Chicago, among others.

Most notably, in 1949, Alexander designed the rear panel of the dust jacket for a book of poems by famed African American author Gwendolyn Brooks called "Annie Allen." Brooks won a Pulitzer prize for this book, which made her writing world famous.