Black Artists Matter: a selection of influential African American artists from Texas A&M University Collections

Bert Long
1940 – February 1, 2013

(Image Source: Billy Smith II, The Houston Chronicle, February 1, 2013)

Artist Biography

As an artist Bert Long was known for being unrestrained, vibrant and larger than life. Born in Fifth Ward Houston in 1940, Long attended Wheatley High School where he took the only art class of his life. His artistic training was self-taught from library books. His mother worked as a maid and his father, who worked at Sheffield Steel, was killed in a horrific steelworks accident. As early as the age of 12 Long helped support his family by picking cotton in the summer, and working for the Houston Club (an elite social club for only whites at the time).

In 1959 Long enlisted in the marines where he served until 1965. Afterward, he attended culinary school in Los Angeles before opening his own restaurant called Bert’s Gourmet in Oregon. He later worked as a Sous-chef at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, NV, where he exhibited his artwork for the first time in 1975. Featuring his work in the art gallery of the MGM Grand was meant to be a publicity boost for his notoriety as a chef, however it signaled a new beginning for Long. He handed in his notice and moved with his wife Connie and their three children to Chicago where Long worked at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel while he pursued his art career. The transition was difficult for the whole family, at one point they were living in a camper parked on the streets of Chicago while Long worked and tried to promote his artwork. He had one showing at the DuSable Museum of Afircan American History before he decided to return to Houston.

As a photographer, painter, muralist, collagist, and sculptor, Long was known to experiment with unconventional materials, for a period he even sculpted in ice. In Houston he caught the eye of curators from the Contemporary Arts Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts. In 1987 he was awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and in 1990 he won the Prix de Rome, which included a one-year residency in Rome, Italy. With their children grown, Bert and Connie Long decided to turn a one year residency into eight. While in Europe, Long exhibited and opened studios in Italy and Spain. Occasionally they returned to Houston for visits.On one such visit in 1996 they found their home and Bert’s studio in Houston had been looted, burned, and vandalised with a swastika and a racial slur. No one had tried to put out the fire, and no one from their predominantly white community had notified them while they were abroad.

They returned to Spain and in 1997 Connie was diagnosed with lung cancer, they moved back to Houston permanently to seek treatment at the M.D. Anderson Center. Sadly, Connie passed away in 1998. Long used his art as a way to cope with his loss, he created a large installation for the Project Row Houses in Houston inspired by his grief. Bert Long’s personal papers and art are held at the University of Houston and the Houston Museum of Afircan American Culture which has a gallery dedicated in his name.

“I don’t want to forget where I came from. I don’t want to forget picking cotton as a child… and I don’t want to forget sleeping in a trailer with ice crystals on teh windows and being separated from my family… I do know this, I’ve been truthful to what I do. At least I can honestly say, ‘I did it my way.’” – Bert Long