Alias Cynthia Freeman
1950-Present
Works in the Collection
Biography
Born Cynthia Freeman, and also known as Nefertiti Goodman, Nefertiti has become best-known for her large, exquisitely produced relief prints. She studied at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence (MFA, 1977) and the Massachusetts College of Art (BFA, 1974).
After graduating, she taught at the Elma Lewis School of Fine Art in Roxbury (founded in 1950), but after receiving a fellowship in printmaking from the New Jersey Council on the Arts , she left Boston for Nutley, New Jersey. She begins her print-making process in black and white, and then embellishes the image with gouache and watercolor in jewel-like tones. She incorporates contrasting patterns in most of her works, sometimes within the subject and other times as a border to contain the image.
Her first major exhibition came in 1975 at the National Center of Afro-American Artists, National Arts Club, NY, although she was included in a group exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston the previous year. She also exhibited in Jubilee: Afro-American Artists on Afro-America, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1975 (four works; Dream II was illustrated, along with a work by William H. Johnson, on p. 16 of the catalog).