VERNA HART, 58
Known for art that paid tribute to jazz
Verna Hart — the Harlemborn artist who developed her childhood passions into a successful career by blending painting and music to praise jazz and its performers — will be remembered Thursday at funeral services in Queens.
Hart died in her sleep April 26 in Wilmington, Del., her family said. She was 58.
Hart’s artwork is featured in museums, galleries, veterans’ hospitals and private collections around the world, and private and public clients also sought her for commissioned work.
While working on her first solo show in the mid-1980s, Hart became acquainted with world-renowned artist Romare Bearden, who became a mentor.
Filmmaker Spike Lee commissioned her signature piece, “Piano Man,” for his 1990 jazz movie, “Mo’ Better Blues,” starring Denzel Washington.
The MTA commissioned her to create a stained-glass artwork titled, “Jammin’ Under the El” — described by the MTA as a “colorful faceted glass panels that depict an imaginary jazz combo with drums, piano, guitar, bass, flutes, saxophones, trombones, and trumpets” at the Myrtle Ave. train station in Brooklyn.
Hart also received the WBGO Jazz logo award from the respected New York area jazz radio station among many other honors.
Visitors to Hart’s home or studio would usually hear the music of Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, Branford Marsalis, along with early pioneers Eubie Blake, Louie Armstrong and other jazz performers. She also loved and lived jazz — frequently visiting jazz spots, such as the Blue Note in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, to listen and sketch.
Hart was a participant in the State Department-sponsored 2017 “Art in Embassies” exhibition at the U.S. Embassy in Praia, capital of the island nation of Cape Verde, off the coast of Africa. Her “Piano Man” painting graced the cover of the show’s brochure.
In the Praia exhibition brochure, explaining her approach to her musically centered art, Hart said, “Like the jazz musician, I seek to say something personal and spontaneous. The energy that’s in the music, I expose on canvas. It’s important that you not only see my work, but feel it too.”
Also among her international achievements was her “Fresh Catch” watercolor, which won first prize in the Anguilla International Arts Festival in 1998. It became the artwork for a commemorative postage stamp.
The mother of children with special needs, Hart was also was a spokeswoman for the United Cerebral Palsy Foundation. She moved to Delaware from New York to be closer to the Nemours/ Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children.
Hart’s family moved to a house in Queens when she was 4. By 5, Hart had declared she was an artist — venturing outside the boundaries of the coloring books and sketchpads supplied by her parents by drawing on the walls of the family home.
Hart credited her stepfather with being instrumental in creating her love and appreciation of jazz music.
While attending New York City public schools, Hart began studying under artist Lorraine Murray. While still in high school, she attended painting classes at Cooper Union college.
Propelled by her zest for learning, in 1991, Hart simultaneously attained graduate degrees from Pratt Institute and Bank Street College of Education.
She later taught art at Springfield Gardens HS in Queens, and was an adjunct professor at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn.
The memorial will be held Thursday at the New Greater Bethel Ministry, 215-32 Jamaica Ave., in Queens Village, beginning with a viewing from 9 a.m. to noon immediately followed by the funeral.