Trained as a painter and art historian, Driskell works primarily in collage and mixed media. He is represented by galleries in New York, San Francisco and Detroit, among others. His paintings and prints have been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the country – including the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Whitney Museum of Art – and around the world.

Driskell has written or co-written eleven books and more than forty catalogs from exhibitions he has curated. His work garnered him the Distinguished Alumni Award in Art from Howard University in 1981 and the Catholic University of America in 1996. In 1997, the University of Maryland awarded him the President’s Medal, and in 2000 he received the Presidential Medal from President Bill Clinton on behalf of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Born in 1931 in Eatonton, Ga., Driskell earned an undergraduate degree from Howard University and a master of fine arts degree from Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He has since been awarded ten honorary doctorates in art and contributed significantly to Black art history scholarships.

Upon his retirement from teaching at the University of Maryland in 1998, the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the African Diaspora was founded to promote his scholarship and service to the university.