[5] She was known for mentoring African-American artists, including Margaret Burroughs, and for introducing her students to African and Asian art through field trips to local collections.

[3] Through their shared interest in non-Western art, Blackshear and Gardner have been credited with being key influences on the distinctive style of postwar Chicago artists.

[6] Influenced by various strains of Modernism including Post-Impressionism and Cubism, Blackshear developed a range of styles with bold, simplified forms and rhythmic or patterned elements often featuring strong diagonals and tilted planes.

[5] Her paintings are reminiscent of Regionalists such as Thomas Hart Benton and modernists like Fernand Léger, while her whimsical abstract drawings evoke Paul Klee.

[1] During the height of her career, between 1924 and 1940, African Americans were the central subjects of her work, and she became known for depicting them with warmth and clarity but without sentimentality.