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Avel C. de Knight (1921-1995) was an African American painter, educator, and art critic. His birth dates are also cited as 1923, 1925, 1931, and 1933. Born in New York to parents from Barbados and Puerto Rico, he attended Pratt Institute before serving in a segregated United States Army unit in World War II. After the war, he studied at the École de Beaux-Arts, the Grand Chaumière, and the Académie Julian in Paris under the G.I. Bill. He returned to the United States in 1956 and in 1957 began reviewing New York exhibitions for France-Amérique. He also taught at the Art Students League and later at the National Academy School of Fine Arts. De Knight was an Academician of the National Academy of Design and his works are held in collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center, and the University of Richmond Museums.