I’m glad Cosby got her the exposure, but it ticks me off that he shares the headline in her obit. She was an incredible artist.

Varnette Honeywood, an artist and Spelman graduate whose paintings adorned the walls of the set of “The Cosby Show”, has died. She was 59.

Honeywood died Sunday in a Los Angeles hospital after a two-year battle with cancer, one of her cousins, Jennell Allen, said Tuesday.

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Honeywood painted simple situations, such as a church picnic packed with congregants in their Sunday best or a mother combing her daughter’s hair. Bill Cosby said he was captivated by the affection between subjects in the paintings.

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In terms of visibility and reputation, Honeywood was one of the country’s most recognized black artists, said Paul Von Blum, emeritus professor of African American studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“She had a very profound impact on the use and direction of contemporary African American art,” he said.

By celebrating the vibrant and exuberant traditions of black life, Honeywood broke from other black artists’ tendency to focus on the legacy of slavery and racism, Von Blum said.