Thelma Golden

Last updated

Thelma Golden
BornSeptember 22, 1965 (1965-09-22) (age 59)
Queens, New York
Alma mater Smith College
Occupation(s)Museum director and chief curator
Years active1987 (1987)–present
Spouse
​
(m. 2008)​

Thelma Golden (born September 22, 1965 [1] ) is an American art curator, who is the Director and Chief Curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York City, United States. [2] She is noted as one of the originators of the term post-blackness. [3] From 2017 to 2020, ArtReview chose her annually as one of the 10 most influential people in the contemporary art world. [4]

Contents

From 1991 to 1998, Golden was a curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, where she gained a reputation for promoting young black conceptual artists. In her 1993 biennial and her 1994 exhibition Black Male, she introduced political and controversial works into the Whitney's collection. [5] Golden joined the Studio Museum as Deputy Director for Exhibitions and Programs in 2000 before succeeding Lowery Stokes Sims, the museum's former director and president, in 2005.

Early life and education

Thelma Golden grew up in Queens, New York, [6] the daughter of Arthur Golden and Thelma (née Eastmond) Golden. [7] She had an interest in art from an early age and was particularly influenced by H. W. Janson's History of Art. [8] She had her first hands-on training as a senior in high school at the New Lincoln School, training as a curatorial apprentice at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her decision to become a curator was inspired by Lowery Stokes Sims, the first African-American curator of that museum. [1] Golden graduated from Buckley Country Day School in 1980 and earned a B.A. in Art History and African-American Studies from Smith College in 1987. [9]

As a student, Golden helped put several exhibitions together at the Smith College Museum of Art, including one called Dorothy C. Miller: With an Eye to American Art, about the "Americans" exhibitions of MoMA curator Dorothy Canning Miller. [10] Golden also worked as an intern at The Studio Museum in 1985, where she cataloged the papers of painter Benny Andrews among other tasks. [6] [11] She also worked under curator Kellie Jones, whom Golden later credited with having "taught me what it meant to do the work". [11]

Whitney Museum of American Art

Golden's first curatorial position was at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1987. She was then a curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art from 1988 to 1998. She was the visual arts director at the Jamaica Arts Center in Queens [12] before she became director of the Whitney Museum's outpost in midtown Manhattan (since closed) in 1991. [12] In 1993, she organized the museum's biennial along with Elisabeth Sussman, Lisa Phillips, and John Hanhardt. [11] The show was criticized by some for its social and political themes and became "one of most hotly debated Whitney shows ever". [13] [14] Golden later looked back at the show as a "transformative experience" that helped her see how "art and artists can exist in a museum space in a way that is radical and powerful and can create change because of the work." [11]

The following year, Golden curated a show that would become still more controversial: Black Male: Representations of Masculinity in Contemporary American Art (1994–95). This exhibition explored negative stereotypes of black masculinity, including homelessness and criminality. [14] It included artworks by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Robert Mapplethorpe, Glenn Ligon, Dawn DeDeaux, and David Hammons, as well as films such as Gordon Parks' Shaft and Marlon Riggs' Tongues Untied . [15]

Some older artists described the show's exploration of stereotypes as "irresponsible" [16] and criticized what they saw as an over-representation of non-black artists. [15] In a rarer positive review, art historian Linda Nochlin described it in ARTnews as "one of the liveliest and most visually engaging exhibitions" of the season. [17] The New York Times noted that the show was bringing unusually large black audiences to the museum, but that the artwork left them polarized in their reactions. [14] Despite being initially "critically pummeled", the show's reputation improved in the following years. [18] Within a decade, the Times was describing it as "an important show", [18] and two decades later, both ARTnews and the Whitney itself described it as a "landmark exhibition". [17] [19]

While with the Whitney, Golden also organized solo shows of the works of Bob Thompson. [20] Lorna Simpson, [1] and Jacob Lawrence. [1] In November 1998, Golden and fellow curator Elisabeth Sussman resigned from their positions after not being assigned portfolios by new museum director Maxwell L. Anderson. [20] [21] Philanthropist Peter Norton, who had helped fund Golden's Black Male exhibition, resigned from the Whitney's board of trustees in response to Golden's departure. [18]

Studio Museum in Harlem

Golden was the Special Projects Curator for contemporary art collectors Peter Norton and Eileen Harris Norton from 1998 to 2000. [5] She then joined the Studio Museum in Harlem--at the time the country's only accredited museum of African-American Art--in 2000 as deputy director for exhibitions. [1] [18] Former MoMA curator Lowery Stokes Sims was appointed at the same time as the museum's new director. [18]

At the museum, Golden organized exhibitions including Isaac Julien: Vagabondia (2000); Martin Puryear: The Cane Project (2000); Glenn Ligon: Stranger (2001); Black Romantic: The Figurative Impulse in Contemporary Art (2002); harlemworld: Metropolis as Metaphor (2004); Chris Ofili: Afro Muses (2005); [22] Frequency (2005–06), [1] with Christine Y. Kim; Africa Comics (2006–07); and Kori Newkirk: 1997–2007 (2007–08). She championed the work of artists such as Kehinde Wiley, Glenn Ligon, and Njideka Akunyili Crosby. [8] Her 2001 exhibition Freestyle was particularly noted for helping to establish the term "post-blackness" and for helping to launch the careers of LA artists Eric Wesley and Mark Bradford, among others. [11]

In 2005, Golden became the Studio Museum's director and chief curator. [23] She adjusted the museum's schedule so that Wednesdays were devoted to school trips and private events, but Thursdays and Fridays the museum was open into the evening so that a wider range of guests could visit. [24] The museum also began to give away postcards of the artists' works to all guests. [24] Its attendance increased 27% in the first decade of Golden's tenure as director, [1] and the museum added more than 2000 new works to its collection. [25]

Exhibitions that Golden organized for the Studio Museum began to tour internationally to cities including Boston, Houston, Philadelphia, Toronto, and Chicago. [11] In 2011, the museum awarded a yearlong artist's residency to visual artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby, which helped to launch her career. [26] Golden also acted as a mentor to museum directors and curators such as Christine Y. Kim and Jamillah James. [11]

In 2017, MoMA director Glenn D. Lowry credited Golden with having made the Studio Museum "a national institution". [8] Under Golden's leadership, a $125 million expansion was begun in 2017. [27] Designed by Adjaye Associates and Cooper Robertson, it was the museum's first purpose-built expansion. [28] [8]

First Lady Michelle Obama and Thelma Golden during a tour of the Studio Museum in Harlem, 2011 P092111CK-0220 (6218342009).jpg
First Lady Michelle Obama and Thelma Golden during a tour of the Studio Museum in Harlem, 2011

Other activities

In 2009, she presented "How Art Gives Shape to Cultural Change" at the TED conference's 25th anniversary gathering. [29] In 2008, she was a member of the advisory team of the Whitney Biennial [30] and in 2007 acted as a juror for the UK Turner Prize. In 2004, Golden curated a retrospective of fashion designer Patrick Kelly at the Brooklyn Museum. She then co-curated the traveling exhibition Glenn Ligon: Some Changes in 2005.

Golden serves on the Graduate Committee at the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, is a member of the Association of Art Museum Directors, [9] is on the boards of Creative Time in New York and the Institute of International Visual Arts (inIVA) in London, and was a 2008 Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute. [9] The New York City's cultural advisory committee invited Golden to serve on their committee in 2015. [31] In 2016, Golden became a member on the board of trustees at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). [32]

In 2010, Golden was appointed to the Committee for the Preservation of the White House. [33] During Barack Obama's presidency, in 2015, [33] Golden joined the board of directors at the Obama Foundation as she had been asked to organize the design and plan of the presidential library. [34] Golden served on the Committee for the Preservation of the White House until 2016. [28]

Personal life

Golden met London-based fashion designer Duro Olowu in 2006 and married him in 2008. [35] On 11 February 2014, Golden was among the guests invited to the state dinner hosted by U.S. President Barack Obama in honor of President François Hollande at the White House. [36] Golden was seated immediately to President Obama's left. [1] [35]

Notable awards and recognition

In 2014, Artnet named Golden at number 33 on its list of "The 100 Most Powerful Women In Art". [37] In 2016, Golden won the Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence. [25] A representative for the prize, Tom Eccles, praised Golden for "raising issues and developing ideas that are central to our time". [25]

The J. Paul Getty Trust awarded Golden the J. Paul Getty Medal in 2008. Its president, James Cuno, cited her contributions to African American art:

I don't think you can say "African American art" without saying "Thelma Golden." You can't say "contemporary art" without saying "Thelma Golden." You can't say "Harlem" without saying "Thelma Golden." ... There isn't a museum director who has done more for her institution than Thelma has done for hers."

Golden appeared on ArtReview's list of the 100 most influential people in the international art world every year from 2003 to 2009 and from 2015 to 2020. From 2017 to 2020, she placed in the top 10. [38]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glenn Ligon</span> American conceptual artist (born 1960)

Glenn Ligon is an American conceptual artist whose work explores race, language, desire, sexuality, and identity. Based in New York City, Ligon's work often draws on 20th century literature and speech of 20th century cultural figures such as James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston, Gertrude Stein, Jean Genet, and Richard Pryor. He is noted as one of the originators of the term Post-Blackness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Studio Museum in Harlem</span> Art museum in New York City

The Studio Museum in Harlem is an art museum that celebrates artists of African descent. The museum is located at 144 West 125th Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and Lenox Avenue in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States. Founded in 1968, the museum collects, preserves and interprets art created by African Americans, members of the African diaspora, and artists from the African continent. Its scope includes exhibitions, artists-in-residence programs, educational and public programming, and a permanent collection. The museum building was demolished and replaced in the 2020s; a new building on the site is to open in 2025.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whitney Biennial</span> Contemporary art exhibition in New York City

The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition in 1932; the first biennial was in 1973. It is considered the longest-running and most important survey of contemporary art in the United States. The Biennial helped bring artists like Georgia O'Keeffe, Jackson Pollock, and Jeff Koons, among others, to prominence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julie Mehretu</span> American contemporary visual artist (born 1970)

Julie Mehretu is an Ethiopian American contemporary visual artist, known for her multi-layered paintings of abstracted landscapes on a large scale. Her paintings, drawings, and prints depict the cumulative effects of urban sociopolitical changes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mickalene Thomas</span> American painter

Mickalene Thomas is a contemporary African-American visual artist best known as a painter of complex works using rhinestones, acrylic, and enamel. Thomas's collage work is inspired from popular art histories and movements, including Impressionism, Cubism, Dada, the Harlem Renaissance, and selected works by the Afro-British painter Chris Ofili. Her work draws from Western art history, pop art, and visual culture to examine ideas around femininity, beauty, race, sexuality, and gender.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lorna Simpson</span> American photographer and multimedia artist

Lorna Simpson is an American photographer and multimedia artist whose works have been exhibited both nationally and internationally. In 1990, she became one of the first African-American woman to exhibit at the Venice Biennale. She came to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s with photo-text installations such as Guarded Conditions and Square Deal that questioned the nature of identity, gender, race, history and representation. Simpson continues to explore these themes in relation to memory and history using photography, film, video, painting, drawing, audio, and sculpture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Post-black art</span>

Post-black art is a category of contemporary African American art. It is a paradoxical genre of art where race and racism are intertwined in a way that rejects their interaction. I.e., it is art about the black experience that attempts to dispel the notion that race matters. It uses enigmatic themes wherein black can substitute for white. Some suggest the term is attributable to the 1995 book The End of Blackness by Debra Dickerson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rashid Johnson</span> American artist and film director (born 1977)

Rashid Johnson is an American artist who produces conceptual post-black art. Johnson first received critical attention in 2001 at the age of 24, when his work was included in Freestyle (2001) curated by Thelma Golden at the Studio Museum in Harlem. He studied at Columbia College Chicago and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and his work has been exhibited around the world.

Naomi Beckwith is the deputy director and chief curator of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. She joined the museum in June 2021. Previously she had been the senior curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Beckwith joined the curatorial staff there in May 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simone Leigh</span> American artist from Chicago (born 1967)

Simone Leigh is an American artist from Chicago who works in New York City in the United States. She works in various media including sculpture, installations, video, performance, and social practice. Leigh has described her work as auto-ethnographic, and her interests include African art and vernacular objects, performance, and feminism. Her work is concerned with the marginalization of women of color and reframes their experience as central to society. Leigh has often said that her work is focused on “Black female subjectivity,” with an interest in complex interplays between various strands of history. She was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2023.

Freestyle was a contemporary art exhibition at The Studio Museum in Harlem from April 28-June 24, 2001 curated by Thelma Golden with the support of curatorial assistant Christine Y. Kim. Golden curated the works of 28 emerging black artists for the exhibition, characterizing the work as 'Post-Black'. The latter is a term she generated along with artist Glenn Ligon as a genre of art "that had ideological and chronological dimensions and repercussions. It was characterized by artists who were adamant about not being labeled as 'black' artists, though their work was steeped, in fact deeply interested, in redefining complex notions of blackness." Freestyle was her first major project at The Studio Museum in Harlem and the first of an ongoing series of 'F' themed exhibitions including Frequency, Flow and Fore. The most recent iteration of the series was 2017's Fictions.

Christine Y. Kim is an American curator of contemporary art. She is currently the Britton Family Curator-at-Large at Tate. Prior to this post, Kim held the position of Curator of Contemporary Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Before her appointment at LACMA in 2009, she was Associate Curator at The Studio Museum in Harlem in New York. She is best known for her exhibitions of and publications on artists of color, diasporic and marginalized discourses, and 21st-century technology and artistic practices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kimberly Drew</span> American art curator, writer, activist

Kimberly Drew is an American art influencer and writer. She is best known as the former social media manager for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and her use of the social media handle @MuseumMammy. Drew released her first book, This Is What I Know About Art in June 2020, as part of a children's book series from Penguin, and published an anthology titled Black Futures with New York Times staff writer Jenna Wortham in December 2020.

Duro Olowu is a Nigerian-born British fashion designer. He is best known for his innovative combinations of patterns and textiles that draw inspiration from his international background.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ming Smith</span> African-American photographer

Ming Smith is an American photographer. She was the first African-American female photographer whose work was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rujeko Hockley</span> Curator

Rujeko Hockley is a New York–based US curator. Hockley is currently the Arnhold Associate Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Denise Murrell is a curator at large for 19th- and 20th-century art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. She is best known for her 2018 exhibition Posing Modernity: The Black Model from Manet and Matisse to Today, which explored how French Impressionist painters and later artists portrayed black models.

Black Romantic: The Figurative Impulse in Contemporary African-American Art was an exhibition held at the Studio Museum in Harlem from 25 April, 2002 until 23 June, 2002. The show was curated by Thelma Golden, the museum's Chief Curator. Black Romantic was a survey of Contemporary African-American genre painting whose stated purpose, as described by the Director of The Studio Museum, Lowery Stokes Sims was to show "elements of desire, dreams, determination, and romance particular to the black experience present a viewpoint that is oppositional to modernist conceptualization of blackness flavoured by exogenous exoticism, stereotype, caricature, and even abstractionist manipulation".

Legacy Russell is an American curator, writer, and author of Glitch Feminism: A Manifesto, published by Verso Books in 2020. In 2021, the performance and experimental art institution The Kitchen announced Russell as the organization's next executive director and chief curator. From 2018 to 2021, she was the associate curator of exhibitions at the Studio Museum in Harlem.

Black Male: Representations of Masculinity in Contemporary Art was a landmark exhibition held at New York's Whitney Museum of American Art from November 10, 1994 until March 5, 1995. Organized by curator Thelma Golden, Black Male was a survey of the changing representations of black masculinity in contemporary art from the 1970s to the 1990s. The show included almost seventy works by twenty-nine artists of varying race, gender, and ethnicity. It also featured an extensive film and video program that explored representations of blackness in Hollywood, the independent cinema, video, and television. Black Male was widely labelled controversial and heavily criticized for its political subject matter.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Smith, Jennifer (July 17, 2015). "Thelma Golden: Steering the Studio Museum Ahead". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN   0099-9660 . Retrieved June 9, 2018.
  2. ↑ Biography: Thelma Golden, Frieze Foundation Archived August 1, 2012, at archive.today , USA.
  3. ↑ Taylor, Paul C. "Post-Black, Old Black." African American Review 41.4 (2007): 625-640.
  4. ↑ "Thelma Golden". ArtReview . August 12, 2020. Retrieved August 12, 2023.
  5. 1 2 Parker, Ian (January 14, 2002). "Golden touch". The New Yorker. Retrieved March 9, 2017.
  6. 1 2 Pogrebin, Robin (July 6, 2015). "Studio Museum in Harlem Unveils Design for Expansion". The New York Times. Retrieved July 6, 2015.
  7. ↑ Tompkins, Calvin (February 12, 2024). "Profiles: The Art of Change: Thelma Golden's Role in Desegregating the Art World". The New Yorker . Vol. 100, no. 1. pp. 50–61. ISSN   0028-792X.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Pogrebin, Robin (September 26, 2017). "The Studio Museum Has a Vision for Its Home. And a Power Player at the Helm". The New York Times. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
  9. 1 2 3 "President Obama Announces Members of the Committee for the Preservation of the White House". whitehouse.gov. February 3, 2010. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
  10. ↑ "Questionnaire: Thelma Golden". Frieze. September 30, 2014. Retrieved March 6, 2020.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Miranda, Carolina A. (September 4, 2018). "From 125th Street in Harlem, Thelma Golden has changed the face of art all over the U.S." The Los Angeles Times . Retrieved August 13, 2023.
  12. 1 2 Anderson, Susan Heller (May 8, 1991). "Chronicle". The New York Times . Retrieved June 12, 2018.
  13. ↑ Zimmer, William (April 7, 1996). "How a Curator Temporarily Turns Into a Judge". The New York Times. Retrieved August 12, 2023.
  14. 1 2 3 Richardson, Lynda (December 12, 1994). "Black Images Stir Up Strong Emotions". The New York Times. Retrieved August 12, 2023.
  15. 1 2 Haithman, Diane (April 23, 1995). "As Defiant as Always : Thelma Golden, curator of the L.A.-bound 'Black Male,' has been caught in a firestorm of criticism and protest. It's OK; she can stand the heat". The Los Angeles Times . Retrieved August 13, 2023.
  16. ↑ Richardson, Lynda (May 1, 2001). "The art of plunging in without fear". The New York Times. Retrieved July 6, 2015.
  17. 1 2 Nochlin, Linda (February 6, 2017). "From the Archives: Linda Nochlin on Black Male". ARTnews . Retrieved August 12, 2023.
  18. 1 2 3 4 5 Cotter, Holland (February 28, 2000). "Shaking Up a Harlem Museum; New Leaders Want New Definitions and Goals". The New York Times. Retrieved August 12, 2023.
  19. ↑ "Looking Back at Black Male". Whitney Museum of American Art. January 20, 2015. Retrieved August 12, 2023.
  20. 1 2 Vogel, Carol (November 6, 1998). "Inside Art". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved June 8, 2018.
  21. ↑ Lubow, Arthur (April 11, 1999). "The Curse of the Whitney". The New York Times. Retrieved August 12, 2023.
  22. ↑ "Chris Ofili Afromuses 1995-2005 @ The Studio Museum in Harlem - Lux Lotus". www.luxlotus.com. Retrieved June 9, 2018.
  23. ↑ "Thelma Golden Knows That Showing Great Art Means Nurturing New Artists". Bloomberg.com. March 19, 2018. Retrieved June 15, 2018.
  24. 1 2 Catton, Pia (March 7, 2011). "Headed Uptown for a Harlem Renaissance". The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved August 13, 2023.
  25. 1 2 3 Neuendorf, Henri (March 2, 2016). "Curator Thelma Golden Wins Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence". Artnet . Retrieved March 9, 2017.
  26. ↑ Crow, Kelly (September 21, 2018). "Art World's Newest Star Makes $3 Million Paintings. Is the Crash Next?". The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved August 22, 2023.
  27. ↑ DeRuy, Emily (August 4, 2015). "Four Ways Thelma Golden Might Make Obama's Presidential Library Different". The Atlantic. Retrieved March 17, 2018.
  28. 1 2 "Thelma Golden | The Studio Museum in Harlem". The Studio Museum . September 25, 2017. Retrieved March 17, 2018.
  29. ↑ "How art gives shape to cultural change". ted.com. April 16, 2010. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
  30. ↑ Cotter, Holland (March 7, 2008). "Whitney Biennial 2008- Art- Review". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved June 9, 2018.
  31. ↑ "Thelma Goldman Joins NYC Cultural Affairs Committee -artnet News". artnet News. October 27, 2015. Retrieved March 9, 2017.
  32. ↑ Ng, David (March 29, 2016). "LACMA adds three trustees, strengthens entertainment industry ties". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 17, 2018.
  33. 1 2 "Thelma Golden Knows That Showing Great Art Means Nurturing New Artists". Bloomberg. March 19, 2018. Retrieved September 1, 2018.
  34. ↑ Siegal, Nina (2017). "Thelma Golden" Modern Painter. EBSCOhost. p. 42.
  35. 1 2 Indvik, Lauren (June 24, 2016). "The Anti-Power Couple: Duro Olowu and Thelma Golden". The New York Times. Retrieved March 17, 2018.
  36. ↑ Expected Attendees at Tonight's State Dinner Office of the First Lady of the United States, press release of 11 February 2014.
  37. ↑ "The 100 Most Powerful Women In Art: Part II". Artnet . October 19, 2014. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
  38. ↑ "Thelma Golden". ArtReview . August 12, 2020. Retrieved August 12, 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.