Whitfield Lovell

Last updated
Whitfield Lovell
Born (1959-10-02) October 2, 1959 (age 64)
Bronx, New York, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Education The High School of Music and Art
Manhattanville College
Maryland Institute College of Art
Parsons School of Design
Alma mater Cooper Union
New York University

Whitfield Lovell (born October 2, 1959) is a contemporary African-American artist who is known primarily for his drawings of African-American individuals from the first half of the 20th century. Lovell creates these drawings in pencil, oil stick, or charcoal on paper, wood, or directly on walls. In his most recent work, these drawings are paired with found objects that Lovell collects at flea markets and antique shops.

Contents

Early career

Born October 2, 1959 in the Bronx, New York to Gladys Glover Lovell, an elementary school teacher from South Carolina, and Allister Lovell, a postal clerk and photographer of West Indian descent. [1] Whitfield Lovell grew up in the Bronx and attended The High School of Music and Art in Manhattan. During high school, he also participated in a variety of extracurricular art programs: the Metropolitan Museum of Art High School Program, the Whitney Museum Art Resources Center, the New York State Summer School for the Arts in Fredonia, New York, and the Cooper Union Saturday Program. [2]

In 1977, Lovell traveled to Spain to study painting and sculpture with Manhattanville College. At El Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain, he decided that he would become a painter. Lovell has said:

"I knew I would go into some form of art, but I wasn't sure which. I was interested in fashion and advertising as options. But while I was standing in front of a Velasquez painting I had an amazing spiritual experience. The painter had communicated with me through centuries and cultures, and I suddenly understood the role of the artist. I ran from room to room. Goya, El Greco, Reubens, and Picasso all began to speak out to me. Whatever they were doing in those rooms was what I wanted to do with my life." [3]

Lovell spent a year at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Baltimore in 1977 before traveling in France, Germany, Italy, England, Austria and the Netherlands with the American Institute For Foreign Study in 1978. When he returned to New York, he enrolled in the Fine Arts Department of the Parsons School of Design and then The Cooper Union School of Art, from which he graduated in 1981. [1] [4] In 1982, Lovell traveled to Egypt, Nigeria, and the Republic of Benin, West Africa.

In 1985, Lovell attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, where he reconsidered the nature of his own work:

"In Skowhegan I had time to really think about what I wanted to do with my work. I felt the formal issues about color were fighting with the narratives I was getting at ... So I narrowed down the color, and began to work monochromatically. I had all of my father's old photographs mailed to me, and I began a process of looking through these images each day before starting to work. The work became more personal and a reflection of the way I saw myself as an artist." [5]

This practice, using old photographs as inspiration and source material, has stayed with Whitfield to this day.

In 1986, Lovell stayed with relatives in Barbados, West Indies. In 1989, he attended New York University (NYU) Graduate Program in Venice, Italy. In 1990, he traveled to Mexico, where he began collecting ex-votos and retablos, which he cited as influences in his work.

"After looking at European paintings for so many years and then the great black painters Jacob Lawrence, Bob Thompson, and Horace Pippin, I looked toward other cultures for inspiration. I found myself more attracted to folk art, which wasn't as concerned with making high art, but with the joy of storytelling. My training, however, was heavily steeped in European artistic values; even the earlier pieces, which had more modernist notions in them, really did come from that tradition. So I also found artists from Latin America to be a very refreshing discovery for me. They seemed to fuse European colonial styles with a different sensibility. I felt they were more passionate about the religious and social narratives and less concerned with skill. Although I didn't grow up Catholic, I was attracted to that symbolism and to certain decorative elements that I feel are part of many images one sees growing up in a place like the Bronx. Rather than return to Venice to finish my master's degree, I spent a lot of time in Mexico getting an education of a different sort." [6]

In 1994, Lovell's work was shown as part of the American contingent at the IV Bienal Internacional de Pintura en Cuenca, Ecuador. Other American artists exhibiting at this show were Donald Locke, Philemona Williamson, Freddy Rodríguez and Emilio Cruz. [7]

Installations

In 1993, Lovell visited a private artist's retreat at the Villa Val Lemme in Capriatta d'Orba, Italy. The villa had been built by a slave trader in the early 20th century.

"There were grotesque paintings of Africans with nose rings lining the ceilings of some of the rooms. Also, the coat of arms on the front of the building had an African face on it, and a few very elderly locals could apparently remember the blacks who had lived there. The slaver had obviously continued to trade long after it had become illegal, but that was not unheard of in some other countries. It was hard to ignore the background of the place. Ordinarily the experience of being somewhere new would have fermented over time and then become a piece much later. That's how I was used to working. But in this case, I later realized, it was only by leaving my marks in the house itself, giving a voice to those African slaves, that I could truly express what it meant for me--an African American--to be there in the seemingly luxurious environs of an Italian villa."

Whitfield Lovell, 2 8 M, 2008 Lovell 28M.jpg
Whitfield Lovell, 2 8 M, 2008

In response, Lovell created site-specific drawings on the walls of the villa using its history as the theme, a dignified image of a black person. [1] This was Lovell's first installation piece. [8]

In 1995, while an artist in residence at Rice University in Houston, Texas, Lovell created his second installation. The piece, entitled Echo, was at Project Row Houses, a venue comprising abandoned "shot gun" houses in which artists create installations. Of the project, Lovell has said: "Villa Val Lemme was the first time I worked directly on the wall. At the time I wanted to explore installation further but wanted the right circumstances to arise. When I was approached to do a row house it was just the right time. The feeling in the house was ideal for trying new ideas related to my interest in old photographs of "anonymous" people". [7]

Whispers From the Walls was Lovell's fourth installation, created during a 1999 residency at the University of North Texas Art Gallery in Denton. Lovell created a rectangular house of salvaged boards with multicolored peeling paint. He covered the floors with soil and old clothing through which gallery visitors walked. Inside the house was a single room filled with furniture, clothing, personal objects, and sound. On the interior walls, life-size charcoal drawings suggested human residents. This exhibition appeared the Seattle Art Museum and the Studio Museum in Harlem on tour.

Portrayals, which originated at the Neuberger Museum in Purchase, NY, in the spring of 2000, included nineteen tableaux.

Visitation: The Richmond Project focused on Richmond, Virginia's historically African-American district Jackson Ward, "the nation's first major black entrepreneurial community." [9] It traveled to the University of Wyoming, Laramie; the Columbus Museum Uptown, Georgia; and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, Australia, in 2004.

SANCTUARY: The Great Dismal Swamp originated at the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia. It was inspired by accounts of runaway slaves who hid in or escaped through the 2,200-square mile Great Dismal Swamp. Of the project, Lovell has said:

"The main inspiration for Sanctuary: The Great Dismal Swamp, aside from the readings and research I did, was visiting the swamp itself. The people at the Dismal Swamp Wildlife Refuge hosted me for a day of hikes and a boat ride across Lake Drummond, which is in the center of the swamp. Lake Drummond is an egg-shaped pond about three miles across and no deeper than six feet at its center. It was referred to by Irish poet John O'Reilly as 'the most wonderful and beautiful sheet of water on the continent.' The water is a rich brown color, like tea, the result of the tannin that dripped from the juniper trees over the centuries. That was the inspiration for the pool of water that became the centerpiece for the installation.

"Most important for me were the moments when I stood silently in the swamp and just listened to the sounds and felt the ambience."

"For the installation we got thirty trees and stood them up in the gallery, with branches, leaves, and vines extending into the space, creating barriers and obstacles for the viewer. The floor was covered with mulch, and there were sounds of crickets, cicadas, and barking hounds throughout. Twelve basins and washboards filled with water were placed around the room, with the faces of people looking out at the viewer. Many of the images and objects that implied human inhabitants and the shingle industry were submerged in water. Somehow the legacy of those who lived hidden in the swamp to avoid slavery seemed to have been nearly lost, buried under that lake." [10]

Tableaux

In 1997, during a month in Mount Desert, Maine, at the Acadia Summer Art Program, Lovell made his first tableaux: charcoal drawings on antique wood panels coupled with found objects.

Kin Series

The Kin Series (2008 - 2011) is collection of sixty works made of individual portrait images in Conte crayon on paper combined with found objects. The objects sometimes overlap with the image and cast shadows. The drawing and object are then framed in glass and black metal.

The series began with a drawing based on a photo-booth photograph of a young boy. Lovell says: "There was something about that young boy's face that captivated me. His eyes and mouth were so expressive, as if he were about to cry. I felt compelled to try and capture that emotional quality."

For this series, Lovell's photographic sources differ from his vintage studio shots. Instead, he uses mug shots, passport photos, and photobooth images. Lovell has described the difference in using these photographs as sources: "Once the Kin Series got going, I noticed a major difference in the drawings. The difference was the people were more harshly lit, not made up, and the photos were untouched and there was often a reluctance in their expressions. I saw those qualities as more honest and raw (if I may), whereas in the studio portrait photos that I have worked from, the sitters appear very elegant and posed. Those people were very invested in how they presented themselves. They chose the day, the clothes, the photographer, etc." [11] [12]

Collecting

Lovell's Tableaux and Kin Series include an abundance of antique objects that are symptomatic of Lovell's love of collecting. Lovell has said: "I began collecting hands after I had already been using hands in my work. The more I learned about the iconography of hands, the more excited I was to continue with the theme. Also, my interest in collecting crayon portraits came simultaneously with the images in the Hand Series, thought I didn't consciously think about it at the time ... There has always been a reason for my wanting to own certain objects more than others. I've tried to be a focused collector, so that I was spending my money on things that fed the work." [7]

Awards

Collections

Lovell's work is held in the following permanent collections, among others:

Solo exhibitions

Bibliography

Books and exhibition catalogues

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lois Mailou Jones</span> American artist and educator (1905–1998)

Lois Mailou Jones (1905–1998) was an artist and educator. Her work can be found in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Muscarelle Museum of Art, and The Phillips Collection. She is often associated with the Harlem Renaissance.

Lowery Stokes Sims is an American art historian and curator of modern and contemporary art known for her expertise in the work of African, African American, Latinx, Native and Asian American artists such as Wifredo Lam, Fritz Scholder, Romare Bearden, Joyce J. Scott and others. She served on the curatorial staff of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Museum of Arts and Design. She has frequently served as a guest curator, lectured internationally and published extensively, and has received many public appointments. Sims was featured in the 2010 documentary film !Women Art Revolution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yvonne Jacquette</span> American painter, printmaker, and educator (1934–2023)

Yvonne Helene Jacquette was an American painter, printmaker, and educator. She was known in particular for her depictions of aerial landscapes, especially her low-altitude and oblique aerial views of cities or towns, often painted using a distinctive, pointillistic technique. Through her marriage with Rudy Burckhardt, she was a member of the Burckhardt family by marriage. Her son is Tom Burckhardt.

Don Voisine is an American abstract painter living in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, USA. In the fall of 2016, "X/V," a 15 year survey of his work, was organized by the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, ME. In 1997 he was elected a member of American Abstract Artists and became President of the group in 2004. Voisine was elected to the National Academy in 2010. His work is included in the public collections of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Cincinnati Art Museum,Cincinnati, OH; Peabody Essex Museum, Salem MA; the Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME; the Missoula Art Museum, Missoula, MT and the National Academy, New York, NY.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jules T. Allen</span> American visual artist

Jules Allen is an American photographer, author, and educator. He is known for his photographs of African-American culture. He is an emeritus professor of Queensborough Community College, City University of New York, where he has taught for two decades in the art and photography department.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leslie Hewitt</span> American artist

Leslie Hewitt is an American contemporary visual artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Howardena Pindell</span> American painter

Howardena Pindell is an American artist, curator and educator. She is known as a painter and mixed media artist, her work explores texture, color, structures, and the process of making art; it is often political, addressing the intersecting issues of racism, feminism, violence, slavery, and exploitation. She is known for the wide variety of techniques and materials used in her artwork; she has created abstract paintings, collages, "video drawings," and "process art."

Betty Blayton was an American activist, advocate, artist, arts administrator and educator, and lecturer. As an artist, Blayton was an illustrator, painter, printmaker, and sculptor. She is best known for her works often described as "spiritual abstractions". Blayton was a founding member of the Studio Museum in Harlem and board secretary, co-founder and executive director of Harlem Children's Art Carnival (CAC), and a co-founder of Harlem Textile Works. She was also an advisor, consultant and board member to a variety of other arts and community-based service organizations and programs. Her abstract methods created a space for the viewer to insert themselves into the piece, allowing for self reflection, a central aspect of Blayton's work.

Philemona Williamson is an artist from New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emilio Cruz (artist)</span> Cuban-American artist

Emilio Antonio Cruz was a Cuban American artist who lived most of his life in New York City. His work is held in several major museums in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freddy Rodríguez (artist)</span> American abstract artist

Freddy Rodríguez was an American artist born in the Dominican Republic, who lived and worked in New York since 1963. Much of his work takes the form of large hard-edge geometric abstractions. His paintings have been widely exhibited and are held in several important collections.

Arturo Lindsay is a Panamanian-born artist and professor of art and art history at Spelman College. His scholarship specializes in ethnographic research on African spiritual and aesthetic retentions in contemporary American cultures. His Panamanian/American identity is reflected in his art, which focuses on African culture in America.

Juan Sánchez, also Juan Sanchez is an American artist and educator. He is an important Nuyorican cultural figure to emerge in the second half of the 20th century. His works include photography, paintings and mixed media works.

Cynthia Carlson is an American visual artist, living and working in New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leonardo Drew</span> American contemporary artist (born 1961)

Leonardo Drew is a contemporary artist based in Brooklyn, New York. He creates sculptures from natural materials and through processes of oxidation, burning, and decay, Drew transforms these objects into massive sculptures that critique social injustices and the cyclical nature of existence.

Joyce J. Scott is an African-American artist, sculptor, quilter, performance artist, installation artist, print-maker, lecturer and educator. Named a MacArthur Fellow in 2016, and a Smithsonian Visionary Artist in 2019, Scott is best known for her figurative sculptures and jewelry using free form, off-loom beadweaving techniques, similar to a peyote stitch. Each piece is often constructed using thousands of glass seed beads or pony beads, and sometimes other found objects or materials such as glass, quilting and leather. In 2018, she was hailed for working in new medium — a mixture of soil, clay, straw, and cement — for a sculpture meant to disintegrate and return to the earth. Scott is influenced by a variety of diverse cultures, including Native American and African traditions, Mexican, Czech, and Russian beadwork, illustration and comic books, and pop culture.

Susan Smith-Pinelo is an African-American artist noted for her work in video and performance. She lives and works in Washington, DC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janet Henry</span> American artist

Janet Henry is a visual artist based in New York City.

Rashaad Newsome is an American artist working at the intersection of technology, collage, sculpture, video, music, and performance. Newsome's work celebrates and abstracts Black and Queer contributions to the art canon, resulting in innovative and inclusive forms of culture and media. He lives and works in Oakland, California, and Brooklyn, New York.

James Little is an American painter and curator. He is known for his works of geometric abstraction which are often imbued with exuberant color. He has been based in New York City.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "In the Nooks of History: Absence and Remembering in the Art of Whitfield Lovell (A'81)". The Cooper Union. Retrieved 2019-01-04.
  2. ↑ Lippard, Lucy R., Carla Hanzal, Leslie King-Hammond, and Jennifer Ellen Way, The Art of Whitfield Lovell: Whispers from the Walls, 2nd edn, San Francisco: Pomegranate, 2003, pp. 111–112.
  3. ↑ Lippard, Hanzal, King-Hammond, and Way. The Art of Whitfield Lovell (2003), p. 112.
  4. ↑ Lippard, Hanzal, King-Hammond, and Way. The Art of Whitfield Lovell (2003), pp. 112–113.
  5. ↑ Lippard, Hanzal, King-Hammond, and Way. The Art of Whitfield Lovell (2003), pp. 115.
  6. ↑ Lippard, Hanzal, King-Hammond, and Way. The Art of Whitfield Lovell (2003), p. 117.
  7. 1 2 3 Lippard, Hanzal, King-Hammond, and Way. The Art of Whitfield Lovell (2003), p. 119.
  8. ↑ "Installations" section: Lippard, Hanzal, King-Hammond, and Way. The Art of Whitfield Lovell (2003), p. 118.
  9. ↑ Lippard, Hanzal, King-Hammond, and Way. The Art of Whitfield Lovell: Whispers from the Walls (2003), pp. 120–121.
  10. ↑ Lippard, Hanzal, King-Hammond, and Way. The Art of Whitfield Lovell (2003), p. 121.
  11. ↑ "Kin Series" section: McGee, Julie L. "Whitfield Lovell: Autour du Monde", Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art , no. 26 (Spring, 2010): 54-57.
  12. ↑ Midgette, Anne (2016-10-08). "An artist refashions the past: Whitfield Lovell's 'Kin'". Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 2018-03-30.
  13. ↑ "Lecture: Whitfield Lovell". MassArt. 2016-12-15. Retrieved 2019-01-04.
  14. ↑ "Global Card III". Brooklyn Museum. Retrieved 2019-01-04.
  15. ↑ "Pago Pago". Cummer Museum. Retrieved 2019-01-04.
  16. ↑ "Wise Like That". The Metropolitan Museum of Ar. Retrieved 2019-01-04.
  17. ↑ "Whitfield Lovell. Pop/Pistol. 1990 | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2019-01-04.
  18. ↑ "Lovell, Whitfield". National Museum of African American History and Culture.
  19. ↑ "whitfield lovell". SAM Blog, Seattle Art Museum. Retrieved 2019-01-04.
  20. ↑ College, Smith. "Whitfield Lovell". Smith College Museum of Art. Retrieved 2019-04-05.
  21. ↑ "Inbox: Whitfield Lovell". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2019-04-05.
  22. ↑ Heartney, Eleanor (2008). Art & today. London; New York: Phaidon Press. ISBN   9780714845142. OCLC   438327111.
  23. ↑ Lovell, Whitfield; Hudson River Museum (2008). Whitfield Lovell: all things in time. Yonkers: Hudson River Museum. ISBN   978-0943651385. OCLC   263660782.
  24. ↑ Lovell, Whitfield; Savannah College of Art and Design (2009). Mercy, patience and destiny: the women of Whitfield Lovell's tableaux. Atlanta; New York: Savannah College of Art & Design ; Distributed by DAP/Distributed Art Publishers. ISBN   9780615222028. OCLC   495780530.
  25. ↑ Kim, Linda (January 2009). "Distant Relations: Identity and Estrangement in Whitfield Lovell's Kin Series". Whitfield Lovell, Distant Relations.
  26. ↑ McGee, Julie L; Carson, Charles D; University of Delaware; University Museums (2009). Sound print record: African American legacies. Newark, Del.: University Museums, University of Delaware. ISBN   9780615307077. OCLC   608022140.
  27. ↑ Franks, Pamela; Steele, Robert E; Arabindan-Kesson, Anna; Yale University (New Haven, Conn.); Art Gallery; David C. Driskell Center (2010). Embodied: black identities in American art from the Yale University Art Gallery. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Art Gallery. ISBN   9780894679773. OCLC   759868364.
  28. ↑ Gwinn, Elizabeth; Haynes, Lauren; Ahuja, Mequitta; Studio Museum in Harlem (2010). Re:collection: selected works from the Studio Museum in Harlem. New York, NY: The Studio Museum in Harlem. ISBN   9780942949049. OCLC   705024967.
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.