Richard J. Powell
John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art and Art History
Education
Ph.D., Yale University 1988
M.Phil., Yale University 1984
M.A., Yale University 1982
M.F.A., Howard University 1977
B.A., Morehouse College 1975
Overview
Richard J. Powell is John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art & Art History at Duke University, where he has taught since 1989. He studied at Morehouse College and Howard University before earning his doctorate in art history at Yale University. Along with teaching courses in American art, the arts of the African Diaspora, and contemporary visual studies, he has written extensively on topics ranging from primitivism to postmodernism, including such titles as Homecoming: The Art and Life of William H. Johnson (1991), Black Art: A Cultural History (1997 & 2002), and Cutting a Figure: Fashioning Black Portraiture (2008).
Expertise
African American art, African art, art of the United StatesContact Information
114 Buchanan Blvd, Smith Warehouse, Bay 9, A287c, Durham, NC 27708
Box 90766, Durham, NC 27708
(919) 684-2473
Projects
Powell, Richard J. “"Changing, Conjuring Reality".” Conjuring Bearden, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, 2006, pp. 19–31.
Powell, Richard J. “"Racial Imaginaries, from Charles White’s Preacher to Jean-Paul Goude and Grace Jones’ Nigger Arabesque".” Back to Black: Art, Cinema and the Racial Imaginary, Whitechapel Art Gallery, 2005, pp. 9–27.
Powell, Richard J. “"On James A. Porter’s and (our) Modern Negro Art".” A Proud Continuum: Eight Decades of Art at Howard University, Howard University Gallery of Art, 2005, pp. 25–28.
Powell, R. J. “To Be Real.” The Barkley L. Hendricks Experience, New London, Connecticut: Lyman Allyn, 2001, pp. 13–15.
Powell, R. J. “Sartor Africanus.” Dandies: Fashion and Finesse in Art and Culture, edited by Susan Fillin-Yeh, New York: New York University Press, 2001, pp. 217–42.
Powell, R. J. “Conjuring Canes and Bible Quilts: Through the Prism of Nineteenth Century African American Spirituality.” African Americans and the Bible: Sacred Texts and Social Textures, edited by Vincent L. Wimbush, New York: Continuum, 2000, pp. 342–54.
Powell, R. J. “Lamentations from the ‘Hood.” Kerry James Marshall/Mementos, Chicago: The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, 2000, pp. 31–47.
Powell, R. J. “Harmonizer of Chaos.” Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence, edited by Peter Nesbett and Michelle DuBois, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000, pp. 147–63.
Powell, R. J. “The Blues Aesthetic: Black Culture and Modernism.” African American Literary Criticism, 1773 to 2000, edited by Hazel Arnett Ervin, New York: Twayne Publishers, 289-302, 1999.
Pages
Powell, R. J. “Margo Humphrey: Interview.” Hatch Billops Collection, Inc./Artist and Influence, vol. 5, 1987, pp. 56–65.
Powell, Richard J. “William H. Johnson's Minde Kerteminde.” Black American Literature Forum, vol. 20, no. 4, JSTOR, 1986, pp. 393–393. Crossref, doi:10.2307/2904438. Full Text
Powell, R. J. “On Exhibit: Black Artists of the Nineteenth Century.” The Chicago Reader, Aug. 1985, pp. 10–11.
Powell, Richard J. “African Art at the Field Museum.” African Arts, vol. 18, no. 2, JSTOR, Feb. 1985, pp. 24–24. Crossref, doi:10.2307/3336186. Full Text
Powell, R. J. “Black Folk in America, 1930-1980.” Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin, 1984, pp. 11–18.
Powell, R. J. “Current Expressions in Afro-American Printmaking.” Printnews, vol. 3, Apr. 1981.
Powell, R. J. “The Afro-American Printmaking Tradition.” Printnews, vol. 3, Feb. 1981, pp. 3–7.
Powell, R. J. “9/9.” The New Art Examiner, vol. 7, June 1980, pp. 10–11.
Powell, R. J. “Houston Conwill.” Neworld, Feb. 1979.
Powell, R. J. “Talking to James Lesesne Wells.” Print Review, vol. 9, 1979, pp. 65–75.