Richard J. Powell
John Spencer Bassett Distinguished 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, 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. “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. “Houston Conwill.” Neworld, Feb. 1979.
Powell, R. J. “Talking to James Lesesne Wells.” Print Review, vol. 9, 1979, pp. 65–75.
Powell, R. J. “Images and Identities: A Brief, Introductory Note.” The International Review of African American Art, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 6–6.
Powell, R. J. “Journeying Beyond: The Prints and Paintings of Joyce Wellman.” The International Review of African American Art, vol. 10, no. 3.