Skip to main content

Richard J. Powell

John Spencer Bassett Distinguished Professor of Art and Art History
Art, Art History & Visual Studies
Box 90766, Durham, NC 27708
114 Buchanan Blvd, Smith Warehouse, Bay 9, A287C, Durham, NC 27708

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 asHomecoming: The Art and Life of William H. Johnson(1991),Black Art: A Cultural History(1997 & 2002), andCutting a Figure: Fashioning Black Portraiture(2008).

Current Appointments & Affiliations


John Spencer Bassett Distinguished Professor of Art and Art History · 1999 - Present Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Professor of Art, Art History and Visual Studies · 1998 - Present Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Director of Graduate Studies of Art, Art History & Visual Studies · 2024 - Present Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Professor in the Department of African and African American Studies · 2014 - Present African & African American Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

In the News


Published October 25, 2023
Richard Powell Helps Revive the Legacy of Model Donyale Luna
Published October 20, 2023
National Humanities Center Fellowships for Projects on Buddhism, Color Theory
Published February 23, 2021
Richard Powell on Where Black Art Goes From Here

View All News

Recent Publications


Black Art A Cultural History

Book · August 26, 2021 Featured Publication This groundbreaking study explores the visual representations of Black culture across the globe throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. ... Cite
View All Publications

Recent Grants


National Humanities Center Spring 2024 Fellowship

Institutional SupportPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Humanities Center · 2024 - 2024

The Met - Lauder Research Center residency Fall 2023

Institutional SupportPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by The Metropolitan Museum of Art · 2023 - 2023

Edmond J. Safra Visiting Professorship

Institutional SupportPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Gallery of Art · 2019 - 2019

View All Grants

Education, Training & Certifications


Yale University · 1988 Ph.D.
Yale University · 1984 M.Phil.
Yale University · 1982 M.A.
Howard University · 1977 M.F.A.
Morehouse College · 1975 B.A.