Scholars@Duke
Richard J. Powell

Richard J. Powell

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

Scholarly Works

The NCA :) Code

Book section · October 8, 2025 The highly anticipated debut monograph from trailblazing artist Nina Chanel Abney Combining representation and abstraction, Nina Chanel Abney's paintings capture the frenetic pace of contemporary culture. ... Cite

The Art of Raymond Saunders: Colored

Book section · September 2, 2025 Discover Raymond Saunders's dynamic paintings and his extraordinary legacy as an artist and thinker in this first ever monograph. ... Cite

Black Broad Shoulders

Book section · September 2025 A comprehensive overview of the work and creative practice of American artist Theaster Gates. A self-designated "keeper of objects," Theaster Gates investigates the value of things and their potential to hold layered meanings in his work. ... Cite

Three Jacksonian-era Portraits of Black Men

Book section · May 5, 2025 ... tailoring was key to their ability to communicate respectability. This sportsmen spotlighted in “Champion ... Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), as seen in the 1899–1900 photo- their education at Historically Black Colleges ... ... Cite

Hughie Lee-Smith: Breaking the Fourth Wall

Book section · March 25, 2025 Linked with printmaking's ethos of accessibility and democracy, a group including Elmer W. Brown, Hughie Lee-Smith, Charles L. Sallée Jr., and William E. Smith--some of the most prominent Black printmakers of the WPA era--founded Karamu ... ... Cite

The Boys in the Back Room: Gambling Imagery during the Harlem Renaissance

Book section · February 25, 2024 This volume reexamines the Harlem Renaissance as part of a global flowering of Black creativity, with roots in the New Negro theories and aesthetics of Alain Locke, its founding philosopher, as well as the writings of W. E. B. Du Bois, ... ... Cite

Audacity and Awesomeness

Book section · 2024 Cite

A Chocolate City Reconsidered

Book section · January 10, 2023 This book highlights these influential artists, including David C. Driskell, Sam Gilliam, Lois Mailou Jones, and Alma Thomas, in the context of what Jeffrey C. Stewart describes as the Washington Black Renaissance. ... Cite

Hurston's Law, or a Philosophy of Display

Book section · 2023 " In addition to eight scholarly essays, the book features 140 color images of work by artists including McArthur Binion, Mark Bradford, Zoë Charlton, Tomashi Jackson, Arthur Jafa, Rashid Johnson, Yashua Klos, Kerry James Marshall, ... ... Cite

Pigments and Personas

Book section · February 12, 2022 Director's foreword -- Acknowledgements -- A conversation with Beverly McIver / Kim Boganey -- Beverly McIver : self-portraits in multiple perspectives / Michele Faith Wallace -- Pigments and personas / Richard J. Powell -- Plates -- ... ... Cite

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

David C. Driskell: Artist, Advocate, and Witness

Book section · February 9, 2021 This is the first publication to survey the entirety of this hugely influential scholar and artist's groundbreaking 60-year career. ... Cite

THE OBAMA PORTRAITS

Book · January 1, 2020 From the moment of their unveiling at the National Portrait Gallery in early 2018, the portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama have become two of the most beloved artworks of our time. Kehinde Wiley's portrait of President Obama and Amy Sherald's portrait o ... Cite

Raymond Saunders

Book section · August 20, 2019 As a collection book, the volume provides scholars and curators with information about the Museum's holdings, at times disclosing works that have been little documented or exhibited. ... Cite

Herve Telemaque

Book section · 2019 Cite

The Brown Paper Bag Test

Journal article Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art · November 1, 2018 Full text Cite

Black Parnassus: Chicago in the Interwar Years

Book section · October 2018 The book brings together photographs and publications made during the fi rst and most formative decade of his 65-year career. ... Cite

Who’s Zoomin’ Who?: The Eyes of Donyale Luna

Journal article Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art · November 1, 2016 The most iconic image that accompanied the 1996 publication of 20th Century Photography: Museum Ludwig, Cologne—and one that continues to intrigue scholars of black diasporic visual culture—was the German photographer Charlotte March’s black-and-wh ... Full text Cite

"Porch and Drawl"

Book section · 2016 Cite

"I Talismani di Betye Saar"

Book section · 2016 Cite

TWO PAINTINGS BY WILLIAM H. JOHNSON

Book section · January 1, 2016 Full text Cite

Archibald Motley Jazz Age Modernist

Book · October 2, 2015 Featuring more than 200 color illustrations, the catalogue Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist accompanies the first full-scale survey of the work of Archibald Motley, on view at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University from January 30, ... ... Cite

Research and imagine the American "black" art since 2005

Journal article Perspective France · January 1, 2015 Full text Open Access Cite

"Say it loud": An interview with Richard Powell

Journal article Callaloo · January 1, 2015 Full text Cite

Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist

Artistic production · 2014 Cite

Emancipation and the Freed in American Sculpture

Journal article ART BULLETIN · December 2013 Link to item Cite

"Tanner and Transcendence"

Book section · 2012 Cite

"Tanner and Transcendence"

Book section · 2012 Cite

"The Woodshed"

Book section · 2011 Cite

"The Woodshed"

Book section · 2011 Cite

Sonia Boyce: Crop Over

Artistic production · 2011 Cite

The Woodshed

Journal article STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF ART · 2011 Link to item Cite

Embodied: African American Images in Contemporary Art

Artistic production · September 2010 "Embodied: African American Images in Contemporary Art", September, 2010, David C. Driskell Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD ... Cite

'Paint That Thing!' Aaron Douglas's Call to Modernism

Journal article American Studies · 2010 Cite

The Picturesque, Miss Nottage and the Caribbean Sublime

Journal article Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism · February 2008 Cite

Cutting a Figure Fashioning Black Portraiture

Book · 2008 Examining portraits of black people over the past two centuries, Cutting a Figure argues that these images should be viewed as a distinct category of portraiture that differs significantly from depictions of people with other racial and ... ... Cite

"Barkley L. Hendricks, Anew"

Book section · 2008 Cite

"Barkley L. Hendricks, Anew"

Book section · 2008 Cite

PAINT IN THE NAME OF LOVE

Journal article INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF AFRICAN AMERICAN ART · 2008 Link to item Cite

"The Aaron Douglas Effect"

Book section · 2007 Cite

"The Aaron Douglas Effect"

Book section · 2007 Cite

"Changing, Conjuring Reality"

Book section · 2006 Cite

"Changing, Conjuring Reality"

Book section · 2006 Cite

Circle Dance: The Art of John T. Scott

Artistic production · 2005 Cite

Back to Black: Art, Cinema and the Racial Imaginary

Artistic production · 2005 Back to Black: Art, Cinema and the Racial Imaginary, 2005, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, England & Walsall Art Gallery, Birmingham, England ... Cite

Linguists, Poets, and ‘Others’ on African American Art

Journal article American Art · March 2003 Featured Publication Cite

Beauford Delaney: The Color Yellow

Artistic production · 2002 Toured nationally ... Cite

Appreciation. Jacob Lawrence: Keep on Movin’

Journal article American Art · March 2001 Featured Publication Cite

To Be Real

Book section · 2001 Cite

Sartor Africanus

Book section · 2001 Cite

To Be Real

Book section · 2001 Featured Publication Cite

Sartor Africanus

Book section · 2001 Featured Publication Cite

To Conserve a Legacy: American Art from Historically Black Colleges and Universities: The Digital Exhibition

Digital art · March 2000 30 page manuscript and recorded narration of the virtual exhibition tour (at http://www.africana.com) ... Link to item Cite

Rhapsodies in Black: Music and Words from the Harlem Renaissance

Digital art · 2000 10 page manuscript, essay, and “creative consultant” for a CD box set, Rhino Records R2 79874 ... Cite

Harmonizer of Chaos

Book section · 2000 Cite

Lamentations from the ‘Hood

Book section · 2000 Cite

Harmonizer of Chaos

Book section · 2000 Cite

Lamentations from the ‘Hood

Book section · 2000 Cite

On Alain Locke and James Porter

Journal article Hatch-Billops Collection, Inc./Artist and Influence · 1998 Cite

Art of the Harlem Renaissance

Journal article Art Bulletin · September 1, 1995 Cite

The Subject in/of Art History

Journal article Art Bulletin · September 1, 1995 Full text Cite

ART, HISTORY, AND VISION

Journal article ART BULLETIN · September 1995 Link to item Cite

IMAGES AND IDENTITIES + EDITORIAL - A BRIEF, INTRODUCTORY NOTE

Journal article INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF AFRICAN AMERICAN ART · 1994 Link to item Cite

The Art of Raymond Saunders: Colored

Journal article New Observations · 1993 Cite

Jacob Lawrence

Book · 1992 Cite

Margo Humphrey: Interview

Journal article Hatch-Billops Collection, Inc./Artist and Influence · 1987 Cite

William H. Johnson's Minde Kerteminde

Journal article Black American Literature Forum · 1986 Full text Link to item Cite

On Exhibit: Black Artists of the Nineteenth Century

Journal article The Chicago Reader · August 16, 1985 Cite

African Art at the Field Museum

Journal article African Arts · 1985 Full text Link to item Cite

Black Folk in America, 1930-1980

Journal article Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin · 1984 Cite

Current Expressions in Afro-American Printmaking

Journal article PrintNews · April 1981 Cite

The Afro-American Printmaking Tradition

Journal article PrintNews · February 1981 Cite

9/9

Journal article The New Art Examiner · June 1980 Cite

Houston Conwill

Journal article Neworld · February 1979 Cite

Talking to James Lesesne Wells

Journal article Print Review · 1979 Cite

Images and Identities: A Brief, Introductory Note

Journal article The International Review of African American Art Cite

Journeying Beyond: The Prints and Paintings of Joyce Wellman

Journal article The International Review of African American Art Cite