Richard J. Powell | Scholars@Duke

Richard J. Powell
John Spencer Bassett Distinguished Professor of Art and Art History

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).

Current Appointments & Affiliations

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

Contact Information

114 Buchanan Blvd, Smith Warehouse, Bay 9, A287c, Durham, NC 27708
Box 90766, Durham, NC 27708
richard.powell@duke.edu (919) 684-2473
http://www.richardjpowell.com

Background
Education, Training, & Certifications
- 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
Duke Appointment History
- Dean of the Humanities, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, Duke University 2014 - 2016
- Professor in the Department of African and African American Studies, African & African American Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2010 - 2013
- Professor of African and African American Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, Duke University 2002 - 2007
- Chair, Department of Art and Art History, Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 1996 - 2001
- Associate Professor with Tenure, Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 1993 - 1998
- Assistant Professor, Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 1989 - 1993
Recognition
In the News
- FEB 23, 2021
  
  Richard Powell on Where Black Art Goes From Here
- DEC 2, 2020 Franklin Humanities Institute
  
  Richard Powell on the Rich Tradition of Black Visual Satire
- NOV 16, 2020 Duke Arts
  
  Two New Books by Art, Art History & Visual Studies Faculty
- AUG 23, 2018
  
  Richard Powell: Words for New Graduate and Professional Students
- APR 18, 2018
  
  Four Faculty Members Elected to American Academy of Arts & Sciences
- JAN 5, 2017
  
  Prominent Archibald Motley Painting Donated to Nasher Museum
- DEC 10, 2015 PBS’ “Charlie Rose”
  
  A look at ‘Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist’ exhibit with curator Richard Powell
- NOV 10, 2015
  
  Powell Honored by College Art Association
- SEP 30, 2015 The Daily Beast
  
  Archibald Motley, the painter who captured black America in the Jazz Age and beyond
- AUG 31, 2015
  
  Archives Alive: Students Dive Into the Rubenstein
- AUG 1, 2014
  
  Art Historian Richard J. Powell Appointed Dean of the Humanities
- JUN 11, 2014
  
  Using the Archibald Motley Exhibit in Duke Classes
- MAR 5, 2014 The Root
  
  A walk through the Nasher: Chicago’s often forgotten role in African-American art
- JAN 30, 2014 WUNC Radio
  
  Nasher Museum of Art exhibit: Jazz modernist documents Chicago's jazz renaissance
- NOV 18, 2013 Durham Herald-Sun
  
  Editorial: Nasher's national mark
- NOV 18, 2013 Durham Herald-Sun
  
  Nasher to present 'Jazz Age' exhibit
Awards & Honors
Research
Selected Grants
- Edmond J. Safra Visiting Professorship awarded by National Gallery of Art 2019
- Beyond Mere Likeness: Protraits from Africa and African Diaspora awarded by Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation 1998 - 1999
Publications & Artistic Works
Selected Publications
- Books
  - Powell, Richard J. Going There Black Visual Satire (Accepted). Richard D. Cohen Lectures on A, 2020.
  - Powell, Richard. Archibald Motley Jazz Age Modernist, 2015.
  - Powell, Richard J. African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era and Beyond. Washington, DC: Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2012.
  - Powell, Richard J. Ras Ishi/Secret Diaries. Miller Publishing Company, Ltd., 2009.
  - Powell, Richard J. Who Am I in This Picture? Amherst College Portraits. Amherst College, 2009.
  - Powell, R. J. Cutting a Figure: Fashioning Black Portraiture. University of Chicago Press, 2008.
  - Powell, R. J. Circle Dance: The Art of John T. Scott. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2005.
  - Powell, R. J. Black Art: A Cultural History. London: Thames and Hudson, Ltd., 2002.
  - Powell, R. J. Beauford Delaney: The Color Yellow. Atlanta: High Museum of Art, 2002.
  - Powell, R. J. To Conserve a Legacy: American Art from Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999.
  - Powell, R. J. Jacob Lawrence. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1992.
  - Powell, R. J. Homecoming: The Art and Life of William H. Johnson. New York: W. W. Norton, 1991.
  - Powell, R. J. From the Potomac to the Anacostia: Art and Ideology in the Washington Area. Washington, DC: Washington Project for the Arts, 1989.
  - Powell, R. J. James Lesesne Wells: Sixty Years in Art. Washington, DC: Washington Project for the Arts, 1986.
  - Powell, R. J. Rhapsodies in Black: The Art of the Harlem Renaissance. Berkeley: University of California Press, n.d.
- Academic Articles
  - Powell, Richard J. “The Brown Paper Bag Test.” Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art 2018, no. 42–43 (November 1, 2018): 234–49. https://doi.org/10.1215/10757163-7185905.
    Full Text
  - Oliver, V. C., and R. J. Powell. “Reminiscing: Valerie Cassel Oliver and Richard J. Powell in conversation.” Callaloo 40, no. 5 (January 1, 2017): 53–162. https://doi.org/10.1353/cal.2017.0167.
    Full Text
  - Powell, Richard J. “Who’s Zoomin’ Who?: The Eyes of Donyale Luna.” Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art 2016, no. 38–39 (November 2016): 14–21. https://doi.org/10.1215/10757163-3641634.
    Full Text
  - Oliver, Valerie Cassell, and Richard J. Powell. “"Richard Powell/'Say it Loud': An Interview with Richard Powell by Valerie Cassel Oliver".” Callaloo 38, no. 4 (2016): 985–95.
  - Oliver, Valerie Cassell, and Richard J. Powell. “"Richard Powell/'Say it Loud': An Interview with Richard Powell by Valerie Cassel Oliver".” Callaloo 38, no. 4 (2016): 985–95.
  - Powell, Richard J. “Rechercher et imaginer l’art « black » américain depuis 2005.” Perspective, no. 2 (December 31, 2015): 81–94. https://doi.org/10.4000/perspective.6159.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Powell, Richard J. “Emancipation and the Freed in American Sculpture.” Art Bulletin 95, no. 4 (December 2013): 646–49.
    Link to Item
  - Powell, Richard J. “Freeman Henry Morris Murray: Emancipation and the Freed in American Sculpture.” The Art Bulletin 95 (December 2013): 646–49.
  - Powell, Richard J. “The Woodshed.” Studies in the History of Art 71 (2011): 199–206.
    Link to Item
  - Powell, Richard J. “'Paint That Thing!' Aaron Douglas's Call to Modernism.” American Studies 46 (2010): 107–19.
  - Powell, Richard J. “The Picturesque, Miss Nottage and the Caribbean Sublime.” Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism 25 (February 2008): 157–68.
  - Powell, Richard J. “PAINT IN THE NAME OF LOVE.” International Review of African American Art 22, no. 2 (2008): 64–65.
    Link to Item
  - Powell, Richard J. “Linguists, Poets, and ‘Others’ on African American Art.” American Art 17 (March 2003): 16–19.
  - Powell, Richard J. “Appreciation. Jacob Lawrence: Keep on Movin’.” American Art 15 (March 2001): 90–93.
  - Powell, R. J. “On Alain Locke and James Porter.” Hatch Billops Collection, Inc./Artist and Influence 11 (1998): 1–8.
  - Powell, Richard J. “Cinqué: Antislavery Portraiture and Patronage in Jacksonian America.” American Art 11, no. 3 (October 1997): 49–73. https://doi.org/10.1086/424304.
    Full Text
  - POWELL, R. J. “ART, HISTORY, AND VISION.” Art Bulletin 77, no. 3 (September 1995): 379–82.
    Link to Item
  - Powell, R. J. “Art of the Harlem Renaissance.” Art Bulletin 77 (September 1, 1995): 132–37.
  - Powell, R. J. “The Subject in/of Art History.” The Art Bulletin 77, no. 3 (September 1, 1995): 515. https://doi.org/10.1080/00043079.1995.10786651.
    Full Text
  - POWELL, R. J. “IMAGES AND IDENTITIES + EDITORIAL - A BRIEF, INTRODUCTORY NOTE.” International Review of African American Art 11, no. 3 (1994): 6–6.
    Link to Item
  - Powell, R. J. “The Art of Raymond Saunders: Colored.” New Observations 97 (1993): 10–15.
  - Powell, R. J. “What Becomes a Legend Most? Reflections on Romare Bearden.” Transition 55 (1992): 62–72.
  - Powell, Richard J. “"In My Family of Primitiveness and Tradition": William H. Johnson's "Jesus and the Three Marys".” American Art 5, no. 4 (October 1991): 21–33. https://doi.org/10.1086/424127.
    Full Text
  - Powell, R. J. “Margo Humphrey: Interview.” Hatch Billops Collection, Inc./Artist and Influence 5 (1987): 56–65.
  - Powell, Richard J. “William H. Johnson's Minde Kerteminde.” Black American Literature Forum 20, no. 4 (1986): 393–393. https://doi.org/10.2307/2904438.
    Full Text
  - Powell, R. J. “On Exhibit: Black Artists of the Nineteenth Century.” The Chicago Reader, August 16, 1985, 10–11.
  - Powell, Richard J. “African Art at the Field Museum.” African Arts 18, no. 2 (February 1985): 24–24. https://doi.org/10.2307/3336186.
    Full Text
  - Powell, R. J. “Black Folk in America, 1930-1980.” Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin, 1984, 11–18.
  - Powell, R. J. “Current Expressions in Afro-American Printmaking.” Printnews 3 (April 1981).
  - Powell, R. J. “The Afro-American Printmaking Tradition.” Printnews 3 (February 1981): 3–7.
  - Powell, R. J. “9/9.” The New Art Examiner 7 (June 1980): 10–11.
  - Powell, R. J. “Houston Conwill.” Neworld, February 1979.
  - Powell, R. J. “Talking to James Lesesne Wells.” Print Review 9 (1979): 65–75.
  - Powell, R. J. “Images and Identities: A Brief, Introductory Note.” The International Review of African American Art 11, no. 3 (n.d.): 6–6.
  - Powell, R. J. “Journeying Beyond: The Prints and Paintings of Joyce Wellman.” The International Review of African American Art 10, no. 3 (n.d.).
- Book Sections
  - Caragol, Taina, Dorothy Moss, Richard J. Powell, and Kim Sajet. “The Obama Portraits, in Art History and Beyond.” In The Obama Portraits. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2020.
  - Caragol, Taina, Dorothy Moss, Richard J. Powell, and Kim Sajet. “The Obama Portraits, in Art History and Beyond.” In The Obama Portraits. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2020.
  - Powell, Richard. “Raymond Saunders.” In Among Others Blackness at MoMA, edited by Darby English and Charlotte Barat, 2019.
  - Powell, Richard. “Herve Telemaque.” In Among Others: Blackness at MoMA, edited by Darby English and Charlotte Barat. New York, NY: Museum of Modern Art, 2019.
  - Powell, Richard. “Black Parnassus: Chicago in the Interwar Years.” In Gordon Parks The New Tide, Early Work 1940-1950, edited by Philip Brookman, 259–65. Steidl/Gordon Parks Foundation/National Gallery of Art, 2018.
  - Powell, R. J. “"Porch and Drawl".” In Southern Accent: Seeking the American South in Contemporary Art, edited by Miranda Lash and Trevor Schoonmaker, 106–19. Durham, North Carolina: Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, 2016.
  - Powell, R. J. “"Wounded Zouave and the Cyrenian Paradigm".” In The Civil War in Art and Memory, edited by Kirk Savage, 65–80. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2016.
  - Powell, R. J. “"I Talismani di Betye Saar".” In Betye Saar: Uneasy Dancer, edited by Mario Marinetti, 233–41. Milano, Italy: Fondazione Prada, 2016.
  - Powell, R. J. “"Les ames illustrees: W. E. B. Du Bois dans l'art contemporain".” In The Color Line: Les Artistes Africains-Americains et La Segregation, edited by Daniel Soutif, 74–85. Paris, France: Flammarion, 2016.
  - Powell, R. J. “Probability Theory: David Hammons's Money Tree.” In Open This End: Contemporary Art from the Collection of Blake Byrne, edited by R. J. Wolin, Joseph R., 42–49. Los Angeles, CA: The Skylark Foundation, 2015.
  - Powell, R. J. “"Dem Shoes": Thomas Hart Benton's Romance.” In American Epics: Thomas Hart Benton and Hollywood, edited by A. Bailly, 83–87. Munich: Delmonico Books - Prestel, 2015.
  - Powell, R. J. “Walking on Water: Embodiment, Abstraction, and Black Visuality.” In Represent: 200 Years of African American Art in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, edited by R. J. Shaw, Gwendolyn DuBois, 1–19. Philadelphia, PA, 2014.
  - Powell, R. J. “New Negroes, Harlem, and Jazz (1900-1950).” In The Image of the Black in Western Art, edited by D. Bindman and H. L. Gates, 53–104. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014.
  - Powell, Richard J. “"Foreword: Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Devotional Memorial".” In Tell It with Pride: The 54th Massachusetts Regiment and Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Shaw Memorial, edited by Sarah Greenough and Nancy Anderson, xv–185. Yale University Press, 2013.
  - Powell, Richard J. “"Herein Lie Buried Many Things: Screens, Entryways and Cabinets in Twentieth-Century Black Visual Discourse".” In African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era and Beyond, 12–33. Washington, DC: Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2012.
  - Powell, Richard J. “"Tanner and Transcendence".” In Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit, edited by Anna O. Marley, 56–65. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012.
  - Powell, Richard J. “"The Woodshed".” In Romare Bearden: American Modernist, edited by Ruth Fine and Jacqueline Francis, 200–2006. National Gallery of Art, 2011.
  - Powell, Richard J. “"From Diaspora to Exile: Black Women Artists in 1960s and 1970s Europe".” In The Migrant’s Time: Rethinking Art History and Diaspora, edited by Saloni Mathur, 78–90. Sterling and Francine Clark Institute, 2011.
  - Powell, Richard J. “"Trembling Vistas, Primal Youth: William H. Johnson’s Painterly Expressionism, 1927-1935" & "Devotion and Disrepute: William H. Johnson’s Florence, South Carolina Paintings, circa 1944".” In William H. Johnson: An American Modern, 22–101. University of Washington Press, 2011.
  - Powell, Richard J. “"The Systems and Semiotics of Ras Ishi Butcher".” In Ras Ishi/Secret Diaries, 19–27. Miller Publishing Company, Ltd., 2009.
  - Powell, Richard J. “"Unexpected Faces in Public Places".” In Who Am I in This Picture? Amherst College Portraits, 8–15. Amherst College, 2009.
  - Powell, Richard J. “"Paesaggio come evasion. Soggezione e affrancamento nelle immagini ottocentesche di afroamericani".” In Pittura Americana Del XIX Secolo: Atti Del Convegno, edited by Marco Goldin and H Barbara Weinberg, 116–36. Linea d’Ombra Libri, 2008.
  - Powell, Richard J. “"Barkley L. Hendricks, Anew".” In Barkley L. Hendricks/Birth of the Cool, edited by Trevor Schoonmaker, 38–57. Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, 2008.
  - Powell, R. J., Richard J. Powell, and Martin Puryear. “"A Conversation with Martin Puryear".” In Martin Puryear, edited by John Elderfield, 99–110. Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2007.
  - Powell, Richard J. “"The Aaron Douglas Effect".” In Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist, edited by Susan Earle, 53–73. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2007.
  - Powell, Richard J. “"Changing, Conjuring Reality".” In Conjuring Bearden, 19–31. Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, 2006.
  - Powell, Richard J. “"Racial Imaginaries, from Charles White’s Preacher to Jean-Paul Goude and Grace Jones’ Nigger Arabesque".” In Back to Black: Art, Cinema and the Racial Imaginary, 9–27. Whitechapel Art Gallery, 2005.
  - Powell, Richard J. “"On James A. Porter’s and (our) Modern Negro Art".” In A Proud Continuum: Eight Decades of Art at Howard University, 25–28. Howard University Gallery of Art, 2005.
  - Powell, R. J. “To Be Real.” In The Barkley L. Hendricks Experience, 13–15. New London, Connecticut: Lyman Allyn, 2001.
  - Powell, R. J. “Sartor Africanus.” In Dandies: Fashion and Finesse in Art and Culture, edited by Susan Fillin-Yeh, 217–42. New York: New York University Press, 2001.
  - Powell, R. J. “Harmonizer of Chaos.” In Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence, edited by Peter Nesbett and Michelle DuBois, 147–63. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000.
  - Powell, R. J. “Conjuring Canes and Bible Quilts: Through the Prism of Nineteenth Century African American Spirituality.” In African Americans and the Bible: Sacred Texts and Social Textures, edited by Vincent L. Wimbush, 342–54. New York: Continuum, 2000.
  - Powell, R. J. “Lamentations from the ‘Hood.” In Kerry James Marshall/Mementos, 31–47. Chicago: The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, 2000.
  - Powell, R. J. “The Blues Aesthetic: Black Culture and Modernism.” In African American Literary Criticism, 1773 to 2000, edited by Hazel Arnett Ervin. New York: Twayne Publishers, 289-302, 1999.
- Other Articles
  - Powell, R. J. “African and Afro-American Art: Call and Response.” Field Museum, 1984.
Exhibitions, Screenings, & Performances
Artistic Works & Non-Print Media
- Exhibits
  - Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist. Curator. 2014
  - Sonia Boyce: Crop Over. Curator. 2011
  - Embodied: African American Images in Contemporary Art. Creator. 2010
  - Back to Black: Art, Cinema and the Racial Imaginary. Curator. 2005
  - Circle Dance: The Art of John T. Scott. Creator. 2005
  - Beauford Delaney: The Color Yellow. Curator. 2002
- Video Recordings
  - To Conserve a Legacy: American Art from Historically Black Colleges and Universities: The Digital Exhibition. Curator. 2000
  - Rhapsodies in Black: Music and Words from the Harlem Renaissance. Consultant, Curator. 2000
Teaching & Mentoring
Recent Courses
- AAAS 520S: Harlem Renaissance 2021
- ARTHIST 384: Art of the United States 2021
- ARTHIST 554S: Harlem Renaissance 2021
- AAAS 227: African American Art 2020
- AAAS 348: African Art: From Royal Court to Contemporary Marketplace 2020
- AAAS 720S: Outsiders and Insiders 2020
- ARTHIST 283: African American Art 2020
- ARTHIST 345: African Art: From Royal Court to Contemporary Marketplace 2020
- ARTHIST 546S: The American Artist 2020
- ARTHIST 715S: Outsiders and Insiders 2020
- ICS 223: African Art: From Royal Court to Contemporary Marketplace 2020
- AAAS 227: African American Art 2019
- AAAS 329: The Black Atlantic 2019
- ARTHIST 283: African American Art 2019
- ARTHIST 383: The Black Atlantic 2019
- ARTHIST 791: Individual Research in Art History 2019
- ICS 226: The Black Atlantic 2019
Scholarly, Clinical, & Service Activities
Presentations & Appearances
Service to the Profession

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Education, Training, & Certifications

Duke Appointment History

In the News

Awards & Honors

Selected Grants

Selected Publications

Books

Academic Articles

Book Sections

Other Articles

Exhibitions, Screenings, & Performances

Artistic Works & Non-Print Media

Exhibits

Video Recordings

Recent Courses

Presentations & Appearances

Service to the Profession