The Art Bulletin
Editors of The Art Bulletin
Richard J. Powell (2008–10)
Richard J. Powell, next to Lorna Simpson’s Holding and Breaking, 1992 (photograph by Les Todd; photograph provided by the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University)
Richard J. Powell, John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art and Art History at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, has been appointed the next editor of The Art Bulletin. He will begin his three-year term as editor-in-chief on July 1, 2007, with his first issue published in March 2008.
Powell received his PhD in the history of art at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1988, with a dissertation on the American artist William H. Johnson. He earned a BA in art at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, and an MFA in printmaking at Howard University in Washington, DC. He has been at Duke since 1989, where he teaches American art, the arts of the African diaspora, and contemporary visual studies. Powell has written extensively on topics ranging from primitivism to postmodernism, including: Homecoming: The Art and Life of William H. Johnson (New York: W. W. Norton, 1991), Jacob Lawrence (New York: Rizzoli, 1992), and Black Art: A Cultural History (London: Thames and Hudson, 1997; 2002). His forthcoming book (expected in 2007) examines nineteenth-, twentieth-, and twenty-first-century portraits of peoples of African descent in paintings, photographs, graphic arts, and cinema. His essays have appeared in numerous edited volumes and exhibition catalogues, and in such journals as American Art, The Art Bulletin, International Review of African American Art, and African Arts.
Powell writes, “After I was nominated for editor-in-chief, I started reviewing my back issues of the journal. Since joining CAA, I feel that I’ve always lived with these volumes; their aggregation and place in my library form a key part of my identity. I looked again at the articles I had found useful, valuable, or just plain interesting as a barometer for what I might accomplish as editor.
“The earliest issue in my recollection is dated June 1983 and contains Frederick Lamp’s fascinating article on fifteenth-century commemorative stone sculptures in Sierra Leone—a topic and regional focus I had never seen covered in the journal. Another coveted issue was that of June 1988, featuring Wanda Corn’s survey of American art scholarship (part of the informative “state of the discipline” series initiated by the editor Richard E. Spear). The December 1990 issue, which included Patricia Leighten’s article on Picasso, primitivism, and anticolonialism, represented a real turning point, opening the journal to sociopolitical currents that enriched and problematized more conventional interpretations of art. There are other memorable issues and articles too numerous to mention here. Their impact suggests that The Art Bulletin’s editorial strengths reside in its ability to enlighten as broad an art-historical audience as possible, and to promote conversations about art and visual culture across the discipline and within other fields of knowledge.”
The recipient of many fellowships, Powell has helped organize several exhibitions, notably: The Blues Aesthetic: Black Culture and Modernism (1989); Rhapsodies in Black: Art of the Harlem Renaissance (1997); To Conserve a Legacy: American Art at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (1999); Beauford Delaney: The Color Yellow (2002); Circle Dance: The Art of John T. Scott (2005); Back to Black: Art, Cinema, and the Racial Imaginary (2005); and Conjuring Bearden (2006).
“As editor-in-chief,” Powell continues, “I will rely on my fellow art historians, curators, educators, and independent scholars for assistance and guidance. I’m inspired by the innovations and perspectives of the current editor, Marc Gotlieb. I plan to continue the ‘Interventions’ series that he initiated, provide our colleagues in galleries and museums with an outlet for scholarly exegesis, and explore the possibility of incorporating more color plates per issue. Beyond these objectives, I simply look forward to maintaining The Art Bulletin’s reputation as an invaluable art resource and a lively forum for art-loving scholars of every discipline.”
CAA warmly thanks Marc Gotlieb, associate professor and chair of the Department of Fine Art at the University of Toronto in Ontario, for his service since 2003, and welcomes Powell to the journal.
Published in November 2006.
