The most comprehensive survey to date of the contemporary artist
Whitfield Lovell, whose poetic and intricately crafted tableaux and
installations document and pay tribute to the history and cultural
memory of the African American experience.
Whitfield Lovell: Passages accompanies a major traveling exhibition of
the artist's powerful Conté crayon drawings combined with objects to
create assemblages and multisensory installations that focus on aspects
of Black history, raising questions about identity, memory, and
America's collective heritage. Whitfield Lovell (b. 1959, Bronx), a 2007
MacArthur Foundation fellowship recipient and conceptual artist, creates
exquisite drawings inspired by his own collection of vintage photographs
of unidentified African Americans taken between the Emancipation
Proclamation and the civil rights movement. He pairs his meticulously
rendered drawings done on paper or salvaged wooden boards with found
objects, creating enigmatic assemblages and stand-alone tableaux that
are rich with symbolism and ambiguity and evoke personal memories,
ancestral connections, and the collective American past.
This richly illustrated volume features essays by leading scholars that
contextualize Lovell's work through the exploration of compelling
elements such as sound and card playing, contemplating memory as
method.
Exhibition Itinerary (exh is circulated by American Federation of Arts):
Boca Raton Museum of Art
February 11-May 21, 2023
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
June 17-September 10, 2023
Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts
October 13, 2023-January 14, 2024
Cincinnati Art Museum
March 1-May 26, 2024
The Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC
June 29-September 22, 2024
McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX
October 26, 2024-January 19, 2025
