October highlights include chief curator appointment at San Francisco’s Museum of the African Diaspora, recipients of Studio Museum’s Wein Prize, new gallery representation for Lubaina Himid and Deana Lawson
Key Jo Lee is joining Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco in newly created chief of curatorial affairs and public programs position supported by Mellon Foundation grant. | Photo by Amber Ford
BOOKS | Oct. 1: New volume from Marilyn Nance presents comprehensive photographic account of FESTAC ’77, Second Festival of Black Arts and Culture in Lagos, Nigeria. More than 15,000 artists, musicians, writers, and cultural figures from 55 nations gathered for historic event, from Jan. 15 to Feb. 12, 1977. Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Nance attended as official photographer for U.S. delegation. She drew from her extensive archive to create “Last Day in Lagos.” Nearly all images shown for first time. | More
< NEWS | Oct. 3: UK’s National Trust identifies Richmond Barthé as artist who painted “Seated Man in a Landscape,” circa 1950s portrait in its collection that was produced in Jamaica. Painting on view at Belton House in Lincolnshire, England, marking Black History Month in UK. | More
At left, RICHMOND, BARTH´E (Bay St Louis 1901 – Pasadena 1989), “Seated Man in a Landscape,” circa 1950-58 (oil on canvas, 853 x 695 x 25 mm). | Belton House, Lincolnshire.
PUBLIC ART | Oct. 5: New basketball court mural in Lincoln, Neb., inspired by Felrath Hines‘s “Red Sea” (1985) officially opens. Geometric abstract painting is in collection of Sheldon Museum of Art at University of Nebraska, Lincoln. | More
AUCTIONS | Oct. 6: Swann Auction Galleries in New York holds African American art sale with highlights including new record for artist Cliff Joseph (1922-2020), whose painting “Rise People Rise” (1970) sold for $100,000. | More
AWARDS & HONORS | Oct. 6: Hutchins Center at Harvard University awards seven W.E.B. Du Bois Medals. 2022 recipients include Agnes Gund, president emerita of Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1, Art for Justice Founder, philanthropist, and collector; Raymond J. McGuire, Studio Museum in Harlem board chair, business leader, and collector; and artist Betye Saar. | More
SYMPOSIUMS | Oct. 7-9: Simone Leigh’s Loophole of Retreat: Venice presented in conjunction with artist’s Venice Biennale exhibition at U.S. Pavilion. Staged at Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice, three-day event features dialogues, performances, and presentations by host of Black women artists, scholars, and curators. | More
PUBLIC ART | Oct. 8: David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, home of New York Philharmonic, debuts two new artworks—Nina Chanel Abney’s “San Juan Heal,” a 200-foot facade installation, and “An Eclectic Dance to the Music of Time,” dream-like video by Jacolby Satterwhite—commissioned by Lincoln Center in collaboration with Studio Museum in Harlem and Public Art Fund. | New York Times
EXHIBITIONS | Oct. 9: “Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces” opens at Museum of Modern Art in New York (through Feb. 18, 2023). Celebrating gallery and experimental artist space “where Black art flourished and debate was cultivated,” JAM was established and run by Linda Goode Bryant, from 1974 to 1986. | More
AWARDS & HONORS | Oct. 11: Home of the Arts (HOTA), arts center in Queensland, Australia, announces wani toaishara is recipient of 2022 Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award for series “do black boys go to heaven.” Honor includes $25,000 acquisition award. | More
NEWS | Oct. 11: Three U.S. institutions—Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art, National Gallery of Art, and RISD Museum/Rhode Island School of Design—mark return of 31 Benin bronzes to Nigeria in Washington, D.C., ceremony with Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments. | Art Newspaper
2022 MacArthur Fellows: From left, Chicago artist Amanda Williams and artist Tavares Strachan, who splits his time between New York and his native Bahamas. | Courtesy MacArthur Foundation
AWARDS & HONORS | Oct. 12: MacArthur Foundation selects 2022 MacArthur fellows, including visual artists Amanda Williams, Tavares Strachan, Paul Chan, and Sky Hopinka. “Geniuses” in their fields, each of the 25 fellows receives cash stipend of $800,000, spread over five years in quarterly installments. | More
PUBLIC ART | Oct. 12: Large-scale, shattered glass portrait of Vice President Kamala Harris by Swiss artist Simon Berger installed at Martin Luther King Jr. Library in Washington, D.C. | Washington Post
ART FAIRS | Oct. 13: Thomas Dane Gallery won Main Stand Prize at Frieze London for booth presentation curated by gallery artist Anthea Hamilton. | More
ART FAIRS | Oct. 13-16: 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair at Somerset House, marks 10th anniversary in London. | More
AWARDS & HONORS > | Oct. 14: Studio Museum in Harlem announces 2022-2023 artists in residence: Devin N. Morris, Charisse Pearlina Weston and Jeffrey Meris (shown, left to right). Museum also reveals renowned residency program will be funded in perpetuity by Potomac, Md.-based Glenstone Foundation. | More
NEWS | Oct. 14: Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) sharpens focus on history of slavery. | New York Times
PUBLIC ART | Oct. 15: “Moving Chains” by Charles Gaines opens on Governors Island in New York City. Los Angeles-based Gaines’s 110-foot-long sculptural installation “confronts the American origin story—both the nation’s founding and its expansion—…a narrative riddled with falsehoods and omissions that have furthered the project of white supremacy.” | More
LUBAINA HIMID, “Le Rodeur: The Cabin, “2017 (acrylic paint on canvas, 72 x 96 inches / 183 x 244 cm). | Museum Ludwig, Cologne/Acquisition 2017
REPRESENTATION | Oct. 17: New York gallery Greene Naftali announces representation of Lubaina Himid, working with British artist in collaboration with Hollybush Gardens, London. Pioneer in British Black Arts Movement, Himid is painter, cultural activist, and educator; first Black woman to win Turner Prize (2017); and recipient of 2024 Suzanne Deal Booth/FLAG Art Foundation Prize. More
ACQUISITIONS | Oct. 17: Archival holdings of Chicago sculptor Richard Hunt acquired by Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. | More
REPRESENTATION | Oct. 18: Estate of Peter Williams now represented exclusively by Eric Firestone Gallery in New York. Delaware-based Williams died Aug. 19, 2021, at age 69. “Nyack: Paintings by Peter Williams,” Eric Firestone’s first exhibition with artist, opens Oct. 28. | More
AWARDS & HONORS | Oct. 19: Moore College of Art & Design in Philadelphia honors Baltimore artist Joyce J. Scott at Visionary Woman Awards Gala honoring “women who have had major impacts in their fields, exemplifying excellence in the visual arts and design, arts advocacy or philanthropy.” | More
Evangeline J. Montgomery’s archive measures 220 linear feet; dates from 1970s; and includes nearly 600 books, plus catalogs, correspondence, brochures, documentary photography and other ephemera, including slides, audio recordings, and video cassettes. | Courtesy EJ Montgomery
ACQUISITIONS | Oct. 20: Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles acquires archive of Evangeline J. Montgomery, important curator, cultural worker, arts administrator, and advocate of African American art. An artist in her own right, Montgomery was born in New York City and began curatorial career in 1967, spending key periods in San Francisco Bay Area, Nashville, Tenn., and Washington, D.C. | More
“Montgomery worked tirelessly behind the scenes for a more equitable, and truer, version of American art and art history. Montgomery’s archive moves underrecognized histories of African American art exhibitions, organizations, artists, lectures, and meetings to the foreground during an era of their widespread exclusion from the mainstream artworld.”
— Getty Curator LeRonn P. Brooks
APPOINTMENTS | Oct. 20: Established by artist Theaster Gates, Rebuild Foundation in Chicago announces appointment of Sampada Aranke as 2022-23 director of Mellon Archives Innovation Program, working with historic collections of books, glass lantern slides, vinyl records, and Black memorabilia housed at Stony Island Arts Bank. | More
REPRESENTATION | Oct. 20: Austin, Texas-based ceramic artist and educator Tammie Rubin joins C24 Gallery in New York, where her work was recently featured in two-artist exhibition “Mythodical.” | More
ART FAIRS | Oct. 21-23: Paris, France, hosts AKAA (Also Known As Africa) art and design fair (Oct. 21-23) at Carreau du Temple. | More
AWARDS & HONORS | Oct. 22: Artist Mike Henderson receives Margrit Mondavi Arts Medallion at Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art gala. A professor emeritus at UC Davis, the campus museum is presenting “Mike Henderson: Before the Fire, 1965–1985” in January. | More
AWARDS & HONORS | Oct. 24: At annual gala, Studio Museum in Harlem announces two new recipients of Joyce Alexander Wein Artist Prize: Carolina Kent (2021) and Robert Pruitt (2022), each receiving a $50,000 award. | More
< NEWS | Oct. 24: U.S. Postal Service 2023 stamp program includes new stamps honoring Toni Morrison, Roy Lichtenstein, and author Ernest J. Gaines, who will be featured on the 46th stamp in the Black Heritage Series. Oklahoma artist Robert Peterson painted the image based on a 2001 photo of Gaines. | More
NEWS | Oct. 26: Lawyers for artist Adam Pendleton claim British label Alexander McQueen’s McQueen Graffiti collection closely resembles his work and “featured his protected expression” and “copied copyrighted materials owned by Mr. Pendleton.” | New York Times
COLLECTORS | Oct. 27: Profile of fashion designer Sarah Staudinger mentions her husband, Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel (who recently published opinion piece asking companies to stop doing business with Kanye West amid anti-semitic remarks), along with following passage about couple’s home: “Mr. Emanuel is a collector of Black contemporary artists: In the entryway, there is a large painting by Kara Walker depicting a slave market; in the living room, a portrait of James Baldwin by Beauford Delaney; over the winding stairway, a painted drape by Sam Gilliam; above a fireplace, Benny Andrews’s painting of a Black man raising fists to the flag; in a hallway, works on leather by Winfred Rembert, inspired by his time on a chain gang; upstairs, a plaster sculpture by Karon Davis of Ms. Staudinger and Mr. Emanuel embracing, commissioned by Ms. Staudinger.” | Los Angeles Times
Self-Portrait of Deana Lawson in her backyard, 2021. | © Deana Lawson
REPRESENTATION | Oct. 27: Brooklyn-based artist Deana Lawson joins Gagosian gallery representing her in New York, Europe, and Asian, in collaboration with David Kordansky Gallery, which will continue to work with Lawson in Los Angeles. Gagasian will present photographs by Lawson and Sally Mann at Paris Photo (Nov. 10-13). | More
APPOINTMENTS | Oct. 28: Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) appoints Key Jo Lee chief of curatorial affairs and public programs, a newly created position. Currently serving as associate curator of American Art at Cleveland Museum of Art, Lee starts at MoAD in January. | More
APPOINTMENTS | Oct. 28: In New York, International Center of Photography adds five new board members, including Uzodinma Iweala, CEO of Africa Center in Harlem, and artist Cindy Sherman. | More
SYMPOSIUMS | Oct. 28-29: Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Conn., hosts Steve McQueen Symposium exploring British artist’s 30-year output across film, installation, and photography. | More
MUSEUMS | Oct. 29: New Rubell Museum DC opens in Southwest Washington in former Randall Junior High School building. Debut exhibition titled What’s Going On, references 1971 hit song by Marvin Gaye, a Randall graduate, and sociopolitical nature of artworks featured. Show brings together about 200 works by 49 artists, including Natalie Ball, Cecily Brown, Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Leonardo Drew, Keith Haring, Rashid Johnson, Josh Kline, Christopher Myers, Cady Noland, Huang Yong Ping, Christina Quarles, Tschabalala Self, Vaughn Spann, Hank Willis Thomas, Mickalene Thomas, John Waters, Carrie Mae Weems, and Kehinde Wiley, alongside solo presentation dedicated to D.C. artist Sylvia Snowden. | More
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