Mary Lovelace O'Neal facts for kids

Mary Lovelace O'Neal (born February 10, 1942) is an American artist and teacher. She creates art using different materials, mainly painting and printmaking. Her work often features simple, abstract designs. She used to be a professor at the University of California, Berkeley and stopped teaching in 2006.

Mary Lovelace O'Neal's art has been shown in many places. This includes North America and countries like Italy, France, Chile, Senegal, and Nigeria. She lives and works in Oakland, California. She also has an art studio in Chile.

Early Life and Education

Mary Lovelace was born in Jackson, Mississippi, on February 10, 1942. She says her father helped her love for art grow. Her father, Ariel Lovelace, was a music professor and choir director. He worked at Tougaloo College and the University of Arkansas.

O'Neal went to Howard University in Washington, DC, from 1960 to 1964. She studied art there and earned her B.F.A. degree in 1964. During her time at Howard, she became involved in the Civil Rights Movement. She met many important leaders, including Stokely Carmichael and artist Jacob Lawrence. She also worked for a short time at the Free Southern Theater with her first husband, John O'Neal.

She continued her art studies at Columbia University. While there, she joined the Black Arts Movement in New York City. This movement greatly influenced her artwork. She received her M.F.A. degree from Columbia University in 1969.

Art Career

Forbidden Fruit (around 1990) at the Baltimore Museum of Art in 2022

Mary Lovelace O'Neal's paintings have changed over her long career. They started with loose shapes and later became more exact patterns. She has won many awards and shown her art in many exhibitions. These shows have been both in the U.S. and other countries.

In 1983, she was invited to be an artist at an international festival in Asilah, Morocco. In 1991, she organized an art show in Chile. It was called "17 Latin and African American Artists in USA." Two years later, she received the Artist En France Award from the French government. In 2005, she represented Mississippi at an exhibition in Washington, D.C.

O'Neal began teaching full-time at the University of California, Berkeley in 1978. In 1985, she became the first African American artist to earn a permanent teaching position there. In 1999, she became the head of the Art Practice Department. She retired from teaching in 2006. She also taught at other schools, including the University of Texas at Austin.

In 1984, O'Neal started making monotype prints. She worked with artist Robert Blackburn in New York City. She loved this process and made over 200 prints at his studio.

O'Neal's involvement in civil rights movements influenced her art. She met Stokely Carmichael in college. He created the terms "Black Power" and "Black Panther." These terms meant "Power to the People." O'Neal says her activism started with Stokely.

In an interview, O'Neal shared how meeting other artists in Morocco inspired her. This led to her famous 1984 series, Panthers in my Fathers Palace. This series likely honors her experience growing up in Mississippi.

In the early 1990s, O'Neal started collecting torn paper from printmaking studios. She used this "waste" to create new collage paintings. She worked with Patricio Moreno Toro, who introduced new art methods. They showed their original works in France from 1994 to 1997.

Lampblack Series

O'Neal created her Lampblack paintings while studying at Columbia University. These works were made in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They were large paintings using deep black pigment. She rubbed the pigment into raw canvas using an eraser or her hands. The deep black color was meant to "absorb and silence the noise."

Exhibitions

In February 2020, Mnuchin Gallery in New York held a special show of O'Neal's art. It was her first solo exhibition there since 1993. The show, called Chasing Down the Image, looked at over five decades of her work. It showed how O'Neal used abstract art and different materials for political reasons. She combined experimental black art styles with Minimalism.

During the 1960s and 1970s, O'Neal's abstract art was different from what the Black Arts Movement wanted. That movement often focused on realistic images of people. But O'Neal's art showed that different experiences and styles could be combined.

In 2024, O'Neal's art was part of the 2024 Whitney Biennial exhibition. At the same time, she had a solo show at Marianne Boesky Gallery. This show, called HECHO EN MÉXICO—a mano (MADE IN MEXICO—by hand), featured large paintings. She made these paintings over three years in her studio in Mérida, Mexico.

Public Collections

Mary Lovelace O'Neal's art is part of many permanent collections. You can see her work in museums like the Oakland Museum of California and the National Gallery of Art. Her art is also at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Baltimore Museum of Art. You can also find her work at the National Museum of Fine Arts, Santiago, Chile.

Personal Life

Mary Lovelace O'Neal met activist Stokely Carmichael when she was at Howard University. Her first husband was John O'Neal. In 1983, O'Neal met the Chilean painter Patricio Moreno Toro, and they later married.