Whitfield Lovell facts for kids

Whitfield Lovell (born October 2, 1959) is a modern African-American artist. He is best known for his drawings of African-American people from the early 1900s. Lovell creates these drawings using pencil, oil stick, or charcoal. He draws on paper, wood, or even directly on walls. In his newer artworks, he often puts these drawings with found objects. He finds these objects at flea markets and antique shops.

Becoming an Artist

Whitfield Lovell was born on October 2, 1959, in the Bronx, New York. His mother, Gladys Glover Lovell, was a teacher from South Carolina. His father, Allister Lovell, was a postal worker and photographer from Barbados. Whitfield grew up in the Bronx and went to The High School of Music and Art in Manhattan. While in high school, he also took part in many art programs. These included programs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum.

In 1977, Lovell traveled to Spain to study painting and sculpture. He was with Manhattanville College. At El Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain, he decided to become a painter. Lovell said that standing in front of a Velasquez painting gave him a powerful feeling. He felt the painter was talking to him across time. He then understood what an artist's job was. He felt that other famous painters like Goya and Picasso were also speaking to him. He knew then that he wanted to be an artist.

Lovell spent a year at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore in 1977. After that, he traveled through many countries in Europe in 1978. When he came back to New York, he studied at the Parsons School of Design. He then went to The Cooper Union School of Art, where he finished in 1981. In 1982, Lovell traveled to Egypt, Nigeria, and Benin in West Africa.

In 1985, Lovell attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. There, he thought deeply about his art. He felt that using many colors in his art was getting in the way of the stories he wanted to tell. So, he started using fewer colors, mostly black and white. He had his father's old photos sent to him. He looked at these photos every day before starting work. His art became more personal and showed how he saw himself as an artist. This idea of using old photos as inspiration is still part of his work today.

In 1986, Lovell visited relatives in Barbados. In 1989, he went to the New York University (NYU) program in Venice, Italy. In 1990, he traveled to Mexico. There, he started collecting ex-votos and retablos, which are types of folk art. He said these influenced his work. He was drawn to folk art because it was more about telling stories than making "high art." He felt that artists from Latin America mixed European styles with a different, more passionate feeling. He liked their focus on religious and social stories.

In 1994, Lovell's art was shown in Ecuador. It was part of a big international painting show.

Art Installations

In 1993, Lovell visited a private art place in Italy. The house had been built by a slave trader a long time ago. Lovell saw old paintings of Africans with nose rings on the ceilings. The building's coat of arms also had an African face. Some older local people remembered Black people who had lived there. Lovell realized the slave trader had continued his business even after it was illegal.

Whitfield Lovell, 2 8 M, 2008

Because of this history, Lovell created drawings directly on the walls of the house. These were site-specific drawings, meaning they were made for that exact place. He drew a respectful image of a Black person. This was Lovell's first installation piece. An installation is a type of art that fills a space.

In 1995, Lovell created his second installation in Houston, Texas. It was called Echo. He made it at Project Row Houses, which uses old, empty houses for art. Lovell said that working directly on the wall at the Italian villa made him want to do more installations. The old houses in Houston were perfect for exploring his ideas about old photos of unknown people.

Whispers From the Walls was Lovell's fourth installation, made in 1999. He built a house from old wooden boards with peeling paint. He covered the floors with soil and old clothes. Visitors walked through these. Inside, there was a room with furniture, clothes, and personal items. Sounds also filled the room. On the inside walls, he drew life-size charcoal pictures of people. This art show traveled to the Seattle Art Museum and the Studio Museum in Harlem.

Portrayals started in 2000. It included nineteen tableaux, which are like scenes or arrangements.

Visitation: The Richmond Project focused on Jackson Ward in Richmond, Virginia. This was a historic African-American neighborhood. It was known as the first major Black business community in the U.S. This artwork traveled to several places, including Australia.

SANCTUARY: The Great Dismal Swamp was inspired by stories of runaway slaves. They hid in or escaped through the huge Great Dismal Swamp. Lovell visited the swamp to get ideas. He said standing quietly and listening to the sounds of crickets and cicadas was important. For the artwork, he put thirty trees in the gallery. The floor was covered with mulch. There were sounds of crickets, cicadas, and barking dogs. Twelve basins with water and washboards were placed around the room. Faces of people looked out from the water. Many images and objects that showed human life were under the water. This showed how the history of those who hid in the swamp seemed almost lost.

Tableaux Artworks

In 1997, Lovell created his first tableaux artworks. He was at an art program in Mount Desert, Maine. These artworks combined charcoal drawings on old wood panels with found objects.

Kin Series

The Kin Series (2008 - 2011) is a group of sixty artworks. Each one has a portrait drawing in Conte crayon on paper. These are combined with found objects. Sometimes the objects overlap the drawing and cast shadows. The drawing and object are then put in a frame with glass and black metal.

This series started with a drawing of a young boy from a photo-booth picture. Lovell said the boy's face was very moving. His eyes and mouth looked like he was about to cry. Lovell felt he had to capture that feeling.

For this series, Lovell used different kinds of photos. Instead of old studio portraits, he used mug shots, passport photos, and photo-booth pictures. Lovell said these photos showed people who were lit more harshly. They weren't made up, and the photos were not changed. He felt there was often a feeling of not wanting to be photographed in their faces. He saw these qualities as more honest. In contrast, the people in his older studio portraits looked very elegant and posed. They had chosen how they wanted to appear.

Collecting Objects

Lovell's Tableaux and Kin Series use many old objects. This shows his love for collecting. Lovell said he started collecting hands after he was already using hands in his art. The more he learned about what hands symbolize, the more excited he was to keep using them. He also started collecting crayon portraits at the same time. He said there was always a reason for him to want certain objects more than others. He tries to collect things that help his art.

Passages Exhibition

In February 2023, a major art show called Whitfield Lovell: Passages opened. It was at the Boca Raton Museum of Art in Boca Raton, Florida. This was the biggest show of Lovell's work so far. It included his installations Visitations: The Richmond Project and Deep River, shown together for the first time. It also featured works from the Kin series and Card Pieces (2019-2020).

That summer, the show traveled to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. It then went to the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, the Cincinnati Art Museum, and the Mint Museum Uptown. The exhibit will end at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas. It starts on October 23, 2024, and runs until February 19, 2025. This final stop will include The Reds (2021-2022), Lovell's newest series. These works are on deep red paper. They include two working telephones. Museum visitors can pick up the receiver to hear the hymn Lift Every Voice and Sing.

Awards and Recognition

Whitfield Lovell has received many awards for his art:

• 1982 Jerome Foundation Fellowship
• 1985 Eastman Scholarship to the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture
• 1986 Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop Fellowship
• 1986 New York State Council on the Arts Grant
• 1987 New York State Council on the Arts Grant
• 1990 Penny McCall Foundation Grant
• 2003 Richard C. Diebenkorn Fellowship
• 2007 MacArthur Fellows Program
• 2009 Malvina Hoffman Artists Fund Prize
• 2009 Nancy Graves Grant for Visual Artists
• 2014 National Academy Award for Excellence

Art Collections

Lovell's artwork is kept in many important art collections. These include:

• Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland
• Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York
• Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, New York
• Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City, New York
• National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
• National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.
• Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington
• Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
• Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, New York
• Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York
• Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut

Solo Exhibitions

Whitfield Lovell has had many solo art shows, where only his work is displayed. Some of these include:

• 1999-2005 Whispers From the Walls - An Installation by Whitfield Lovell, which traveled to many museums across the U.S.
• 2000–02 Portrayals, shown at the Neuberger Museum of Art and other locations.
• 2001–04 Visitation: The Richmond Project, which also toured widely.
• 2002 SANCTUARY: The Great Dismal Swamp, An Installation by Whitfield Lovell, at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art.
• 2003 GRACE: A Project by Whitfield Lovell, at the Bronx Museum of the Arts.
• 2016 Whitfield Lovell: The Kin Series and Related Works, at The Phillips Collection.
• 2017 Inbox: Whitfield Lovell, at The Museum of Modern Art.
• 2023-2025 Whitfield Lovell: Passages, a major traveling exhibition.

Group Exhibitions

Lovell's work has also been part of many group art shows with other artists.

• 2021 The Black Index (online only), at the University of California, Irvine.
• 2024 Drawing, at David Klein Gallery, Detroit, Michigan.

Books and Catalogues

Many books and exhibition catalogues have been published about Whitfield Lovell's art. These books often include pictures of his work and essays by art experts. They help people learn more about his ideas and creative process.