Richard J. Powell
Professor in the Department of African and African American Studies
Overview
Richard J. Powell is John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art & Art History at Duke University, where he has taught since 1989. He studied at Morehouse College and Howard University before earning his doctorate in art history at Yale University. Along with teaching courses in American art, the arts of the African Diaspora, and contemporary visual studies, he has written extensively on topics ranging from primitivism to postmodernism, including such titles as Homecoming: The Art and Life of William H. Johnson (1991), Black Art: A Cultural History (1997 & 2002), and Cutting a Figure: Fashioning Black Portraiture (2008).
Powell, R. J. “Conjuring Canes and Bible Quilts: Through the Prism of Nineteenth Century African American Spirituality.” African Americans and the Bible: Sacred Texts and Social Textures, edited by Vincent L. Wimbush, New York: Continuum, 2000, pp. 342–54.
Powell, R. J. “Lamentations from the ‘Hood.” Kerry James Marshall/Mementos, Chicago: The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, 2000, pp. 31–47.
Powell, R. J. “The Blues Aesthetic: Black Culture and Modernism.” African American Literary Criticism, 1773 to 2000, edited by Hazel Arnett Ervin, New York: Twayne Publishers, 289-302, 1999.
Pages
Powell, R. J. “Houston Conwill.” Neworld, Feb. 1979.
Powell, R. J. “Talking to James Lesesne Wells.” Print Review, vol. 9, 1979, pp. 65–75.
Powell, R. J. “Images and Identities: A Brief, Introductory Note.” The International Review of African American Art, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 6–6.
Powell, R. J. “Journeying Beyond: The Prints and Paintings of Joyce Wellman.” The International Review of African American Art, vol. 10, no. 3.