WhitfieldLOVELL(b. 1959)Whitfield Lovell is best known for his installations that incorporatemasterful Conte crayon portraits of anonymous African Americansfrom between the Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil RightsMovement eras. Lovell uses vintage photography to find hissubjects, and then draws their portraits on aged wooden panels,often pairing the drawings with found objects that connect thesubject to former generations. He creates the drawings in pencil,oil stick, or charcoal.Whitfield Lovell was born in the Bronx, New York, to an elementaryschool teacher mother and postal clerk/photographer father ofWest Indian descent. He attended the High School of Music andArt in Manhattan, and earned a bachelor’s of fine arts degreeat the Cooper Union School of Art in 1981. It was during a 1977trip to Europe that he decided he would focus on painting, as aVelasquez painting “spoke to him,” he says. Lovell reconsideredthe nature of his work in 1985 while attending the SkowheganSchool of Painting and Sculpture, and he began workingmonochromatically and using old photographs as inspiration.Influenced by Jacob Lawrence and Horace Pippin, as well asMexican and West Indian folk art, Lovell often also examines hisown heritage through his work.WHITFIELD LOVELLBUY THINGS YOU LIKEThere are two ways to collect. One is to be verydisciplined and decide exactly what you wantto collect and collect with precision. Successfulcollections are often formed that way. We are notthat kind of collector. We once had dinner with theeditor of an art magazine, and he sat there andtalked to Susan for a while. When he stood up tomake a speech, he said, “I just want to say that Iam sitting here at dinner and I have heard the bestcollecting philosophy that I can think of. Mrs. Goodetold me that she just buys what she likes.” We gotto know Whitfield through Bridget Moore’s galleryand the entire exhibition he did for the Virginia BeachContemporary Art Center. He fascinated us evenbefore he was a certified MacArthur genius. We haveother works, but the work from the Kin series subtitled(Revolution) that has model train cars running ona circular track just seems to be made for a railroadfamily.–Susan S. and David R. GoodeInteresting Lovell Fact:Whitfield Lovell’s first installation piece was on the walls of Villa Val Lemme in Capriatta d’Orba, Italy, in 1993.Lovell dignified the walls of the former slave trader site by painting an image of a highly distinguished Black person.43 |
It seems that your browser's pop-up blocker has prevented us from opening a new window/tab. Please click the button below to open the link manually.
