Page 10 - Boca Club News - February '23

Page 10, Boca Club News
“Whitfield Lovell: Passages” Major Exhibit

at Boca Museum of Art February 15th - May 21st

The first stop on a national tour of the landmark exhibition, principles say it takes seven
“Whitfield Lovell: Passages” is in South Florida at the Boca generations to overcome a
Raton Museum of Art (February 15th – May 21st), and will tragedy, so in this context of
continue across six states throughout the American South generations we can begin to
and Midwest. This is the largest exhibition ever presented of grasp why we are at this point
Lovell’s work that focuses on lost African American history we are living in now,” he adds.
and raises universal questions about America’s collective This passage of time, with its
heritage. love, loss, despair, danger,
Organized by the American Federation of Arts in and freedom, comes to life
collaboration with the artist, the exhibition is supported by the via the artists’s otherworldly,
National Endowment for the Arts and the Terra Foundation for ghostly realms–demonstrating
American Art, and encompasses the entire first floor galleries ongoing reverberations in our
of the Boca Raton Museum of Art (7,500 square feet). This is contemporary existence.
the first time these multi-sensory installations by Lovell are Works by Lovell are featured
presented together in a museum-wide show of this monumental in the permanent collections of
size and scope. major museums, including: the
“These installations create a profound immersive Whitney Museum of American
experience that enables visitors to become participants in, not Art, NY; the Metropolitan
just observers of, the experience of these ancestors who were Museum of Art, NY; the
lost to time,” says Pauline Forlenza, the Director and CEO of Smithsonian American Art
American Federation of Arts. “Together, these works convey Museum, DC; the Smithsonian Visitation: The Richmond Project, 2001, Parlor
passages between bondage, freedom and socioeconomic National Museum of African
independence, promoting a deeper connection with African American History and Culture, DC; Pennsylvania Academy of me as a young Black man wanting to be an artist, a decision I
American histories through art. An exhibition of this magnitude the Fine Arts, PA; the Yale University Art Gallery; the Hunter made when I was very young at the age of 13,” says Lovell. “I
would not be possible without the support of the National Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN; The Brooklyn didn’t have a lot of examples telling me that being an artist was
Endowment for the Arts, the Terra Foundation for American Museum, NY; the Studio Museum in Harlem, NY; Seattle Art something that I could do. When I came along in the art world,
Art, and the six museums selected for this tour.” Museum, WA, and many others. Black people didn’t have gallery representation; we made art
Lovell is the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation The accompanying catalog for this national tour, published because we felt strongly that we had to make art. We found a way
Fellowship Genius Grant, and is recognized as one of the by Rizzoli Electa, features groundbreaking scholarship and a to make art.” Fast-forward to now, and one of Oprah Winfrey’s
world’s leading artistic interpreters of lost African American fresh examination of Lovell’s work with essays by esteemed most treasured artworks is Lovell’s tableau entitled “Having,”
history. The internationally acclaimed artist is celebrated for scholars Bridget R. Cooks and Cheryl Finley. “This is a which she has kept in her office for decades (the wall-length
his exquisitely hand-drawn portraits (many are life-sized), milestone exhibition, and the Boca Raton Museum of Art is charcoal image of two African American women features three
drawn with Conté crayons, from historic photos he finds of honored to be chosen as the first venue to premiere this national vintage wood boxes filled with pennies, added by the artist).
anonymous individuals, which the artist combines with his museum tour,” says Irvin Lippman, the Executive Director of “These women were early entrepreneurs. I have looked at this
intuitive assemblage of time-worn objects to raise universal the Boca Raton Museum of Art. “In our modern-day world, every day from my desk for years, to remind me and inspire me
questions about memory, American life, and reclaiming lost so feverishly focused on ever-decreasing attention spans, the that, yes, it can be done,” Oprah Winfrey told the Los Angeles
history that had been erased. depth of presence we experience when walking through Lovell’s Times about Lovell’s artwork.
The works in this exhibition are anchored by images of immersive art reminds us that remembering the past is something
everyday African Americans, from the 1860s to the 1950s, that matters.” The national tour features important loans from Honoring the Memory of their
between the Emancipation Proclamation and the start of several museums, including the recent acquisition by the Boca Suffering and Perseverance
the Civil Rights Movement, a period of time the artist feels Raton Museum of Art of Lovell’s artwork entitled The Red XIII, Lovell’s hand-drawing virtuosity is rare in today’s world
has been overlooked by the art world. “I see the so-called and loans from the Bronx Museum of the Arts; Richmond’s of technologically aided artmaking. The meticulously physical
‘anonymous’ people in these vintage photographs as being Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; the Mott-Warsh Collection in back-and-forth process is how the artist honors the person’s
stand-ins for the ancestors I will never know,” says Whitfield Flint, Michigan, and several private collectors. Several of the memory and existence: he applies the charcoal, rubs it with his
Lovell. “I see history as being very much alive. loans for this tour were facilitated, and some were directly loaned fingers to get the right tone, and then erases some to create the
“One day, 100 years from now, people will be talking about by, New York’s DC Moore Gallery on behalf of the artist. highlights.
us as history. The way I think about time is very different. I don’t “Drawing by hand is always a particular pleasure for me,”
think it really was very long ago that these things happened, Investigating the Circularity of Life says Lovell. “Hand-drawing from the vintage photograph
it wasn’t that long ago that my grandmother’s grandmother Lovell’s interest in spirituality, healing and ritual, together provokes the viewer to look more closely at the subject matter
was a slave,” adds Lovell. “The ancient Native American with his use of reclaimed and found objects, aromas, music and to contemplate it more.”
and sound, has long informed his practice, which investigates
Editor ............................................................................ Nils A. Shapiro the circularity of life. “There were not a lot of role models for “Whitfield Lovell: Passages” Major Exhibit on page 11

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