Talk: Richard J. Powell on Jean-Michel Basquiat

FREE

All free passes have been claimed, but take heart! Our walk-up line will open at 5 PM in the Lobby. We’ll try our best to welcome everyone who shows up.

We strongly recommend claiming a ticket to ensure your seat. This in-person program is expected to be at capacity.
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Distinguished author and art historian Richard J. Powell explores the life and lasting legacy of Jean-Michel Basquiat, one of the most significant artists of the twentieth century, whose work remains a pivotal source of inspiration for artists today.

This program is presented in tandem with Basquiat × Banksy, a focused exhibition that presents a pair of monumental artworks: Basquiat’s Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump (1982) and Banksy’s sharp-witted response, Banksquiat. Boy and Dog in Stop and Search (2018). The installation introduces global street art traditions such as appropriation, layering, and homage. On view concurrently with OSGEMEOS: Endless Story, a full-floor survey, this petite exhibition provides historical context for Basquiat’s and Banksy’s pathbreaking for contemporary artists such as OSGEMEOS, as they brought street art and collaborations into mainstream and art-world cultures.

 

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Richard J. Powell is the Distinguished John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art & Art History at Duke University, where he has taught since 1989. After receiving his BA at Morehouse College, he earned his MFA from Howard University in 1977. After a brief teaching stint at Norfolk State University, he entered Yale University, where he received an MA in African American studies and a MPhil and PhD in art history. While attending Yale, Powell was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship, which enabled him to conduct dissertation research in Copenhagen’s National Museum of Denmark and throughout several Scandinavian countries. A recognized authority on African American art and culture, Powell has organized numerous art exhibitions and 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, 2021), Cutting a Figure: Fashioning Black Portraiture (2008), and Going There: Black Visual Satire (2020). From 2007 until 2010, Powell was editor-in-chief of the Art Bulletin, the world’s leading English-language art-history journal. Among numerous awards and fellowships, Powell received the Lawrence A. Fleischman Award for Scholarly Excellence in the Field of American Art History from the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art in 2013, and in 2016, he was honored at the College Art Association’s Annual Conference as the year’s Distinguished Scholar. In 2018, Powell was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2021, he accepted membership in the American Philosophical Society. In the spring of 2022, Powell delivered the 71st annual Andrew W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art. The six Mellon lectures, entitled Colorstruck! Painting, Pigment, Affect, are currently being revised for a forthcoming book from Princeton University Press.

 

If you have questions or a request for access services or accommodations that can make your experience more inclusive, please contact hirshhornexperience@si.edu. One to two weeks’ advance notice is recommended but not required.