John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art 2020, A Tribute to David C. Driskell: Media Collection

David C. Driskell, artist, curator, and Distinguished University Professor of Art, Emeritus, University of Maryland, College Park; and Curlee R. Holton, artist and director, David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland, College Park

The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora organized the Living Legacy National Speaking Tour to present, celebrate, and document the achievements and legacy of its founder, David C. Driskell (b. 1931). This tour, a series of conversations between Driskell and Curlee R. Holton, highlights his contributions as an artist, scholar, and cultural historian and the contributions of African American artists to the country’s artistic heritage. Driskell has lived through and witnessed firsthand the dynamic historic changes that define America’s contemporary cultural landscape. In addition to Driskell’s singular accomplishments, he is a gifted and inspiring speaker whose personal narrative brings with it an intimate and powerful voice. The National Gallery of Art provided a Washington, DC, venue for the national tour on September 22, 2019.

David C. Driskell, artist, curator, and Distinguished University Professor of Art, Emeritus, University of Maryland, College Park; and Curlee R. Holton, artist and director, David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland, College Park

The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora organized the Living Legacy National Speaking Tour to present, celebrate, and document the achievements and legacy of its founder, David C. Driskell (b. 1931). This tour, a series of conversations between Driskell and Curlee R. Holton, highlights his contributions as an artist, scholar, and cultural historian and the contributions of African American artists to the country’s artistic heritage. Driskell has lived through and witnessed firsthand the dynamic historic changes that define America’s contemporary cultural landscape. In addition to Driskell’s singular accomplishments, he is a gifted and inspiring speaker whose personal narrative brings with it an intimate and powerful voice. The National Gallery of Art provided a Washington, DC, venue for the national tour on September 22, 2019.

David C. Driskell, artist, curator, and Distinguished University Professor of Art, Emeritus, University of Maryland at College Park. Archibald Motley Jr.’s paintings of African American subjects underwent drastic changes in style and reception during the artist’s long lifetime. After including Motley’s paintings in his Two Centuries of Black American Art exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1976, David Driskell visited Motley at his home in 1979 and 1980. Speaking at the second annual John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art, held on March 23, 2018, at the National Gallery of Art, David Driskell presents his recollections of those conversations as well as other impressions of Motley’s work formed during Driskell’s career as an art historian and curator. The John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art is made possible by a grant from the Walton Family Foundation.

David C. Driskell, artist, curator, and Distinguished University Professor of Art, Emeritus, University of Maryland at College Park. Archibald Motley Jr.’s paintings of African American subjects underwent drastic changes in style and reception during the artist’s long lifetime. After including Motley’s paintings in his Two Centuries of Black American Art exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1976, David Driskell visited Motley at his home in 1979 and 1980. Speaking at the second annual John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art, held on March 23, 2018, at the National Gallery of Art, David Driskell presents his recollections of those conversations as well as other impressions of Motley’s work formed during Driskell’s career as an art historian and curator. The John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art is made possible by a grant from the Walton Family Foundation.

Lilian Thomas Burwell, Floyd Coleman, David C. Driskell, Sam Gilliam, Keith A. Morrison, Martin Puryear, Sylvia Snowden, and Lou Stovall; Ruth Fine, moderator and former curator of special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art. In this program, presented on March 17, 2017, eight distinguished artists discuss their careers and relationships as members of the Washington, DC, art world. Panelists are Lilian Thomas Burwell, Floyd Coleman, David C. Driskell, Sam Gilliam, Keith A. Morrison, Martin Puryear, Sylvia Snowden, and Lou Stovall. Ruth Fine, former curator of special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art, moderated the panel, which was part of a two-day symposium at the National Gallery of Art. The program was organized by the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts in collaboration with the Howard University Gallery of Art and was supported by the Wyeth Foundation for American Art.

In this program, presented on March 17, 2017, eight distinguished artists discuss their careers and relationships as members of the Washington, DC, art world. Panelists are Lilian Thomas Burwell, Floyd Coleman, David C. Driskell, Sam Gilliam, Keith A. Morrison, Martin Puryear, Sylvia Snowden, and Lou Stovall. Ruth Fine, former curator of special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art, moderated the panel, which was part of a two-day symposium at the National Gallery of Art. The program was organized by the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts in collaboration with the Howard University Gallery of Art and was supported by the Wyeth Foundation for American Art.

David C. Driskell, artist, curator, and Distinguished University Professor of Art, Emeritus, University of Maryland at College Park; Ellington Robinson, artist, professorial lecturer of painting at American University, and professorial lecturer of drawing at Montgomery College, Takoma Park. David C. Driskell is the only speaker in National Gallery of Art history to participate in programming as an artist, collector, and scholar. In this conversation recorded on November 1, 2015, Driskell returns to discuss the role of the mentor with artist Ellington Robinson. Both artists present the genesis and evolution of their work, sharing their experience with important mentors and their training together at the University of Maryland, College Park. This program is held in collaboration with the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland, College Park. The discussion coincides with New Arrivals 2015: Collecting Contemporary Art at the University of Maryland, an exhibition featuring Robinson’s work that was on view at the Stamp Gallery from September 21 through December 18, 2015.

David C. Driskell, artist, curator, and Distinguished University Professor of Art, Emeritus, University of Maryland at College Park; Ellington Robinson, artist, professorial lecturer of painting at American University, and professorial lecturer of drawing at Montgomery College, Takoma Park. David C. Driskell is the only speaker in National Gallery of Art history to participate in programming as an artist, collector, and scholar. In this conversation recorded on November 1, 2015, Driskell returns to discuss the role of the mentor with artist Ellington Robinson. Both artists present the genesis and evolution of their work, sharing their experience with important mentors and their training together at the University of Maryland, College Park. This program is held in collaboration with the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland, College Park. The discussion coincides with New Arrivals 2015: Collecting Contemporary Art at the University of Maryland, an exhibition featuring Robinson’s work that was on view at the Stamp Gallery from September 21 through December 18, 2015.

Panel discussion includes David Bindman, emeritus professor of the history of art, University College London; David C. Driskell, artist, collector, curator, and emeritus professor of art history, University of Maryland at College Park; Ruth Fine, curator (1972–2012), National Gallery of Art; Richard J. Powell, John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art and Art History, Duke University; and Sharmila Sen, executive editor-at-large, Harvard University Press. Moderated by Faya Causey, head of academic programs, National Gallery of Art

In the 1960s, art collector and philanthropist Dominique de Menil began a research project and photo archive called The Image of the Black in Western Art. Through the collaboration of Harvard University Press and the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, the project nears its completion. This panel discussion commemorates the publication of the penultimate volume of the series, The Image of the Black in Western Art: The Twentieth Century: The Impact of Africa (vol. 5, part 1). The last two volumes in the series mark the 20th-century transition from the depiction of people of African descent by others to their self-representation in the US and elsewhere. In this program recorded on February 23, 2014, at the National Gallery of Art, the panelists discuss the implications of this dramatic shift in the emphasis of the volumes.

David C. Driskell, artist, collector, and emeritus professor of art history, University of Maryland at College Park, and Ruth Fine, consulting curator of special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art. Highly respected as an artist, art historian, curator, and teacher, David C. Driskell's life as a collector is less well known. In this event recorded on February 12, 2012, as part of the National Gallery of Art lecture series The Collecting of African American Art, David C. Driskell and Ruth Fine discuss publicly for the first time the expansive range of his art acquisitions, which he started to collect during his years as an art student at Howard University in Washington, DC. Among the treasures in Driskell's collection are old master and modern European prints, antique rugs, African sculpture, and works by African American masters from the 19th century through the present.

David C. Driskell, professor emeritus, University of Maryland at College Park; Ruth Fine, curator of special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art; and Julie L. McGee, Rockefeller Humanities Fellow, Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Smithsonian Institution and author of David C. Driskell: Artist and Scholar. To celebrate the publication of David C. Driskell: Artist and Scholar, Ruth Fine and Julie L. McGee discuss the first biography and comprehensive monograph of his work with David C. Driskell. In this podcast recorded on April 14, 2007, at the National Gallery of Art, the participants share the collaborative process behind writing the book, which traces Driskell's personal, artistic, and scholarly journey. A pioneer in establishing the study of African American art within the canon of American art criticism and theory, Driskell is also an artist whose work approaches questions of nature and culture, African and African American heritage, spirituality, family, and other subjects.

David C. Driskell, artist, collector, and emeritus professor of art history, University of Maryland at College Park; in conversation with Ruth Fine, consulting curator of special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art. Following The Art of Romare Bearden, on view at the National Gallery of Art from September 14, 2003, through January 4, 2004, exhibition curator Ruth Fine joined lenders David C. Driskell and Frank Stewart to discuss another collaboration- their visual biography of the artist. Bearden (1911-1988) worked closely with Stewart from 1975 until his death and allowed Stewart to photograph him in his studio, at art-related events, and during his personal time. The resulting book, Romare Bearden, contains introductory texts by Driskell and Fine as well as an interview Fine conducted with Stewart that serves as running commentary alongside the book's images. In this Conversations with Artists program recorded on December 11, 2004, the collaborators discuss their relationship with Bearden, the Gallery's Bearden exhibition, and the newly published visual biography.

Ruth Fine, curator of special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art. Panel discussion includes Spiral artists Emma Amos, Reginald Gammon, and Richard Mayhew; Camille Billops, Hatch-Billops Collection; Floyd Coleman, professor of art, Howard University; moderated by Mary Schmidt Campbell, dean, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. In celebration of The Art of Romare Bearden exhibition, on view September 14, 2003, through January 4, 2004, at the National Gallery of Art, Ruth Fine illuminates the artist’s career, placing his extraordinary oeuvre in the context of his times. A panel discussion follows, featuring original members of Spiral—a group of African American artists, including Bearden, who gathered in the 1960s in response to the civil rights movement. Drawn from more than 85 museums and private collections, this comprehensive retrospective features 131 works, from paintings, drawings, and watercolors, to monotypes and edition prints, collages, photostats, wood sculpture, designs for record albums, costumes, stage sets, and book illustrations

David C. Driskell, artist, curator, and professor of art, University of Maryland, College Park. On January 11, 1990, the National Gallery of Art announced an initiative to address the underrepresentation of minorities—particularly African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans—in the museum profession. In response, David Driskell presented a lecture at the Gallery on February 11, 1990, on multi-cultural representation in art museum collections and exhibitions and among staff and visitors. Unresolved issues in our cultural history raise questions about why the arts have been divided along racial lines—if, as Driskell observes, all art emanates from the salient desire to express the inner urges of the human spirit. This quality we all possess is colorless, classless, and uncluttered by feelings of racial superiority. The insistence on dividing art in the United States along racial lines demonstrates a response different in both thought and action than that seen in older cultures and ancient societies. Driskell hopes that these impending initiatives allow us to enter the 21st century with a more holistic view of our history and the cultural pluralism that is the privilege of this nation.