Alvia Wardlaw
Alvia Wardlaw | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 5, 1947 Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Wellesley College NYU University of Texas Austin |
| Occupation(s) | Art scholar and professor |
| Employer | Texas Southern University |
Alvia J. Wardlaw (born November 5, 1947) is an American art scholar, and one of the country's top experts on African-American art.[1] She is curator and director of the University Museum at Texas Southern University, an institution central to the development of art by African Americans in Houston. She also is a professor of Art History at Texas Southern University. Wardlaw is a member of the Scholarly Advisory Council of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and co-founded the National Alliance of African and African American Art Support groups in 1998.[2] Wardlaw was University of Texas at Austin's first African-American PhD in Art History.[3]
Career
[edit]From 1995 to 2009, Wardlaw was curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, where she organized more than 75 exhibitions on African and African-American art.[4] She was adjunct curator of African-American Art at the Dallas Museum of Art in 1994. Her exhibition The Quilts of Gee's Bend, a collection of quilts by outstanding quilters from Alabama, broke attendance records at major museums across the 11 cities to which it traveled[2] and was one of the most talked-about museum shows of 2002 in America and beyond. She has presented exhibitions that added to the American art canon the work of major, previously undercelebrated African-American artists, in particular John Biggers, Thornton Dial and Kermit Oliver.[5] Her own photographs were also shown across Texas.
Personal life
[edit]Born in Atlanta, Georgia, she grew up and lives in Third Ward, Houston, Texas.[6][7]
Education
[edit]Wardlaw received a B.A. degree in Art History from Wellesley College in 1969.[8] In 1986, she earned an M.A. degree in Art History from the New York University Institute of Fine Arts.[8] In 1996, she received a Ph.D. degree in Art History from the University of Texas at Austin.[8]
Exhibitions curated
[edit]- 2006: Thorton Dial in the 21st Century, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, exhibit and catalogue[9]
- 2002–2006: The Quilts of Gees Bend – 11 cities
- Our New Day Begun: African American Artists Entering the Millennium, exhibition catalogue, LBJ Library and Museum
- Roy DeCarava: Photographs, exhibition and exhibition catalogue, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
- Ceremonies and Visions: The Art of John Biggers
- Homecoming. African American Family History in Georgia
- John Biggers: Bridges
- 1995: John Biggers: View from the Upper Room, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
- 2005: Notes from a Child's Odyssey: The Art of Kermit Oliver, Museum of Fine Arts Houston
- 2008: Houston Collects: African American Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Wardlaw has historicized John Biggers' art philosophy, based in large part on his travels to Africa and his celebration of the African-American community, his legacy and impact on student artists who studied with him, and his impact upon the modern art world.[10] She has mentored countless students of color to pursue careers in the museum field, ranging from curatorial to conservation positions.
Writing
[edit]- Dominique de Menil asked her to write an essay for the groundbreaking exhibition The De Luxe Show, August 22, 1971, pairing the works of notable white and black artists.
- The exhibition Handcrafted, an early show at the Studio Museum [in Harlem, 1972].
- The Art of John Biggers: View from the Upper Room (with essays by Edmund Barry Gaither, Alison de Lima Greene, and Robert Farris Thompson), Museum of Fine Arts (Houston, TX), 1995.
- (Editor) Grant Hill, Something All Our Own: The Grant Hill Collection of African American Art, Duke University Press (Durham, NC), 2004.
- Notes from a Child's Odyssey: The Art of Kermit Oliver, Museum of Fine Arts (Houston, TX), 2005.
- Charles Alston, Pomegranate (Petaluma, CA), 2007.
- Also author of Black Art, Ancestral Legacy: The African Impulse in African-American Art, as an accompaniment to the exhibition. Contributor of articles and poetry to various publications, including The Black Scholar.[11]
- Collecting African American Art: the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, 2009.[12]
Awards
[edit]- Fulbright Fellowship in West Africa, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Senegal in 1984
- Fulbright Award for study in Tanzania, East Africa in 1997[13]
- Senior Fellow for the 2001 American Leadership Forum
- Texas Women's Hall of Fame in 1994
- Award of Merit from the University of Texas at Austin
- Ethos Founders Award from Wellesley College
- African American Living Legend by African-American News and Issues
- Texas Southern University's Research Scholar of the Year in 2009.
- In addition, Black Art Ancestral Legacy was named Best Exhibition of 1990 by D Magazine, and The Quilts of Gee's Bend received the International Association of Art Critics Award in 2003.[7]
References
[edit]- ^ Chen, Wei-Huan (September 24, 2016). "Houston stories central in Smithsonian's new African American museum". www.houstonchronicle.com. Retrieved May 11, 2019.
- ^ a b "Alumnae Achievement Awards 2010: Alvia Wardlaw '69". Wellesley College Alumnae Association. Retrieved September 23, 2020.
- ^ "Living Legend: Alvia J. Wardlaw". Afram News. June 9, 2019. Retrieved August 31, 2020.
- ^ Danilowitz, Brenda (July 1991). "Exhibitions of Contemporary South African Art". African Arts. 24 (3): 12. doi:10.2307/3336919. ISSN 0001-9933. JSTOR 3336919.
- ^ Anspon, Catherine D. (August 7, 2016). "A Pioneering African-American Art Force Changes Houston and Museums Everywhere: Why Isn't She Better Known?". PaperCity Magazine. Retrieved May 11, 2019.
- ^ Sewing, Joy (May 21, 2016). "She nurtures culture through art". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved February 15, 2025.
- ^ a b "Alvia Wardlaw". The HistoryMakers. Retrieved February 15, 2025.
- ^ a b c KTRK (February 28, 2018). "Woman of the Week: Dr. Alvia Wardlaw, director and curator of TSU's University Museum". ABC13 Houston. Retrieved May 25, 2020.
- ^ "Thornton Dial in the 21st Century at MFAH". artdaily.com. Retrieved May 11, 2019.
- ^ "San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts to host lecture on African American artist John Biggers". San Angelo. Retrieved May 11, 2019.
- ^ "Wardlaw, Alvia J." www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved May 11, 2019.
- ^ Franklin, John Hope; Alvia J. Wardlaw (2009). Collecting African American art : the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. ISBN 9780300152913. OCLC 269282205.
- ^ Wardlaw, Alvia; Rowell, Charles Henry (2009). "An Interview with Alvia Wardlaw". Callaloo. 32 (1): 261–276. doi:10.1353/cal.0.0393. ISSN 0161-2492. JSTOR 27655115. S2CID 161566300.
External links
[edit]- "Close-Up on 'Black Art in Houston': An Interview with Alvia Wardlaw", Intown Magazine, August 18, 2020.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
- 1947 births
- Living people
- 20th-century African-American women writers
- 20th-century African-American writers
- 20th-century American historians
- 20th-century American women writers
- 21st-century African-American academics
- 21st-century African-American women writers
- 21st-century African-American writers
- 21st-century American academics
- 21st-century American historians
- 21st-century American women writers
- Academics from Houston
- African-American curators
- African-American historians
- American art curators
- American art historians
- American curators
- American women academics
- American women art historians
- American women curators
- Historians from Texas
- New York University Institute of Fine Arts alumni
- Texas Southern University faculty
- University of Texas at Austin alumni
- Wellesley College alumni