Books

1. Powell, RJ, Black Art A Cultural History (August, 2021), pp. 360 pages, London: Thames and Hudson, Ltd. (Revised & expanded edition of Black Art & Culture in the 20th Century, 1997; Spanish translation: Arte y Cultura Negros en el Siglo XX, Barcelona: Ediciones Destino, S.A., 1998.)  [abs].
2. Caragol, T; Moss, D; Powell, RJ; Sajet, K, THE OBAMA PORTRAITS (January, 2020), pp. 1-140  [abs].
3. Powell, R, Going There: Black Visual Satire (2020), pp. 240 pages, Yale University Press  [abs].
4. Powell, R, Archibald Motley Jazz Age Modernist (October, 2015)  [abs].
5. Powell, RJ, Rhapsodies in Black: The Art of the Harlem Renaissance (October, 2014), University of California Press .
6. Powell, RJ, African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era and Beyond (2012), pp. 12-33 pages, Washington, DC: Smithsonian American Art Museum .
7. Powell, RJ, Who Am I in This Picture? Amherst College Portraits (2009), pp. 8-15 pages, Amherst College .
8. Powell, RJ, Ras Ishi/Secret Diaries (2009), pp. 19-27 pages, Miller Publishing Company, Ltd. .
9. Powell, RJ, Cutting a Figure Fashioning Black Portraiture (2008), pp. 293 pages, University of Chicago Press  [abs].
10. Powell, RJ, Circle Dance: The Art of John T. Scott (2005), University Press of Mississippi .
11. Powell, RJ, Beauford Delaney: The Color Yellow (2002), High Museum of Art .
12. Powell, RJ, To Conserve a Legacy: American Art from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (1999), MIT Press .
13. Powell, RJ, Jacob Lawrence (1992), New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc. .
14. Powell, RJ, Homecoming: The Art and Life of William H. Johnson (1991), New York: W. W. Norton .
15. Powell, RJ, From the Potomac to the Anacostia: Art and Ideology in the Washington Area (1989), Washington Project for the Arts .
16. Powell, RJ, James Lesesne Wells: Sixty Years in Art (1986), Washington Project for the Arts .

Papers Published

1. Powell, RJ, The NCA������ Code, in Nina Chanel Abney (October, 2025), Monacelli Press  [abs].
2. Powell, RJ, The Art of Raymond Saunders: Colored, in Raymond Saunders: Post No Bills (September, 2025), David Zwirner Books  [abs].
3. Powell, RJ, Black Broad Shoulders, in Theaster Gates Unto Thee (September, 2025), Smart Museum of Art, the University of C  [abs].
4. Powell, RJ, Three Jacksonian-era Portraits of Black Men, in Superfine: Tailoring Black Style (May, 2025), The Metropolitan Museum of Art  [abs].
5. Powell, RJ, Hughie Lee-Smith: Breaking the Fourth Wall, in Karamu Artists Inc Printmaking, Race, and Community (March, 2025), Cleveland Museum of Art  [abs].
6. Powell, RJ, The Boys in the Back Room: Gambling Imagery during the Harlem Renaissance, in The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism (February, 2024), Metropolitan Museum of Art  [abs].
7. Powell, RJ, Audacity and Awesomeness, in Barkley L. Hendricks: Solid! (2024), Skira editone .
8. A Chocolate City Reconsidered, in Beauty Born of Struggle The Art of Black Washington (January, 2023), Ngw-Stud Hist Art  [abs].
9. Powell, RJ, Hurston's Law, or a Philosophy of Display, in Multiplicity Blackness in Contemporary American Collage (2023), First Art Museum  [abs].
10. Pigments and Personas, in Beverly McIver Full Circle (February, 2022), Univ of California Press  [abs].
11. David C. Driskell: Artist, Advocate, and Witness, in David Driskell Icons of Nature and History (February, 2021), Rizzoli Publications  [abs].
12. Caragol, T; Moss, D; Powell, RJ; Sajet, K, The Obama Portraits, in Art History and Beyond, in The Obama Portraits (2020), Princeton University Press .
13. Powell, R, Raymond Saunders, in Among Others Blackness at MoMA, edited by English, D; Barat, C (August, 2019)  [abs].
14. Powell, R, Herve Telemaque, in Among Others: Blackness at MoMA, edited by English, D; Barat, C (2019), Museum of Modern Art .
15. Powell, RJ, The Brown Paper Bag Test, Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art, vol. 2018 no. 42-43 (November, 2018), pp. 234-249, Duke University Press [doi] .
16. Powell, R, Black Parnassus: Chicago in the Interwar Years, in Gordon Parks The New Tide, Early Work 1940-1950, edited by Brookman, P (October, 2018), pp. 259-265, Steidl/Gordon Parks Foundation/National Gallery of Art  [abs].
17. Oliver, VC; Powell, RJ, Reminiscing: Valerie Cassel Oliver and Richard J. Powell in conversation, Callaloo, vol. 40 no. 5 (January, 2017), pp. 53-162 [doi] .
18. Powell, RJ, Who’s Zoomin’ Who?: The Eyes of Donyale Luna, Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art, vol. 2016 no. 38-39 (November, 2016), pp. 14-21, Duke University Press [doi]  [abs].
19. Powell, RJ, TWO PAINTINGS BY WILLIAM H. JOHNSON, in Seductions of Biography (January, 2016), pp. 89-97 [doi] .
20. Powell, RJ, "Porch and Drawl", in Southern Accent: Seeking the American South in Contemporary Art, edited by Lash, M; Schoonmaker, T (2016), pp. 106-119, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University .
21. Powell, RJ, "Wounded Zouave and the Cyrenian Paradigm", in The Civil War in Art and Memory, edited by Savage, K (2016), pp. 65-80, National Gallery of Art .
22. Powell, RJ, "I Talismani di Betye Saar", in Betye Saar: Uneasy Dancer, edited by Marinetti, M (2016), pp. 233-241, Fondazione Prada .
23. Powell, RJ, "Les ames illustrees: W. E. B. Du Bois dans l'art contemporain", in The Color Line: Les Artistes Africains-Americains et La Segregation, edited by Soutif, D (2016), pp. 74-85, Flammarion .
24. Oliver, VC; Powell, RJ, "Richard Powell/'Say it Loud': An Interview with Richard Powell by Valerie Cassel Oliver", Callaloo, vol. 38 no. 4 (2016), pp. 985-995, Johns Hopkins University Press .
25. Powell, RJ, Research and imagine the American "black" art since 2005, Perspective France no. 2 (January, 2015), pp. 81-94, OpenEdition [doi] .
26. Oliver, VC; Powell, R, "Say it loud": An interview with Richard Powell, Callaloo, vol. 38 no. 4 (January, 2015), pp. 985-995 [doi] .
27. Powell, RJ, "Dem Shoes": Thomas Hart Benton's Romance, in American Epics: Thomas Hart Benton and Hollywood, edited by Bailly, A (2015), pp. 83-87, Delmonico Books - Prestel .
28. Powell, RJ, Probability Theory: David Hammons's Money Tree, in Open This End: Contemporary Art from the Collection of Blake Byrne, edited by Wolin, Joseph R., (2015), pp. 42-49, The Skylark Foundation .
29. Powell, RJ, Journeying Beyond: The Prints and Paintings of Joyce Wellman, The International Review of African American Art, vol. 10 no. 3 (October, 2014) .
30. Powell, RJ, Images and Identities: A Brief, Introductory Note, The International Review of African American Art, vol. 11 no. 3 (October, 2014), pp. 6-6 .
31. Powell, RJ, New Negroes, Harlem, and Jazz (1900-1950), in The image of the black in western art, edited by Bindman, D; Gates, HL (2014), pp. 53-104, Harvard University Press .
32. Powell, RJ, Walking on Water: Embodiment, Abstraction, and Black Visuality, in Represent: 200 Years of African American Art in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, edited by Shaw, Gwendolyn DuBois, (2014), pp. 1-19 .
33. Powell, RJ, New Negroes, Harlem, and Jazz (1900-1950), in The Image of the Black in Western Art, V, Part 2: The Twentieth Century, The Rise of Black Artists (2014), pp. 53-104, Harvard University Press .
34. Powell, RJ, Freeman Henry Morris Murray: Emancipation and the Freed in American Sculpture, The Art Bulletin, vol. 95 (December, 2013), pp. 646-649 .
35. Powell, RJ, "Foreword: Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Devotional Memorial", in Tell It with Pride: The 54th Massachusetts Regiment and Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Shaw Memorial, edited by Greenough, S; Anderson, N (2013), pp. xv-185, Yale University Press .
36. Powell, RJ, Emancipation and the Freed in American Sculpture, ART BULLETIN, vol. 95 no. 4 (2013), pp. 646-649 [Gateway.cgi] .
37. Powell, RJ, "Foreword: Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Devotional Memorial", in Tell It with Pride: The 54th Massachusetts Regiment and Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Shaw Memorial (2013), pp. xv-185, Yale University Press .
38. Powell, RJ, "Tanner and Transcendence", in Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit, edited by Marley, AO (2012), pp. 56-65, Berkeley: University of California Press .
39. Powell, RJ, "Herein Lie Buried Many Things: Screens, Entryways and Cabinets in Twentieth-Century Black Visual Discourse", in African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era and Beyond (2012), pp. 12-33, Washington, DC: Smithsonian American Art Museum .
40. Powell, RJ, "Tanner and Transcendence", in Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit (2012), pp. 56-65, Berkeley: University of California Press .
41. Powell, RJ, "Herein Lie Buried Many Things: Screens, Entryways and Cabinets in Twentieth-Century Black Visual Discourse", in African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era and Beyond (2012), pp. 12-33, Washington, DC: Smithsonian American Art Museum .
42. Powell, RJ, "Trembling Vistas, Primal Youth: William H. Johnson’s Painterly Expressionism, 1927-1935" & "Devotion and Disrepute: William H. Johnson’s Florence, South Carolina Paintings, circa 1944", in William H. Johnson: An American Modern (2011), pp. 22-101, University of Washington Press .
43. Powell, RJ, "The Woodshed", in Romare Bearden: American Modernist, edited by Fine, R; Francis, J, vol. 71 (2011), pp. 200-2006, National Gallery of Art [Gateway.cgi] .
44. Powell, RJ, "From Diaspora to Exile: Black Women Artists in 1960s and 1970s Europe", in The Migrant’s Time: Rethinking Art History and Diaspora, edited by Mathur, S (2011), pp. 78-90, Sterling and Francine Clark Institute .
45. Powell, RJ, The Woodshed, STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF ART, vol. 71 (2011), pp. 199-206 .
46. Powell, RJ, DEVOTION AND DISREPUTE William H. Johnson's Florence, South Carolina, Paintings, circa 1944, in WILLIAM H JOHNSON: AN AMERICAN MODERN (2011), pp. 88-101 .
47. Powell, RJ, TREMBLING VISTAS, PRIMAL YOUTH William H. Johnson's Painterly Expressionism, 1927-1935, in WILLIAM H JOHNSON: AN AMERICAN MODERN (2011), pp. 22-39 .
48. Powell, RJ, "From Diaspora to Exile: Black Women Artists in 1960s and 1970s Europe", in The Migrant’s Time: Rethinking Art History and Diaspora (2011), pp. 78-90, Sterling and Francine Clark Institute .
49. Powell, RJ, "Trembling Vistas, Primal Youth: William H. Johnson’s Painterly Expressionism, 1927-1935" & "Devotion and Disrepute: William H. Johnson’s Florence, South Carolina Paintings, circa 1944", in William H. Johnson: An American Modern (2011), pp. 22-101, University of Washington Press .
50. Powell, RJ, "The Woodshed", in Romare Bearden: American Modernist (2011), pp. 200-2006, National Gallery of Art .
51. Powell, RJ, 'Paint That Thing!' Aaron Douglas's Call to Modernism, American Studies, vol. 46 (2010), pp. 107-119 .
52. Powell, RJ, "Unexpected Faces in Public Places", in Who Am I in This Picture? Amherst College Portraits (2009), pp. 8-15, Amherst College .
53. Powell, RJ, "The Systems and Semiotics of Ras Ishi Butcher", in Ras Ishi/Secret Diaries (2009), pp. 19-27, Miller Publishing Company, Ltd. .
54. Powell, RJ, "The Systems and Semiotics of Ras Ishi Butcher", in Ras Ishi/Secret Diaries (2009), pp. 19-27, Miller Publishing Company, Ltd. .
55. Powell, RJ, "Unexpected Faces in Public Places", in Who Am I in This Picture? Amherst College Portraits (2009), pp. 8-15, Amherst College .
56. Powell, RJ, The Picturesque, Miss Nottage and the Caribbean Sublime, Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism, vol. 25 (February, 2008), pp. 157-168 .
57. Powell, RJ, "Barkley L. Hendricks, Anew", in Barkley L. Hendricks/Birth of the Cool, edited by Schoonmaker, T (2008), pp. 38-57, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University .
58. Powell, RJ, PAINT IN THE NAME OF LOVE, INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF AFRICAN AMERICAN ART, vol. 22 no. 2 (2008), pp. 64-65 [Gateway.cgi] .
59. Powell, RJ, "Paesaggio come evasion. Soggezione e affrancamento nelle immagini ottocentesche di afroamericani", in Pittura Americana del XIX secolo: Atti del convegno, edited by Goldin, M; Weinberg, HB (2008), pp. 116-136, Linea d’Ombra Libri .
60. Powell, RJ, "Barkley L. Hendricks, Anew", in Barkley L. Hendricks/Birth of the Cool (2008), pp. 38-57, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University .
61. Powell, RJ, "The Aaron Douglas Effect", in Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist, edited by Earle, S (2007), pp. 53-73, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT .
62. Powell, RJ; Powell, RJ; Puryear, M, "A Conversation with Martin Puryear", in Martin Puryear, edited by Elderfield, J (2007), pp. 99-110, Museum of Modern Art, New York .
63. Powell, RJ, "The Aaron Douglas Effect", in Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist (2007), pp. 53-73, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT .
64. Powell, RJ; Powell, RJ; Puryear, M, "A Conversation with Martin Puryear", in Martin Puryear (2007), pp. 99-110, Museum of Modern Art, New York .
65. Powell, RJ, "Changing, Conjuring Reality", in Conjuring Bearden (2006), pp. 19-31, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University .
66. Powell, RJ, "Changing, Conjuring Reality", in Conjuring Bearden (2006), pp. 19-31, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University .
67. Powell, RJ, "On James A. Porter’s and (our) Modern Negro Art", in A Proud Continuum: Eight Decades of Art at Howard University (2005), pp. 25-28, Howard University Gallery of Art .
68. Powell, RJ, "Racial Imaginaries, from Charles White’s Preacher to Jean-Paul Goude and Grace Jones’ Nigger Arabesque", in Back to Black: Art, Cinema and the Racial Imaginary (2005), pp. 9-27, Whitechapel Art Gallery .
69. Powell, RJ, "On James A. Porter’s and (our) Modern Negro Art", in A Proud Continuum: Eight Decades of Art at Howard University (2005), pp. 25-28, Howard University Gallery of Art .
70. Powell, RJ, "Racial Imaginaries, from Charles White’s Preacher to Jean-Paul Goude and Grace Jones’ Nigger Arabesque", in Back to Black: Art, Cinema and the Racial Imaginary (2005), pp. 9-27, Whitechapel Art Gallery .
71. Powell, RJ, Linguists, Poets, and ‘Others’ on African American Art, American Art, vol. 17 (Spring, 2003), pp. 16-19 .
72. Powell, RJ, Appreciation. Jacob Lawrence: Keep on Movin’, American Art, vol. 15 no. 1 (Spring, 2001), pp. 90-93 [3109375], [doi] .
73. Powell, RJ, Sartor Africanus, in Dandies: Fashion and Finesse in Art and Culture, edited by Fillin-Yeh, S (2001), pp. 217-242, New York: New York University Press .
74. Powell, RJ, To Be Real, in The Barkley L. Hendricks Experience (2001), pp. 13-15, New London, Connecticut: Lyman Allyn .
75. Sartor Africanus, in Dandies: Fashion and Finesse in Art and Culture (2001), pp. 217-242, New York: New York University Press .
76. To Be Real, in The Barkley L. Hendricks Experience (2001), pp. 13-15, New London, Connecticut: Lyman Allyn .
77. Powell, RJ, Lamentations from the ‘Hood, in Kerry James Marshall/Mementos (2000), pp. 31-47, Chicago: The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago .
78. Powell, RJ, Conjuring Canes and Bible Quilts: Through the Prism of Nineteenth Century African American Spirituality, in African Americans and the Bible: Sacred Texts and Social Textures, edited by Wimbush, VL (2000), pp. 342-354, New York: Continuum .
79. Powell, RJ, Harmonizer of Chaos, in Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence, edited by Nesbett, P; DuBois, M (2000), pp. 147-163, Seattle: University of Washington Press .
80. Harmonizer of Chaos, in Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence (2000), pp. 147-163, Seattle: University of Washington Press .
81. Conjuring Canes and Bible Quilts: Through the Prism of Nineteenth Century African American Spirituality, in African Americans and the Bible: Sacred Texts and Social Textures (2000), pp. 342-354, New York: Continuum .
82. Lamentations from the ‘Hood, in Kerry James Marshall/Mementos (2000), pp. 31-47, Chicago: The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago .
83. Powell, RJ, The Blues Aesthetic: Black Culture and Modernism, in African American Literary Criticism, 1773 to 2000, edited by Ervin, HA (1999), New York: Twayne Publishers, 289-302 .
84. The Blues Aesthetic: Black Culture and Modernism, in African American Literary Criticism, 1773 to 2000 (1999), New York: Twayne Publishers, 289-302 .
85. Powell, RJ, On Alain Locke and James Porter, Hatch-Billops Collection, Inc./Artist and Influence, vol. 11 (1998), pp. 1-8 .
86. Powell, RJ, Cinqué: Antislavery Portraiture and Patronage in Jacksonian America, American Art, vol. 11 no. 3 (1997), pp. 49-73, University of Chicago Press [3109281], [doi] .
87. Powell, RJ, Art of the Harlem Renaissance, Art Bulletin, vol. 77 (September, 1995), pp. 132-137 .
88. Powell, RJ, The Subject in/of Art History, Art Bulletin, vol. 77 no. 3 (September, 1995), pp. 515 [doi] .
89. POWELL, RJ, ART, HISTORY, AND VISION, ART BULLETIN, vol. 77 no. 3 (1995), pp. 379-382 [Gateway.cgi] .
90. POWELL, RJ, IMAGES AND IDENTITIES + EDITORIAL - A BRIEF, INTRODUCTORY NOTE, INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF AFRICAN AMERICAN ART, vol. 11 no. 3 (1994), pp. 6-6 [Gateway.cgi] .
91. Powell, RJ, The Art of Raymond Saunders: Colored, New Observations, vol. 97 (1993), pp. 10-15 .
92. Powell, RJ, What Becomes a Legend Most? Reflections on Romare Bearden, Transition, vol. 55 (1992), pp. 62-72 .
93. Powell, RJ, 'In My Family of Primitiveness and Tradition:' William H. Johnson's 'Jesus and the Three Marys', American Art, vol. 5 no. 4 (1991), pp. 21-33, University of Chicago Press [3109068], [doi] .
94. Powell, RJ, Margo Humphrey: Interview, Hatch-Billops Collection, Inc./Artist and Influence, vol. 5 (1987), pp. 56-65 .
95. Powell, RJ, William H. Johnson's Minde Kerteminde, Black American Literature Forum, vol. 20 no. 4 (1986), pp. 393-403, JSTOR [2904438], [doi] .
96. Powell, RJ, On Exhibit: Black Artists of the Nineteenth Century, The Chicago Reader (August, 1985), pp. 10-11 .
97. Powell, RJ, African Art at the Field Museum, African Arts, vol. 18 no. 2 (1985), pp. 24-101, JSTOR [3336186], [doi] .
98. Powell, RJ, Black Folk in America, 1930-1980, Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin (1984), pp. 11-18 .
99. Powell, RJ, Current Expressions in Afro-American Printmaking, PrintNews, vol. 3 (April, 1981) .
100. Powell, RJ, The Afro-American Printmaking Tradition, PrintNews, vol. 3 (February, 1981), pp. 3-7 .
101. Powell, RJ, 9/9, The New Art Examiner, vol. 7 (June, 1980), pp. 10-11 .
102. Powell, RJ, Houston Conwill, Neworld (February, 1979) .
103. Powell, RJ, Talking to James Lesesne Wells, Print Review, vol. 9 (1979), pp. 65-75 .

Books in Progress

1. Powell, RJ, From diaspora to exile: Black women artists in 1960s and 1970s Europe (December, 2011), pp. 78-90 .
2. Powell, RJ, African and Afro-American Art: Call and Response (1984), Field Museum .

Exhibition Catalogs

1. To Conserve a Legacy: American Art from Historically Black Colleges and Universities: The Digital Exhibition (2000), Cambridge: MIT Press (Script and recorded narration of the virtual exhibition tour.) [com] .
2. Rhapsodies in Black: Music and Words from the Harlem Renaissance (2000) (Essay and consultant for a CD box set, Rhino Records R2 79874.) .