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| Richard J. Powell, John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art and Art History, and Office of the Dean and Professor of African and African American Studies
 Please note: Richard has left the "Office of the Dean" group at Duke University; some info here might not be up to date. Richard J. Powell is Dean of the Humanities and the John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art & Art History at Duke University, where he has taught since 1989. He studied at Morehouse College and Howard University before earning his doctorate in art history at Yale University. Along with teaching courses in American art, the arts of the African Diaspora, and contemporary visual studies, he 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), and Cutting a Figure: Fashioning Black Portraiture (2008).
- Contact Info:
Teaching (Spring 2026):
- VMS 555S.01, BLACK VISUAL THEORY
Synopsis
- Smith Wrhs A290, W 01:25 PM-03:55 PM
- (also cross-listed as AAAS 589S.01)
- Education:
| Ph.D. | Yale University | 1988 |
| M.Phil. | Yale University | 1984 |
| M.A. | Yale University | 1982 |
| M.F.A. | Howard University | 1977 |
| B.A. | Morehouse College | 1975 |
- Specialties:
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Afro-American Art
African Art
Art of the United States
- Research Interests:
Richard J. Powell received his Ph.D. from Yale University. His research and teaching interests lie in American art, African American art, and theories of race and representation in the African diaspora. He is also interested in the media arts and conceptualizations of the "folk" in world art and culture. His books include Homecoming: The Art and Life of William H. Johnson and Black Art: A Cultural History.
- Current Ph.D. Students
(Former Students)
- Katie Jentleson
- Rebecca Keegan
- Alfredo Rivera
- Representative Publications
(More Publications)
- Powell, RJ, Linguists, Poets, and ‘Others’ on African American Art,
American Art, vol. 17
(Spring, 2003),
pp. 16-19
- Powell, RJ, Black Art A Cultural History
(August, 2021),
pp. 360 pages, London: Thames and Hudson, Ltd., ISBN 9780500204665 (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]
- Powell, RJ, Appreciation. Jacob Lawrence: Keep on Movin’,
American Art, vol. 15 no. 1
(Spring, 2001),
pp. 90-93, ISSN 1073-9300 [3109375], [doi]
- Powell, RJ, To Be Real,
in The Barkley L. Hendricks Experience
(2001),
pp. 13-15, New London, Connecticut: Lyman Allyn
- 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
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