Richard Mayhew
Richard Mayhew | |
---|---|
Born | Amityville, New York, U.S. | April 3, 1924
Nationality | American |
Education | Art Students League of New York, Columbia University |
Alma mater | Brooklyn Museum Art School |
Known for | Landscape painting |
Movement | Spiral (arts alliance) |
Spouse(s) | Dorothy Zuccarini, Rosemary Gibbons |
Children | 2, including Ina Mayhew |
Richard Mayhew (born April 3, 1924)[1] is an Afro-Native American landscape painter, illustrator, and arts educator. His abstract, brightly colored landscapes are informed by his experiences as an African American/Native American and his interest in Jazz and the performing arts. He lives and works in Soquel and Santa Cruz, California.[2][3]
Life
Richard Mayhew was born on April 3, 1924 in Amityville, New York, to Native American and African American parents.[4][5][6] His father Alvin Mayhew, was of African American and Shinnecock tribe descent and his mother, Lillian Goldman Mayhew was of African American and Cherokee-Lumbee descent.[6][3] His mother would take him to New York City to see paintings, and he was inspired at a young age by George Inness paintings.[3] As a teenager he studied with medical illustrator James Willson.[3]
He had been in the United States Marines with the Montford Point Marines, rising to the rank of first sergeant during World War II.[3][7] However in a 2019 interview, Mayhew expressed he did not identify with his time in military service and it inspired his interest in interdisciplinary studies.[3]
Mayhew studied at the Art Students League of New York and with artist Edwin Dickinson.[8] Later attending Brooklyn Museum Art School in 1948 to 1959, and studying with Reuben Tam.[9][8][3] He also took some courses at Columbia University.[9] He worked as a china decorator in the late 1940s in New York, where he met his first wife Dorothy Zuccarini.[3] He was a Jazz singer in the 1950s, performing in small clubs in New York City and in the Borscht Belt in the Catskill Mountains.[6][3] In 1955 he had his first solo exhibition in Brooklyn, and he ended his singing work.[7]
In 1958, he won the John Hay Whitney Fellowship and took his family with him to Europe.[9] In the 1960s, Mayhew illustrated children's books.[6][10]
He was a founding member of Spiral, a black painters' group in the 1960s in New York that included Romare Bearden, Charles Alston, Charles White, Felrath Hines, Norman Lewis, Emma Amos, Reginald Gammon, and Hale Woodruff as members.[11][12][1][13][14][15] The Spiral collective formed in 1963, after the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, as a way for artists to discuss their experiences in the Civil Rights movement.[9] He was also a member of the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition.[9]
For 14 years he taught at Pennsylvania State University, starting in 1977 and retiring in 1991.[6] He taught art and/or interdisciplinary thinking at other schools around the United States, including Brooklyn Museum Art School (1963), Pratt Institute (1963), Art Students League of New York (1965), Smith College (1969), Hunter College (1971), California State University, East Bay (1974), San Jose State University (1975), Sonoma State University (1976), University of California, Santa Cruz (1992), and others.[3] He was introduced to interdisciplinary learning during his time teaching at Pratt which at the time offered different disciplines alongside art studio, and he was working alongside other instructors such as Eleanor Holmes Norton (teaching sociology), Jacob Lawrence, and William A.J. Payne (teaching anthropology).[3] Students of Mayhew include Beverly McIver, Rodney Allen Trice, among others.[3]
In 2000, Mayhew moved to Soquel in Santa Cruz County, California.[6]
Mayhew's work is featured in various permanent collections including: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA),[16] De Young (museum),[17] Metropolitan Museum of Art,[18] Whitney Museum of American Art,[5] and the Smithsonian Institution,[8] among others.
Personal life
He was married to artist Dorothy Zuccarini and together they had two children, Ina Mayhew and Scott Mayhew.[9] His second marriage was to Rosemary Gibbons.[3]
Filmography
Years | Title | Type | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2000 | Richard Mayhew: Spiritual Landscapes | Film documentary | |
2009 | Richard Mayhew, on Spark for This Week in Northern California, KQED | Television series | [10][19] |
See also
References
- ^ a b Steven Otfinoski (2003). African Americans in the Visual Arts. Infobase Publishing. p. 131. ISBN 978-1-4381-0777-6.
- ^ "The Art of Richard Mayhew: After the Rain". Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. 2009. Retrieved 2018-03-03.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cooks, Bridget; Tewes, Amanda (2020). Richard Mayhew: Painting Mindscapes and Searching for Sensitivity (PDF). Oral History Center and Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. J. Paul Getty Trust.
- ^ "Richard Mayhew Biography". Richard Mayhew on artnet. Retrieved 2018-03-03.
- ^ a b "Richard Mayhew: Morning Bush". Whitney Museum of American Art. Retrieved 2018-03-03.
- ^ a b c d e f Guthrie, Julian (2009-10-16). "'Art of Richard Mayhew' at MoAD". SFGATE. Retrieved 2020-11-09.
- ^ a b Prodger, Michael (2020-06-24). "The greats outdoors: How spiritualism and race coexist in the moodscapes of Richard Mayhew". Newstatesman. Retrieved 2020-11-09.
- ^ a b c "Richard Mayhew". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 2018-03-03.
- ^ a b c d e f Schneider, Julie (2020-09-21). "At 96 Years Old, Richard Mayhew Is Still Painting Transportive "Mindscapes"". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 2020-11-09.
- ^ a b "Richard Mayhew". Spark. KQED, Inc. Retrieved 2020-11-08.
- ^ "Mayhew, Richard". Pennsylvania Center for the Book. The Pennsylvania State University. Archived from the original on 25 February 2015. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
- ^ "'Art of Richard Mayhew' at MoAD". SFGate. Retrieved 2017-07-19.
- ^ Samella S. Lewis (2003). African American Art and Artists. University of California Press. p. 180. ISBN 978-0-520-23935-7.
- ^ "Richard Mayhew". Spark. Retrieved 2017-07-19.
- ^ Otfinoski, Steven (2014-05-14). African Americans in the Visual Arts. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 9781438107776.
- ^ "Richard Mayhew". SFMOMA. Retrieved 2018-03-03.
- ^ "New Acquisition: Richard Mayhew's "Rhapsody," 2002". de Young. 2010-04-15. Retrieved 2018-03-03.
- ^ "Richard Mayhew | Spring Series #7 | The Met". The Metropolitan Museum of Art, i.e. The Met Museum. Retrieved 2018-03-03.
- ^ "This Week: Richard Mayhew". YouTube. Retrieved 2020-11-09.
Further reading
- Mayhew, Richard (2020). Transcendence. Mikaela Sardo Lamarche (introduction), Andrew Walke (essay), ACA Galleries. San Francisco, California: Chronicle Books. ISBN 978-1452178905.
- Hess, Janet Berry (2014). Art of Richard Mayhew: A Critical Analysis with Interviews. McFarland & Company. ISBN 9780786460502.
- Cooks, Bridget R.; Mayhew, Richard (2009). The Art of Richard Mayhew. San Francisco, Calif.: Museum of the African Diaspora. ISBN 9781616232696.
External links
- Richard Mayhew profile on Spark KQED
- Richard Mayhew at IMDb
- American landscape painters
- African-American painters
- 1924 births
- Living people
- American people of Native American descent
- People from Amityville, New York
- People from Santa Cruz County, California
- Pennsylvania State University faculty
- Abstract expressionist artists
- Landscape painters
- United States Marines
- African Americans in World War II
- People from Soquel, California
- Art Students League of New York faculty
- Art Students League of New York people
- Pratt Institute faculty
- Brooklyn Museum Art School alumni
- United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II