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Artist and Scholar Dr. David Driskell Presents Lecture at Frist Center for the Visual Arts
Release Date: 3/11/2008
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NASHVILLE, TENN.—(March 11, 2008)—The Frist Center for the Visual Arts presents a lecture Thursday, March 27 at 6:30 p.m. by internationally known artist, curator and scholar Dr. David C. Driskell. “Aaron Douglas in Perspective,” will focus on Driskell’s relationship with artist Aaron Douglas and selected aspects of Douglas’ work. The lecture is part of the State of the Art: Contemporary Issues lecture series, which is sponsored by Pinnacle Financial Partners and is free to the public.
Driskell’s lecture coincides with two exhibitions on view at the Frist Center: Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist and Fisk University’s Art Faculty: The Legacy of Aaron Douglas, the latter of which includes two works by Driskell. Douglas, the premier visual artist of the Harlem Renaissance, founded Fisk University’s art department in 1938, and served as its first chair. In 1966, Driskell succeeded Douglas and chaired the department until 1976. In addition to collecting and publishing several interviews he conducted with Douglas, Driskell also served as curator of the Douglas Collection in New Orleans, La.
Highly regarded as an artist and a scholar, Driskell is cited as one of the world’s leading authorities on the subject of African American art. He has contributed significantly to scholarship on the role of the black artist in American society, authored five exhibition books on the subject, co-authored four others and published more than 40 catalogs from exhibitions he has curated. His articles and essays about African American art are extensive, having appeared in more than 20 major publications throughout the world.
Driskell began his teaching career at Talladega College (Alabama) in 1955. Prior to his tenure at Fisk, he taught at Howard University (Washington, D.C.) from 1962 to 1966. After leaving Fisk, he joined the art department faculty at the University of Maryland (College Park, Md.) in 1977 and served as its chair from 1978 to 1983. Driskell maintained an active career in the arts as teacher, curator, administrator and art consultant until his retirement in 1998, when the university founded the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the African Diaspora to promote his scholarship and service to the academic community.
Driskell is the recipient of several awards including the Distinguished Alumni Award in art (1981) from Howard University, and the President’s Medal (1997), from the University of Maryland. He received the National Humanities Medal from President Bill Clinton in December 2000.
As an artist, Driskell’s paintings and prints have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions in galleries and museums throughout the United States, including the Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.), the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, N.Y.). He has exhibited internationally in Brazil, Chili, England, Holland, Japan, Poland and South Africa.
Driskell was born in Eatonton, Ga. in 1931. Educated in the public schools of North Carolina, he received his Bachelor of Arts in art at Howard University and a Master of Fine Arts from the Catholic University of America (Washington, D.C.). He pursued post-graduate study in art history at The Netherlands Institute for the History of Art and has conducted independent scholarship on African and African American cultures in Europe, Africa and South America.
Note on exhibitions:
Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist
Continues through Apr. 13, 2008
Fisk University’s Art Faculty: The Legacy of Aaron Douglas
Continues through May 11, 2008
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