Richard J. Powell is the John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art and Art History at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, where he has taught since 1989.

In 2006 he was appointed Editor Designate of The Art Bulletin and, beginning in 2007, he will be The Art Bulletin's Editor-in-Chief for a three year term. He studied at Morehouse College and Howard University before earning his doctorate in art history at Yale University. Along with teaching courses in the arts of the African Diaspora, American art, 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), Jacob Lawrence (1992), and Black Art: A Cultural History (1997 & 2002).His forthcoming book (expected in 2007) is about 19th, 20th, and 21st century

portraits of peoples of African descent in paintings, photographs, graphic arts, and cinema. [ read more ]