Whitfield Lovell, 2010 – 2011

Whitfield Lovell
Maurice Sanchez, printer
2010- 2011

Workshop: March 28-30, 2011

Whitfield Lovell visited Smith in the Spring of 2011 in conjunction with the exhibition More Than You Know: Works by Whitfield Lovell (January 28–May 1, 2011). This major exhibition featured the artist’s Kin drawings—a series of meticulously-drawn portraits of anonymous African-Americans juxtaposed with resonant objects. Using a range of vernacular photographs as his source, Lovell’s drawings give voice to the unidentified and forgotten, creating open-ended narratives through simple and elegant means.

This project was extended through Lovell’s work with the Smith College Print Workshop, where he collaborated with Master Printer Maurice Sanchez on a limited-edition lithograph, as well as experimenting with monotype. The resulting published print, Deuce, depicts two disembodied heads of African-American men, one seen in ¾ view, the second in profile. Two versions of the image were published, each featuring one of the heads inverted: This simple technique changes the focus of the image and opens the interpretive possibilities.

Whitfield Lovell. American, 1959–