REV_Mayhew Brochure.1_11.3.PRESS.qxp_Layout 1 1/11/22 2:29 PM Page 1
CHECKLIST Clamdiggers, n.d. Oil on board, 24 x 30 in. Courtesy of the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art Essence, n.d. Oil on canvas, 32 x 28 in. National Academy of Design, New York Innocence, n.d. Pen and ink, 16 x 15 in. Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York Intermission, n.d. Oil on canvas, 31 7/8 x 38 7/8 in. National Academy of Design, New York Hill Top, 1962 Oil on canvas, 39 x 45 in. Private Collection Friday, 1982 Oil on canvas, 42 x 46 in. Collection of the Hudson River Museum Gift of Dr. Thomas A. Mathews, 1987 (87.16.1) Jazz Solo II, 1988 Oil on linen canvas, 34 1/2 x 35 1/2 in. Courtesy of the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art Mayhew, Pescadero, 2014. The Heckscher Museum of Art.
I’m concerned with the spiritual sensitivity and the illusion of time and space. ... I thought that nature was very important so I had to use some element, but that was part of my ethnic background—respect for the way that nature is constantly reinventing itself. That reinvention is part of my improvisation as a jazz singer and a painter because when I start to paint, I just smear paint on the canvas and it evolves into my experiences and my internal creative expression. —RICHARD MAYHEW, June 20091 Richard Mayhew was born on Long Island in 1924. He grew up on the south shore, in Amityville, where he formed a deep connection to the natural world and first learned about art. Spanning six decades, the paintings on view reflect his Native American and African American heritage. The abstract landscapes— which he terms mindscapes—convey inner states and feelings through evocative color, diffused forms, and atmospheric space. Mayhew draws a parallel between renewal in nature and the resilience of African American and Native American cultures. Referencing histories of enslavement and land dispossession, he explains, “My mindscapes are also about the healing of that long trauma that the Black and the Native
communities have experienced collectively.” 2 Mayhew’s improvisational painting process also involves reinvention, as he works intuitively on the canvas to blend colors and layer forms. In the 1950s and early 1960s, Mayhew studied art in New York City and throughout Europe. Beginning in 1963, during the Civil Rights Movement, he participated in Spiral, an influential group of African American artists who met to discuss the relationship between art and society. These dialogues solidified his commitment to exploring abstraction and landscape painting in conjunction with race and identity. In the decades since, Mayhew has lived, painted, and taught throughout the country, including in New York, Pennsylvania, and California.
Mission Valley, 1993 Oil on canvas, 26 x 30 in. Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York Spring #2, 1996 Watercolor on paper, 14 x 17 in. Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York
Fog, 2004 Oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in. Collection of Aishti Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon
Temptation, 2014 Oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in. Collection of Aishti Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon
West Bay, 2004 Oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in. Collection of Aishti Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon
Mendocino Series #3, 2015 Watercolor on paper, 9 x 12 in. Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York
Crescendo, 2008 Oil on canvas, 48 x 48 in. Laura and Stafford Broumand Collection
Mendocino Series #7, 2015 Watercolor on paper, 10 1/4 x 14 1/8 in. Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York
Diablo Pass, 2008 Oil on canvas, 48 x 48 in. Laura and Stafford Broumand Collection
Mendocino Series #9, 2015 Watercolor on paper, 11 x 14 in. Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York
Above and Beyond, 2009 Oil on canvas, 48 x 48 in. Collection of Adam Lindemann and Amalia Dayan
Mendocino Series #10, 2015 Watercolor on paper, 11 x 14 in. Private Collection
Misty Mystic, 2012 Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in. Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York
The Heckscher Museum of Art
Fall Sonata, 2019 Oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in. Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York
Apache Vista, 2014 Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in. Private Collection, Chicago, IL
Sunrise Over Yellow Dunes, 2019 Oil on canvas, 48 x 72 in. Collection of Adam Lindemann and Amalia Dayan
Gila, 2014 Oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in. Private Collection, Chicago, IL
All images ©2022 Richard Mayhew; Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York.
Pescadero, 2014 Oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in. The Heckscher Museum of Art Museum Purchase: Town of Huntington Art Acquisition Fund
NOTES 1. Richard Mayhew quoted in Bridget R. Cooks, ed., The Art of Richard Mayhew (San Francisco: Museum of the African Diaspora, 2009), 48. 2. Andrew Walker, “History and the Creative Consciousness: An Interview with Richard Mayhew,” in Transcendence (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2020), 21. 3. Mayhew in Lizzetta Lefalle-Collins, “Color + Memory: A Visual Memoir,” in The Art of Richard Mayhew, ed. Bridget R. Cooks (San Francisco: Museum of the African Diaspora, 2009), 6. 4. “Mayhew on Selected Topics, 2012,” in Janet Berry Hess, The Art of Richard Mayhew: A Critical Analysis with Interviews (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2014), E-book.
John E. Coraor, Interim Director
5. Richard Mayhew: Nature Lore (Chicago: G.R. N’Namdi Gallery, 2009), 6. 6. Walker, Transcendence, 17. 7. Mayhew quoted in Hess, The Art of Richard Mayhew, chap. 2. 8. Mayhew, “Richard Mayhew: Painting Mindscapes and Searching for Sensitivity” interviews conducted by Bridget Cooks and Amanda Tewes in 2019, Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, under the auspices of the J. Paul Getty Trust, page 11, https://www.getty.edu/research/special_coll ections/oral_histories/pdfs/mayhew_richard .pdf. 9. Nature Lore, 8.
10. Ibid., 9. 11. Walker, Transcendence, 14. 12. Mayhew, “BAIA Talk: Master Artist Richard Mayhew,” interview by Michael D. Harris, Black Art in America, November 7, 2013, video, 26:40, https://www.blackartinamerica.com/index. php/2018/05/23/baia-talk-master-artistrichardmayhew/.
RICHARD
MAYHEW REINVENTING LANDSCAPE
COVER: Richard Mayhew, Pescadero, 2014 [detail].
Karli Wurzelbacher, Curator Kerrilyn Blee, Registrar and Exhibitions Manager Justyce Bennett, Curatorial Assistant Jacqueline Covey, Docent and Volunteer
Heckscher.org
#hmaMayhew 2 PRIME AVENUE | HUNTINGTON, NY 11743
JANUARY 20 – APRIL 24, 2022
REV_Mayhew Brochure.1_11.3.PRESS.qxp_Layout 1 1/11/22 2:29 PM Page 1
CHECKLIST Clamdiggers, n.d. Oil on board, 24 x 30 in. Courtesy of the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art Essence, n.d. Oil on canvas, 32 x 28 in. National Academy of Design, New York Innocence, n.d. Pen and ink, 16 x 15 in. Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York Intermission, n.d. Oil on canvas, 31 7/8 x 38 7/8 in. National Academy of Design, New York Hill Top, 1962 Oil on canvas, 39 x 45 in. Private Collection Friday, 1982 Oil on canvas, 42 x 46 in. Collection of the Hudson River Museum Gift of Dr. Thomas A. Mathews, 1987 (87.16.1) Jazz Solo II, 1988 Oil on linen canvas, 34 1/2 x 35 1/2 in. Courtesy of the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art Mayhew, Pescadero, 2014. The Heckscher Museum of Art.
I’m concerned with the spiritual sensitivity and the illusion of time and space. ... I thought that nature was very important so I had to use some element, but that was part of my ethnic background—respect for the way that nature is constantly reinventing itself. That reinvention is part of my improvisation as a jazz singer and a painter because when I start to paint, I just smear paint on the canvas and it evolves into my experiences and my internal creative expression. —RICHARD MAYHEW, June 20091 Richard Mayhew was born on Long Island in 1924. He grew up on the south shore, in Amityville, where he formed a deep connection to the natural world and first learned about art. Spanning six decades, the paintings on view reflect his Native American and African American heritage. The abstract landscapes— which he terms mindscapes—convey inner states and feelings through evocative color, diffused forms, and atmospheric space. Mayhew draws a parallel between renewal in nature and the resilience of African American and Native American cultures. Referencing histories of enslavement and land dispossession, he explains, “My mindscapes are also about the healing of that long trauma that the Black and the Native
communities have experienced collectively.” 2 Mayhew’s improvisational painting process also involves reinvention, as he works intuitively on the canvas to blend colors and layer forms. In the 1950s and early 1960s, Mayhew studied art in New York City and throughout Europe. Beginning in 1963, during the Civil Rights Movement, he participated in Spiral, an influential group of African American artists who met to discuss the relationship between art and society. These dialogues solidified his commitment to exploring abstraction and landscape painting in conjunction with race and identity. In the decades since, Mayhew has lived, painted, and taught throughout the country, including in New York, Pennsylvania, and California.
Mission Valley, 1993 Oil on canvas, 26 x 30 in. Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York Spring #2, 1996 Watercolor on paper, 14 x 17 in. Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York
Fog, 2004 Oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in. Collection of Aishti Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon
Temptation, 2014 Oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in. Collection of Aishti Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon
West Bay, 2004 Oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in. Collection of Aishti Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon
Mendocino Series #3, 2015 Watercolor on paper, 9 x 12 in. Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York
Crescendo, 2008 Oil on canvas, 48 x 48 in. Laura and Stafford Broumand Collection
Mendocino Series #7, 2015 Watercolor on paper, 10 1/4 x 14 1/8 in. Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York
Diablo Pass, 2008 Oil on canvas, 48 x 48 in. Laura and Stafford Broumand Collection
Mendocino Series #9, 2015 Watercolor on paper, 11 x 14 in. Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York
Above and Beyond, 2009 Oil on canvas, 48 x 48 in. Collection of Adam Lindemann and Amalia Dayan
Mendocino Series #10, 2015 Watercolor on paper, 11 x 14 in. Private Collection
Misty Mystic, 2012 Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in. Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York
The Heckscher Museum of Art
Fall Sonata, 2019 Oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in. Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York
Apache Vista, 2014 Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in. Private Collection, Chicago, IL
Sunrise Over Yellow Dunes, 2019 Oil on canvas, 48 x 72 in. Collection of Adam Lindemann and Amalia Dayan
Gila, 2014 Oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in. Private Collection, Chicago, IL
All images ©2022 Richard Mayhew; Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York.
Pescadero, 2014 Oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in. The Heckscher Museum of Art Museum Purchase: Town of Huntington Art Acquisition Fund
NOTES 1. Richard Mayhew quoted in Bridget R. Cooks, ed., The Art of Richard Mayhew (San Francisco: Museum of the African Diaspora, 2009), 48. 2. Andrew Walker, “History and the Creative Consciousness: An Interview with Richard Mayhew,” in Transcendence (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2020), 21. 3. Mayhew in Lizzetta Lefalle-Collins, “Color + Memory: A Visual Memoir,” in The Art of Richard Mayhew, ed. Bridget R. Cooks (San Francisco: Museum of the African Diaspora, 2009), 6. 4. “Mayhew on Selected Topics, 2012,” in Janet Berry Hess, The Art of Richard Mayhew: A Critical Analysis with Interviews (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2014), E-book.
John E. Coraor, Interim Director
5. Richard Mayhew: Nature Lore (Chicago: G.R. N’Namdi Gallery, 2009), 6. 6. Walker, Transcendence, 17. 7. Mayhew quoted in Hess, The Art of Richard Mayhew, chap. 2. 8. Mayhew, “Richard Mayhew: Painting Mindscapes and Searching for Sensitivity” interviews conducted by Bridget Cooks and Amanda Tewes in 2019, Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, under the auspices of the J. Paul Getty Trust, page 11, https://www.getty.edu/research/special_coll ections/oral_histories/pdfs/mayhew_richard .pdf. 9. Nature Lore, 8.
10. Ibid., 9. 11. Walker, Transcendence, 14. 12. Mayhew, “BAIA Talk: Master Artist Richard Mayhew,” interview by Michael D. Harris, Black Art in America, November 7, 2013, video, 26:40, https://www.blackartinamerica.com/index. php/2018/05/23/baia-talk-master-artistrichardmayhew/.
RICHARD
MAYHEW REINVENTING LANDSCAPE
COVER: Richard Mayhew, Pescadero, 2014 [detail].
Karli Wurzelbacher, Curator Kerrilyn Blee, Registrar and Exhibitions Manager Justyce Bennett, Curatorial Assistant Jacqueline Covey, Docent and Volunteer
Heckscher.org
#hmaMayhew 2 PRIME AVENUE | HUNTINGTON, NY 11743
JANUARY 20 – APRIL 24, 2022
In 1938, Mayhew met artists who visited Amityville to paint the landscape en plein air (outdoors). He apprenticed with one of them for three summers. He recalls, “I was fascinated by the artists dipping their brushes into the paint like a magic wand; the beautiful images that came out on the end of it were amazing.” 5
In the 1940s and 1950s, Mayhew attended classes at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, where Reuben Tam was an instructor. Mayhew once described him as “one of the greatest abstract landscape painters . . . very mystical, very simplistic, and very powerful.” 7 He saw Tam, a Chinese American artist who grew up in Hawaii, as “involved with the history of sensibility of culture.” 8
Rene Cinquin and Metropolitan Aero-View Co., Aero-view of Amityville, Suffolk County, Long Island, N.Y., 1925 [detail]. Library of Congress.
Born on Long Island in 1924, Mayhew grew up in Amityville. Both of his parents were African American and Native American, with kinship ties to the Shinnecock Indian Nation, Unkechaug Indian Nation, Cherokee Nation, and the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina.
1924
Mayhew, Clamdiggers, n.d.
Reuben Tam (1916-1991), Ocean Sunset, 1956. The Heckscher Museum of Art, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Marvin Sinkoff.
Back in New York City in 1963, Mayhew joined Spiral, a group of African American artists who met weekly to discuss art, politics, and society, and to challenge racism in the art world and beyond. According to Mayhew, the name Spiral referred to “an outward and upward movement, a direction that the participating artists hoped they could steer society following the Civil Rights movement.” 10 He also associated with Social Realist artists at the Educational Alliance, and with Abstract Expressionists at the Cedar Tavern.
Mayhew and his first wife, Dorothy Zuccarini Mayhew, with their children Scott and Ina at Spiral’s First Group Showing: Works in Black and White, 1965. Image Courtesy of the Mayhew Family Collection.
Mayhew, Sunrise Over Yellow Dunes, 2019.
Mayhew, Above and Beyond, 2009.
Beginning in 1964, Mayhew made six cross-country road trips. The varied terrain he encountered inspired new forms and colors in his work. He said, “Nature came to dominate my senses.” 12 Mayhew also began teaching in the 1960s. His longest tenure was at Pennsylvania State University, where he was a professor from 1977 until 1991. Throughout his career, he has been dedicated to interdisciplinarity: the blending of different branches of study, such as art, music, and science.
In 2009 and 2010, three California institutions—the Museum of the African Diaspora; the Museum of Art & History at the McPherson Center, Santa Cruz; and the de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University—jointly presented a retrospective of Mayhew’s work. Mayhew also received an honorary medal of wampum shell from Chief Harry Wallace of the Unkechaug Nation in 2009. 2021
Mayhew with his father, Alvin Mayhew, and his older brother, Alverne, c. 1929. Lillian Goldman Mayhew, the artist’s mother, at Jones Beach State Park, Long Island. Images Courtesy of the Mayhew Family Collection.
Mayhew and his family lived near the bay, and his father took him on early morning fishing trips. He remembers the “somber look and mystique” of Long Island’s waters.3 Mayhew’s grandmother nurtured his interest in art and his spiritual connection to nature. Describing his upbringing, he said, “It was implanted in me as a youngster not to submit to the oppression and destruction of your heritage or yourself.”4
George Inness (1825-1894), Spring Blossoms, Montclair, New Jersey, ca. 1891. Oil and crayon or charcoal on canvas, 29 x 45 ¼ in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
As a teenager in the early 1940s, Mayhew began visiting art museums and galleries in New York City. He gravitated to the work of George Inness. He explains, “I was influenced by Inness because of the mystery in his paintings.” 6
Mayhew, Hill Top, 1962.
Romare Bearden (1911-1988), Reunion from the series Ritual Bayou, c. 1972. The Heckscher Museum of Art, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Samuel S. Mandel. Mayhew, Jazz Solo II, 1988.
Mayhew started exhibiting his work in New York City galleries in the mid-1950s. In 1960 and 1961, he studied in Florence and Amsterdam, and visited other European cities. He viewed paintings by the Old Masters and the Impressionists, saying, “I was learning from their color design and composition and mesmerized by everything.” 9
Romare Bearden was a founder of Spiral. During his time with the group, he stopped producing abstract paintings and began making collages about African American life. Norman Lewis was also a member of Spiral. Mayhew said, “I would talk to Norman a lot. I wanted to understand the why and the how he was doing this, his mystical painting.” 11
Mayhew continued to exhibit frequently throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. From December 2008 through March 2009, the exhibition Richard Mayhew: Transcendental Landscapes was on view at the Avram Gallery, Stony Brook University, Southampton, NY.
Richard Mayhew and Rosemary F. Mayhew pose in front of Richard Mayhew's Pamela's Aura (2004) at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art on April 3, 2021 [detail]. Mayhew celebrated his 97th birthday by viewing his paintings hung on the fourth floor at SFMOMA. Photo: Sarah Roberts, Andrew W. Mellon Curator and Head of Painting and Sculpture at SFMOMA.
In 2021, The Heckscher Museum of Art acquired Mayhew’s painting Pescadero (2014). The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art unveiled a gallery of his paintings in the ongoing collection exhibition Approaching American Abstraction.
REV_PRESS Mayhew Brochure.1_27.qxp_Layout 1 1/27/22 10:07 AM Page 2
In 1938, Mayhew met artists who visited Amityville to paint the landscape en plein air (outdoors). He apprenticed with one of them for three summers. He recalls, “I was fascinated by the artists dipping their brushes into the paint like a magic wand; the beautiful images that came out on the end of it were amazing.” 5
In the 1940s and 1950s, Mayhew attended classes at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, where Reuben Tam was an instructor. Mayhew once described him as “one of the greatest abstract landscape painters . . . very mystical, very simplistic, and very powerful.” 7 He saw Tam, a Chinese American artist who grew up in Hawaii, as “involved with the history of sensibility of culture.” 8
Rene Cinquin and Metropolitan Aero-View Co., Aero-view of Amityville, Suffolk County, Long Island, N.Y., 1925 [detail]. Library of Congress.
Born on Long Island in 1924, Mayhew grew up in Amityville. Both of his parents were African American and Native American, with kinship ties to the Shinnecock Indian Nation, Unkechaug Indian Nation, Cherokee Nation, and the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina.
1924
Mayhew, Clamdiggers, n.d.
Reuben Tam (1916-1991), Ocean Sunset, 1956. The Heckscher Museum of Art, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Marvin Sinkoff.
Back in New York City in 1963, Mayhew joined Spiral, a group of African American artists who met weekly to discuss art, politics, and society, and to challenge racism in the art world and beyond. According to Mayhew, the name Spiral referred to “an outward and upward movement, a direction that the participating artists hoped they could steer society following the Civil Rights movement.” 10 He also associated with Social Realist artists at the Educational Alliance, and with Abstract Expressionists at the Cedar Tavern.
Mayhew and his first wife, Dorothy Zuccarini Mayhew, with their children Scott and Ina at Spiral’s First Group Showing: Works in Black and White, 1965. Image Courtesy of the Mayhew Family Collection.
Mayhew, Sunrise Over Yellow Dunes, 2019.
Mayhew, Above and Beyond, 2009.
Beginning in 1964, Mayhew made six cross-country road trips. The varied terrain he encountered inspired new forms and colors in his work. He said, “Nature came to dominate my senses.” 12 Mayhew also began teaching in the 1960s. His longest tenure was at Pennsylvania State University, where he was a professor from 1977 until 1991. Throughout his career, he has been dedicated to interdisciplinarity: the blending of different branches of study, such as art, music, and science.
In 2009 and 2010, three California institutions—the Museum of the African Diaspora; the Museum of Art & History at the McPherson Center, Santa Cruz; and the de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University—jointly presented a retrospective of Mayhew’s work. Mayhew also received an honorary medal of wampum shell from Chief Harry Wallace of the Unkechaug Nation in 2009. 2021
Mayhew with his father, Alvin Mayhew, and his older brother, Alverne, c. 1929. Lillian Goldman Mayhew, the artist’s mother, at Jones Beach State Park, Long Island. Images Courtesy of the Mayhew Family Collection.
Mayhew and his family lived near the bay, and his father took him on early morning fishing trips. He remembers the “somber look and mystique” of Long Island’s waters.3 Mayhew’s grandmother nurtured his interest in art and his spiritual connection to nature. Describing his upbringing, he said, “It was implanted in me as a youngster not to submit to the oppression and destruction of your heritage or yourself.”4
George Inness (1825-1894), Spring Blossoms, Montclair, New Jersey, ca. 1891. Oil and crayon or charcoal on canvas, 29 x 45 ¼ in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
As a teenager in the early 1940s, Mayhew began visiting art museums and galleries in New York City. He gravitated to the work of George Inness. He explains, “I was influenced by Inness because of the mystery in his paintings.” 6
Mayhew, Hill Top, 1962.
Romare Bearden (1911-1988), Reunion from the series Ritual Bayou, c. 1972. The Heckscher Museum of Art, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Samuel S. Mandel. Mayhew, Jazz Solo II, 1988.
Mayhew started exhibiting his work in New York City galleries in the mid-1950s. In 1960 and 1961, he studied in Florence and Amsterdam, and visited other European cities. He viewed paintings by the Old Masters and the Impressionists, saying, “I was learning from their color design and composition and mesmerized by everything.” 9
Romare Bearden was a founder of Spiral. During his time with the group, he stopped producing abstract paintings and began making collages about African American life. Norman Lewis was also a member of Spiral. Mayhew said, “I would talk to Norman a lot. I wanted to understand the why and the how he was doing this, his mystical painting.”11
Mayhew continued to exhibit frequently throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. From December 2008 through March 2009, the exhibition Richard Mayhew: Transcendental Landscapes was on view at the Avram Gallery, Stony Brook University, Southampton, NY.
Richard Mayhew and Rosemary F. Mayhew pose in front of Richard Mayhew's Pamela's Aura (2004) at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art on April 3, 2021 [detail]. Mayhew celebrated his 97th birthday by viewing his paintings hung on the fourth floor at SFMOMA. Photo: Sarah Roberts, Andrew W. Mellon Curator and Head of Painting and Sculpture at SFMOMA.
In 2021, The Heckscher Museum of Art acquired Mayhew’s painting Pescadero (2014). The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art unveiled a gallery of his paintings in the ongoing collection exhibition Approaching American Abstraction.
REV_PRESS Mayhew Brochure.1_27.qxp_Layout 1 1/27/22 10:07 AM Page 2
In 1938, Mayhew met artists who visited Amityville to paint the landscape en plein air (outdoors). He apprenticed with one of them for three summers. He recalls, “I was fascinated by the artists dipping their brushes into the paint like a magic wand; the beautiful images that came out on the end of it were amazing.” 5
In the 1940s and 1950s, Mayhew attended classes at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, where Reuben Tam was an instructor. Mayhew once described him as “one of the greatest abstract landscape painters . . . very mystical, very simplistic, and very powerful.” 7 He saw Tam, a Chinese American artist who grew up in Hawaii, as “involved with the history of sensibility of culture.” 8
Rene Cinquin and Metropolitan Aero-View Co., Aero-view of Amityville, Suffolk County, Long Island, N.Y., 1925 [detail]. Library of Congress.
Born on Long Island in 1924, Mayhew grew up in Amityville. Both of his parents were African American and Native American, with kinship ties to the Shinnecock Indian Nation, Unkechaug Indian Nation, Cherokee Nation, and the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina.
1924
Mayhew, Clamdiggers, n.d.
Reuben Tam (1916-1991), Ocean Sunset, 1956. The Heckscher Museum of Art, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Marvin Sinkoff.
Back in New York City in 1963, Mayhew joined Spiral, a group of African American artists who met weekly to discuss art, politics, and society, and to challenge racism in the art world and beyond. According to Mayhew, the name Spiral referred to “an outward and upward movement, a direction that the participating artists hoped they could steer society following the Civil Rights movement.” 10 He also associated with Social Realist artists at the Educational Alliance, and with Abstract Expressionists at the Cedar Tavern.
Mayhew and his first wife, Dorothy Zuccarini Mayhew, with their children Scott and Ina at Spiral’s First Group Showing: Works in Black and White, 1965. Image Courtesy of the Mayhew Family Collection.
Mayhew, Sunrise Over Yellow Dunes, 2019.
Mayhew, Above and Beyond, 2009.
Beginning in 1964, Mayhew made six cross-country road trips. The varied terrain he encountered inspired new forms and colors in his work. He said, “Nature came to dominate my senses.” 12 Mayhew also began teaching in the 1960s. His longest tenure was at Pennsylvania State University, where he was a professor from 1977 until 1991. Throughout his career, he has been dedicated to interdisciplinarity: the blending of different branches of study, such as art, music, and science.
In 2009 and 2010, three California institutions—the Museum of the African Diaspora; the Museum of Art & History at the McPherson Center, Santa Cruz; and the de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University—jointly presented a retrospective of Mayhew’s work. Mayhew also received an honorary medal of wampum shell from Chief Harry Wallace of the Unkechaug Nation in 2009. 2021
Mayhew with his father, Alvin Mayhew, and his older brother, Alverne, c. 1929. Lillian Goldman Mayhew, the artist’s mother, at Jones Beach State Park, Long Island. Images Courtesy of the Mayhew Family Collection.
Mayhew and his family lived near the bay, and his father took him on early morning fishing trips. He remembers the “somber look and mystique” of Long Island’s waters.3 Mayhew’s grandmother nurtured his interest in art and his spiritual connection to nature. Describing his upbringing, he said, “It was implanted in me as a youngster not to submit to the oppression and destruction of your heritage or yourself.”4
George Inness (1825-1894), Spring Blossoms, Montclair, New Jersey, ca. 1891. Oil and crayon or charcoal on canvas, 29 x 45 ¼ in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
As a teenager in the early 1940s, Mayhew began visiting art museums and galleries in New York City. He gravitated to the work of George Inness. He explains, “I was influenced by Inness because of the mystery in his paintings.” 6
Mayhew, Hill Top, 1962.
Romare Bearden (1911-1988), Reunion from the series Ritual Bayou, c. 1972. The Heckscher Museum of Art, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Samuel S. Mandel. Mayhew, Jazz Solo II, 1988.
Mayhew started exhibiting his work in New York City galleries in the mid-1950s. In 1960 and 1961, he studied in Florence and Amsterdam, and visited other European cities. He viewed paintings by the Old Masters and the Impressionists, saying, “I was learning from their color design and composition and mesmerized by everything.” 9
Romare Bearden was a founder of Spiral. During his time with the group, he stopped producing abstract paintings and began making collages about African American life. Norman Lewis was also a member of Spiral. Mayhew said, “I would talk to Norman a lot. I wanted to understand the why and the how he was doing this, his mystical painting.” 11
Mayhew continued to exhibit frequently throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. From December 2008 through March 2009, the exhibition Richard Mayhew: Transcendental Landscapes was on view at the Avram Gallery, Stony Brook University, Southampton, NY.
Richard Mayhew and Rosemary F. Mayhew pose in front of Richard Mayhew's Pamela's Aura (2004) at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art on April 3, 2021 [detail]. Mayhew celebrated his 97th birthday by viewing his paintings hung on the fourth floor at SFMOMA. Photo: Sarah Roberts, Andrew W. Mellon Curator and Head of Painting and Sculpture at SFMOMA.
In 2021, The Heckscher Museum of Art acquired Mayhew’s painting Pescadero (2014). The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art unveiled a gallery of his paintings in the ongoing collection exhibition Approaching American Abstraction.
REV_Mayhew Brochure.1_11.3.PRESS.qxp_Layout 1 1/11/22 2:29 PM Page 1
CHECKLIST Clamdiggers, n.d. Oil on board, 24 x 30 in. Courtesy of the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art Essence, n.d. Oil on canvas, 32 x 28 in. National Academy of Design, New York Innocence, n.d. Pen and ink, 16 x 15 in. Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York Intermission, n.d. Oil on canvas, 31 7/8 x 38 7/8 in. National Academy of Design, New York Hill Top, 1962 Oil on canvas, 39 x 45 in. Private Collection Friday, 1982 Oil on canvas, 42 x 46 in. Collection of the Hudson River Museum Gift of Dr. Thomas A. Mathews, 1987 (87.16.1) Jazz Solo II, 1988 Oil on linen canvas, 34 1/2 x 35 1/2 in. Courtesy of the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art Mayhew, Pescadero, 2014. The Heckscher Museum of Art.
I’m concerned with the spiritual sensitivity and the illusion of time and space. ... I thought that nature was very important so I had to use some element, but that was part of my ethnic background—respect for the way that nature is constantly reinventing itself. That reinvention is part of my improvisation as a jazz singer and a painter because when I start to paint, I just smear paint on the canvas and it evolves into my experiences and my internal creative expression. —RICHARD MAYHEW, June 20091 Richard Mayhew was born on Long Island in 1924. He grew up on the south shore, in Amityville, where he formed a deep connection to the natural world and first learned about art. Spanning six decades, the paintings on view reflect his Native American and African American heritage. The abstract landscapes— which he terms mindscapes—convey inner states and feelings through evocative color, diffused forms, and atmospheric space. Mayhew draws a parallel between renewal in nature and the resilience of African American and Native American cultures. Referencing histories of enslavement and land dispossession, he explains, “My mindscapes are also about the healing of that long trauma that the Black and the Native
communities have experienced collectively.” 2 Mayhew’s improvisational painting process also involves reinvention, as he works intuitively on the canvas to blend colors and layer forms. In the 1950s and early 1960s, Mayhew studied art in New York City and throughout Europe. Beginning in 1963, during the Civil Rights Movement, he participated in Spiral, an influential group of African American artists who met to discuss the relationship between art and society. These dialogues solidified his commitment to exploring abstraction and landscape painting in conjunction with race and identity. In the decades since, Mayhew has lived, painted, and taught throughout the country, including in New York, Pennsylvania, and California.
Mission Valley, 1993 Oil on canvas, 26 x 30 in. Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York Spring #2, 1996 Watercolor on paper, 14 x 17 in. Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York
Fog, 2004 Oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in. Collection of Aishti Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon
Temptation, 2014 Oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in. Collection of Aishti Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon
West Bay, 2004 Oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in. Collection of Aishti Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon
Mendocino Series #3, 2015 Watercolor on paper, 9 x 12 in. Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York
Crescendo, 2008 Oil on canvas, 48 x 48 in. Laura and Stafford Broumand Collection
Mendocino Series #7, 2015 Watercolor on paper, 10 1/4 x 14 1/8 in. Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York
Diablo Pass, 2008 Oil on canvas, 48 x 48 in. Laura and Stafford Broumand Collection
Mendocino Series #9, 2015 Watercolor on paper, 11 x 14 in. Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York
Above and Beyond, 2009 Oil on canvas, 48 x 48 in. Collection of Adam Lindemann and Amalia Dayan
Mendocino Series #10, 2015 Watercolor on paper, 11 x 14 in. Private Collection
Misty Mystic, 2012 Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in. Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York
The Heckscher Museum of Art
Fall Sonata, 2019 Oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in. Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York
Apache Vista, 2014 Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in. Private Collection, Chicago, IL
Sunrise Over Yellow Dunes, 2019 Oil on canvas, 48 x 72 in. Collection of Adam Lindemann and Amalia Dayan
Gila, 2014 Oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in. Private Collection, Chicago, IL
All images ©2022 Richard Mayhew; Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York.
Pescadero, 2014 Oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in. The Heckscher Museum of Art Museum Purchase: Town of Huntington Art Acquisition Fund
NOTES 1. Richard Mayhew quoted in Bridget R. Cooks, ed., The Art of Richard Mayhew (San Francisco: Museum of the African Diaspora, 2009), 48. 2. Andrew Walker, “History and the Creative Consciousness: An Interview with Richard Mayhew,” in Transcendence (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2020), 21. 3. Mayhew in Lizzetta Lefalle-Collins, “Color + Memory: A Visual Memoir,” in The Art of Richard Mayhew, ed. Bridget R. Cooks (San Francisco: Museum of the African Diaspora, 2009), 6. 4. “Mayhew on Selected Topics, 2012,” in Janet Berry Hess, The Art of Richard Mayhew: A Critical Analysis with Interviews (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2014), E-book.
John E. Coraor, Interim Director
5. Richard Mayhew: Nature Lore (Chicago: G.R. N’Namdi Gallery, 2009), 6. 6. Walker, Transcendence, 17. 7. Mayhew quoted in Hess, The Art of Richard Mayhew, chap. 2. 8. Mayhew, “Richard Mayhew: Painting Mindscapes and Searching for Sensitivity” interviews conducted by Bridget Cooks and Amanda Tewes in 2019, Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, under the auspices of the J. Paul Getty Trust, page 11, https://www.getty.edu/research/special_coll ections/oral_histories/pdfs/mayhew_richard .pdf. 9. Nature Lore, 8.
10. Ibid., 9. 11. Walker, Transcendence, 14. 12. Mayhew, “BAIA Talk: Master Artist Richard Mayhew,” interview by Michael D. Harris, Black Art in America, November 7, 2013, video, 26:40, https://www.blackartinamerica.com/index. php/2018/05/23/baia-talk-master-artistrichardmayhew/.
RICHARD
MAYHEW REINVENTING LANDSCAPE
COVER: Richard Mayhew, Pescadero, 2014 [detail].
Karli Wurzelbacher, Curator Kerrilyn Blee, Registrar and Exhibitions Manager Justyce Bennett, Curatorial Assistant Jacqueline Covey, Docent and Volunteer
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