Wardlaw, Alvia J.

PERSONAL:

Education: Wellesley College, B.A., 1969; New York University Institute of Fine Arts, M.A., 1986; University of Texas at Austin, Ph.D., 1996.

ADDRESSES:

Home—TX.

CAREER:

Writer, educator, art historian. Texas Southern University, Houston, associate professor of art history; University Museum at Texas Southern University, Houston, director/curator; Museum of Fine Art, Houston, curator of contemporary and modern art. Former curator, Barbara Jordan Archives; former associate curator, History of Fine Arts. National Black Arts Festival, advisory board member.

Curator of exhibitions, including: "Haiti and Belize: Photographs of Earlie Hudnell," at Texas Southwestern University and Benteler-Morgan Galleries; "Black Art, Ancestral Legacy: The African Impulse in African-American Art," at the Dallas Museum of Art; "John Biggers: Bridges," at the California Museum of African-American Life and Culture; "Homecoming: African-American Family History in Georgia," for the African-American Family History Association; "Ceremonies and Visions: The Art of John Biggers," at Laguna Gloria Art Museum; "Roy DeCarava: Photographs," at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts; and "Photographs from the Wellesley College Connections," at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Fulbright fellow, 1984; Best Exhibition of 1990 for "Black Art Ancestral Legacy," D magazine, Dallas, TX, 1990; Texas Women's Hall of Fame, 1994; Fulbright Award for study in Tanzania, East Africa, July, 1997; Senior Fellow, American Leadership Forum, 2001; Margaret Kawkins National Arts Award; Compton Danforth fellow; Ford Foundation fellow at New York University.

WRITINGS:

The Art of John Biggers: View from the Upper Room (with essays by Edmund Barry Gaither, Alison de Lima Greene, and Robert Farris Thompson), Museum of Fine Arts (Houston, TX), 1995.

(Editor) Grant Hill, Something All Our Own: The Grant Hill Collection of African American Art, Duke University Press (Durham, NC), 2004.

Notes from a Child's Odyssey: The Art of Kermit Oliver, Museum of Fine Arts (Houston, TX), 2005.

Charles Alston, Pomegranate (Petaluma, CA), 2007.

Also author of Black Art, Ancestral Legacy: The African Impulse in African-American Art, as an accompaniment to the exhibition. Contributor of articles and poetry to various publications, including Black Scholar.

SIDELIGHTS:

Alvia J. Wardlaw is an educator and a curator of national renown, whose specialty is African American art, history, and culture. Wardlaw was educated at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, where she earned a bachelor's degree in art history in 1969. She later earned her master's degree from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University in 1986, and her doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin in 1996. As an educator, Wardlaw serves as an assistant professor of art history at Texas Southern University, as well as speaking at various conferences and exhibits. In addition to her teaching duties, she serves as the director and curator of the University Museum at Texas Southern University, in Houston, and as curator of contemporary and modern art at Houston's Museum of Fine Art. Prior to these posts, she was the curator of the Barbara Jordan Archives, curator at the Gallery of Traditional African Art at Texas Southern University, and the associate curator of Primitive Art and Education for the History of Fine Arts Center. However, Wardlaw is most prominent in the art community for her exhibitions, an illustrious collection of presentations that include "Haiti and Belize: Photographs of Earlie Hudnell," at Texas Southwestern University and Benteler-Morgan Galleries; "Black Art, Ancestral Legacy: The African Impulse in African-American Art," at the Dallas Museum of Art; "John Biggers: Bridges," at the California Museum of African-American Life and Culture; "Homecoming: African-American Family History in Georgia," for the African-American Family History Association; "Ceremonies and Visions: The Art of John Biggers," at Laguna Gloria Art Museum; "Roy DeCarava: Photographs," at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts; and "Photographs from the Wellesley College Connections," at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts.

Wardlaw has written and/or edited several books about art or in conjunction with the exhibits she has organized, including The Art of John Biggers: View from the Upper Room, Something All Our Own: The Grant Hill Collection of African American Art, which she edited, Notes from a Child's Odyssey: The Art of Kermit Oliver, and Charles Alston. The Art of John Biggers was a companion piece to an exhibit of Biggers's work. The book highlights not just Biggers's artistic talent, but his contributions to the artistic community as a professor at Texas Southern University who encouraged many African American artists during the early phases of their careers. Donna Seaman, reviewing for Booklist, noted that the text reflects the spirit of Biggers's art, which is "infused with profound respect and the clear implication that it is women who hold the world together."

Black Art, Ancestral Legacy is a companion piece to the exhibit of the same name, which delved into the African roots and how they are depicted in art, sometimes coming through strongly without conscious intention. Music, dance, and more visual forms of artistic expression shine through in the modern-day achievements of African American artists, and provide a cultural link to the ideas and achievements of their ancestors. Genevieve Stuttaford, in a review for Publishers Weekly, declared that "this ground-breaking volume reclaims a living part of the African-American experience."

Charles Alston collects a series of approximately seventy reproductions of Alston's work, both in color and in black and white. Wardlaw discusses his life as, not just as an artist, but as a teacher and activist too. She also offers readers a historical context for Alston's work, as well as a mention of his contributions to various movements, through his efforts for the WPA Har- lem Art Workshop, the Harlem Renaissance in general, and ultimately as the first black supervisor for the WPA Federal Art Project.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

African Arts, April, 1992, Freida High W. Tesfagiorgis, review of Black Art, Ancestral Legacy: The African Impulse in African-American Art, p. 28.

Black Issues Book Review, May 1, 2004, "An All-Star Collection," p. 32.

Booklist, May 15, 1995, Donna Seaman, review of The Art of John Biggers: View from the Upper Room, p. 1625.

Choice, October, 1995, A. Pappas, review of The Art of John Biggers, p. 283.

Library Journal, May 1, 1995, Margarete Gross, review of The Art of John Biggers, p. 95.

Publishers Weekly, March 2, 1990, Genevieve Stuttaford, review of Black Art, Ancestral Legacy, p. 72; April 10, 1995, review of The Art of John Biggers, p. 51.

Reference & Research Book News, August, 2007, "Charles Alston."

ONLINE

Texas Women's University Web site,http://www.twu.edu/ (February 6, 2008), author profile.

Traditional Fine Art Organization Inc. Web site,http://www.tfaoi.com/ (February 6, 2008), "Something All Our Own: The Grant Hill Collection of African American Art."