FOR IMMEDIATE RELASE
February 6, 2024
MEDIA CONTACT:
Tayah Frye
GW Luther W. Brady Art Gallery Hosts Exhibition Honoring Carroll Sockwell
EVENT:
The Luther W. Brady Art Gallery, the home of the George Washington University Collection, is hosting an exhibition to honor the legacy of Carroll Sockwell. Carroll Sockwell was a prominent figure in the Washington, D.C. art scene from the 1960s until his passing in 1992. Sockwell had a long-standing relationship with the Corcoran Gallery of Art, first as a student in the School, then a professional artist whose work was shown in several Corcoran Gallery of Art exhibitions.
The consummate draftsman, Sockwell worked in charcoal, pencil and collage on paper. His artistic style is celebrated for his mastery of geometric and gestural abstraction along with his ability to blend charcoal and color. His aims were simple yet complex, “to produce paintings which will dominate yet enhance their surroundings.”
WHO:
African-American artist, Carroll Sockwell (1943-1992) was a prominent figure in the
Washington, D.C. art scene from the 1960s until his passing in 1992. Born in segregated D.C. in 1943, enduring a troubling childhood in a segregated city, Sockwell found comfort in the practice of art. When he enrolled at the Corcoran School of Art at age 14, his passion for creating art was confirmed. A year later he painted his first prize- winning work, Bridge With the Sun. In 1960, at the age of 17, Sockwell set off for New York City, the center of the art world. While in New York, he met Barnett Newman and Willem de Kooning, members of the first generation of Abstract Expressionism, which flourished between 1943 and the mid-1950s.
In 1963, Sockwell returned to Washington. He was inspired by his encounters with the avant-garde in New York and eager to develop his own style and intuitive approach to drawing. Sockwell met Walter Hopps, director of the Pasadena Art Museum in California, who would become the director of the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1967. Hopps and Sockwell developed a professional and personal relationship as Sockwell traversed the art world.
From 1965 to 1968 Sockwell also worked as a curator for the Barnett-Aden Gallery, the first African-American privately- owned art gallery in the United States. In D.C., his work was shown at the Margaret Dickey Gallery (1965), the Barnett Aden Gallery (1966), the Corcoran Gallery of Art (1968), and the Esther Stuttman Gallery (1968). By the 1970s, Sockwell’s status as a successful artist was confirmed with a solo exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1974. Following the success of his exhibition at the Corcoran, Sockwell’s work was shown in group exhibitions at some of the most significant contemporary art museums of the time, like the Brooklyn Museum in 1980 in New York (American Drawing in Black & White: 1970-1980), along with another solo show in 1975 at the Middendorf Gallery in Washington, D.C. Sockwell’s most important Washington show was at the Lunn Gallery. Through Hopps, Sockwell visited the Menils in Houston, and John and Dominique de Menil bought drawings for their collection.
WHEN:
Wednesday, February 7, 2024 – Saturday, March 9, 2024
The Luther W. Brady Art Gallery is free and open to the public Wednesday - Saturday, 1:00 pm-5:00 pm EST.
WHERE:
Corcoran Flagg Building, Hammer Auditorium, 500 17th Street NW, Washington DC 20006
Please use New York Avenue entrance
RSVP:
If you would like you attend in person, please notify Tayah Frye at [email protected].
-GW-