Whitfield Lovell, Resident Artist Lecture 2002

Artist Whitfield Lovell opens his lecture with photographs of his collection of cabinet cards, tintypes, crayon portrait enlargements and other antique photographs. Lovell talks about work from 1993, when at a residency outside Milan, he was inspired to abandon working on paper (as he had done for approximately fifteen years) for works drawn directly on the walls of the villa instead. A significant portion of the lecture is devoted to his 1999 installation at the University of North Texas in Denton titled “Whispers from the Walls,” for which Lovell, assisted by University students, researched the history of the area and learned that there had been a successful African American settlement in the area which had been forcefully dispersed. Lovell built a house, added sound (the “whispers”) and many symbolic artifacts, and painted the walls using images from a selection of photographs taken from a photo archive near Denton. Other installations and tableaux are also presented, and there is a lengthy question and answer period, with questions covering a broad range of artistic, biographical, technical and ethical subjects.