Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw (born September 26, 1968) is an art historian, curator, and professor of American art at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. She has curated major exhibitions and published several books on African American art. In 2019, she became director of history, research and scholarship and senior historian at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Career

Shaw received her BA from the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...

and her PhD in American art at Stanford University. She was a fellow at both Romare Bearden Graduate Museum, which supported her work at the

Saint Louis Art Museum The Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM) is one of the principal U.S. art museums, with paintings, sculptures, cultural objects, and ancient masterpieces from all corners of the world. Its three-story building stands in Forest Park in St. Louis, ...

and the Radcliffe Institute at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

. Shaw became an assistant professor of History of Art and Architecture and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University, teaching there for five years. Shaw is currently an associate professor at the

. Her research focuses on issues of race, gender, sexuality, and class in American art, particularly as they relate to conflict. In 2019, she was appointed director of history, research and scholarship and senior historian at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Writing

Shaw has published three books on African American art: ''Seeing the Unspeakable: The Art of Kara Walker'' (2004), ''Portraits of a People: Picturing African Americans in the Nineteenth Century'' (2006), and most recently ''Represent: 200 Years of African American Art in the Philadelphia Museum of Art'' (2014). She was previously visual arts editor of ''

Transition Magazine ''Transition Magazine'' was established in 1961 by Rajat Neogy as ''Transition Magazine: An International Review''. It was published from 1961 to 1976 in various countries on the African continent, and since 1991 in the United States. In recent y ...

''.

Curation

Shaw curated the exhibition ''Portraits of a People: Picturing African Americans in the Nineteenth Century'' (2006) at the

Addison Gallery of American Art The Addison Gallery of American Art is an academic museum dedicated to collecting American art, organized as a department of Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. History Directors of the gallery include Bartlett H. Hayes, Jr. (1940– ...

Andover Andover may refer to: Places Australia *Andover, Tasmania Canada * Andover Parish, New Brunswick * Perth-Andover, New Brunswick United Kingdom * Andover, Hampshire, England ** RAF Andover, a former Royal Air Force station United States * Andove ...

, Massachusetts. She curated ''Samba Sessao: Afro-Brazilian Art and Film'' for the Arthur Ross Gallery at the

in 2012. She was a consulting curator of the exhibition ''Represent: 200 Years of African American Art'' (2015) at the Philadelphia Museum of Art,. She has co-created a number of exhibitions with her students, including ''Trouble in Paradise: The Art of Polynesian Warfare'' at the

University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology—commonly known as the Penn Museum—is an archaeology and anthropology museum at the University of Pennsylvania. It is located on Penn's campus in the University City neighb ...

in 2006. As teacher of the Spiegel-Wilks Seminar in Contemporary Art in 2016, she worked with students to curate the show ''Do/Tell'' at the

Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia The Institute of Contemporary Art or ICA is a contemporary art museum in Philadelphia. The museum is associated with the University of Pennsylvania, and is located on its campus. The Institute is one of the country's leading museums dedicated to e ...

. In 2020, as senior historian at the National Portrait Gallery, she organized ''Every Eye is Upon Me'', an exhibit which explores the lives of the

first ladies of the United States The first lady of the United States is the hostess of the White House. The position is traditionally filled by the wife of the president of the United States, but, on occasion, the title has been applied to women who were not presidents' wives, s ...

. Shaw is active as a speaker and organizer of lectures and events at different institutions. In 2016, Shaw organized an symposium at the National Portrait Gallery on "Racial Masquerade in American Art and Culture".

Awards

In 2015, Shaw received the Dean's Award for Innovation in Teaching from the School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, for "exceptional creativity and innovation in instruction".

References

External links

Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw's webpage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaw, Gwendolyn DuBois 1968 births Living people University of California, Santa Barbara alumni Stanford University alumni American art curators American women curators 21st-century American women