Adolphus Ealey (1941–1992) was an American artist, curator, educator, writer, and entrepreneur. He was African-American and a noted Black art authority, and he was the longtime curator of the Barnett–Aden Collection of Black art.

Early life and education

Adolphus Ealey was born on February 22, 1941, in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,71 ...

, Georgia. He attended

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...

(

B.A. degree Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

1963) and studied under

James V. Herring James Vernon Herring (January 7, 1887 – May 29, 1969) was an African-American artist and professor of art at Howard University. James V. Herring founded the Howard University Department of Art in 1922. In 1943 along with Alonzo J. Aden he op ...

. He received a master's degree (1964) at

Académie de la Grande Chaumière The Académie de la Grande Chaumière is an art school in the Montparnasse district of Paris, France. History The school was founded in 1904 by the Catalan painter Claudio Castelucho on the rue de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, near the Académ ...

in Paris, and a Ph.D. in art from the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...

Career

Ealey was a longtime curator of the Barnett–Aden Collection of Black art starting in 1969; the collection was formerly associated with

Barnett-Aden Gallery The Barnett-Aden Gallery was a nonprofit art gallery in Washington D.C. founded by James V. Herring and Alonzo J. Aden, who were associated with Howard University's art department and gallery. The gallery, which opened on October 16, 1943 and o ...

and bequeathed to Ealey by James V. Herring. Later the collection was located at the Museum of African American Art in Tampa, Florida (which has since closed). He took an anthropological approach to the collection of objects, emphasized culture and organized them around a village concept. Ealey was a professor at Washington Technical Institute (now University of the District of Columbia) from 1969 to 1971. He also taught art classes at Sharpe Health School in Washington, D.C., a school for children with disabilities, from 1972 to 1975. From 1976 to 1978, Ealey was the first director of the Afro-American Cultural and Historical Museum of Philadelphia (now the African American Museum in Philadelphia). In 1985, he designed memorabilia for the first national celebration of

Martin Luther King Jr. Day Martin Luther King Jr. Day (officially Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., and sometimes referred to as MLK Day) is a federal holiday in the United States marking the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. It is observed on the third Mond ...

, commissioned by the

King Center for Nonviolent Social Change The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, commonly known as The King Center, is a nongovernmental, not-for-profit organization in Atlanta, United States. History The center was founded in 1968 by Coretta Scott King, who s ...

; and it was said to have been personally approved by

Coretta Scott King Coretta Scott King ( Scott; April 27, 1927 – January 30, 2006) was an American author, activist, and civil rights leader who was married to Martin Luther King Jr. from 1953 until his death. As an advocate for African-American equality, she ...

, the widow of Martin Luther King, Jr.. He was the president of Heritage Noir Inc. in 1983. Ealey had been friends with artist

Alma W. Thomas Alma Woodsey Thomas (September 22, 1891 – February 24, 1978) was an African-American artist and teacher who lived and worked in Washington, D.C., and is now recognized as a major American painter of the 20th century. Thomas is best known for t ...

Death and legacy

He had AIDS and died of

kidney failure Kidney failure, also known as end-stage kidney disease, is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney failure is classified as eit ...

on November 11, 1992, at

Providence Hospital Providence Hospital may refer to: *Providence Hospital (Columbia, South Carolina) * Providence Hospital (Mobile) in Mobile, Alabama * Providence Hospital (Southfield), Michigan *Providence Hospital (Washington, D.C.) in Washington, D.C. *Providence ...

in Washington, D.C.. He has artist files at the National Gallery of Art Library; and he is included in the public museum collection at the

Baltimore Museum of Art The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, is an art museum that was founded in 1914. The BMA's collection of 95,000 objects encompasses more than 1,000 works by Henri Matisse anchored by the Cone Collection of ...

Exhibitions

* 1972, ''Reflections: the Afro-American Artist: an Exhibit of Paintings, Sculpture, and Graphics'', group exhibition, Benton Convention Center, Winston-Salem, North Carolina * 1973, ''Exhibition 73'' (the D.C. Art Association), group exhibition,

Anacostia Museum The Anacostia Community Museum (known colloquially as the ACM) is a community museum in the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in the United States. It is one of twenty museums under the umbrella of the Smithsonian Institution and was the ...

, and Smithsonian

National Museum of African American History and Culture The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) is a Smithsonian Institution museum located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in the United States. It was established in December 2003 and opened its permanent home in ...

* 1977, ''Black American Art from the Barnett Aden Collection'', group exhibition, Frick Fine Arts Museum at the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...

* 1979, ''Reflections of a Southern Heritage: 20th Century Black Artists of the Southeast'', group exhibition, Gibbes Art Gallery, Charlestown, South Carolina

Publications

References

External links

Adolphus Ealey: vertical files
at National Gallery of Art Library
Interview with Adolphus Ealey, 1978 June 30
from

Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washing ...

, Smithsonian Institution
The Historical Records of the Barnett-Aden Gallery
from the Smithsonian

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ealey, Adolphus 1941 births 1992 deaths 20th-century African-American painters 20th-century American painters 20th-century American male artists People from Atlanta People from Washington, D.C. People from Delray Beach, Florida Howard University alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni African-American curators American curators University of the District of Columbia faculty AIDS-related deaths in Washington, D.C. Deaths from kidney failure in the United States American art historians African-American art dealers