Full Name: Wright, Beryl Juanita
Gender: female
Date Born: 26 August 1948
Date Died: 20 January 2000
Home Country/ies: United States
Career(s): art historians and curators
Institution(s): Yale University
Overview
Born in Minneapolis’s Phillips neighborhood, Beryl Wright grew up with three brothers, John Wright, Boyd Wright Jr., and Charles Wright.
Wright earned her Bachelor’s degree in political science and international affairs from Macalester College in 1970. She then attended the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, to pursue a Master’s Degree in Public Policy. While there, she studied under the art historian Karal Ann Marling (b. 1943), who inspired Wright to pursue further studies and work in art history. This experience led her to pursue a Ph.D. in Art History at Yale University. At Yale, Wright was among one of the first groups of art historians focusing on African American art history. Some of her colleagues at Yale include Richard Powell (b. 1953), Kellie Jones (b. 1959), and others.
Nearing the end of her Ph.D. process, Wright paused her degree to pursue industry employment. Between 1989 and 1990, Wright served as the Newark Museum’s acting curator of painting and sculpture, where she worked as the assistant to Gary Reynolds (1949-1990). Some important artists Wright focused on include Jack Whitten (1939-2018) and Tyrone Mitchell (b. 1944). Wright curated the 1990 exhibition “Against the Odds,” showcasing 33 artists supported by the Harmon Foundation with a total of 117 presented present work. With Reynolds, Wright published one of her most influential works, Against the Odds (1989), based on the exhibition. Wright conducted the majority of the vital archival work for this book. Later, a public-facing film documentary was created using this book as its basis.
Also in 1989, while serving as a Guest Curator at the Buffalo Albright Knox Gallery (art museum), she curated the influential exhibition “The Appropriate Object” that showcased Black sculptures, painters, and mixed media artists.
While in Newark, she participated as a judge at the annual Exhibition of Contemporary Religious Art hosted by St. John’s Church in 1989 and 1990. She was also on the judging panel for the 27th Annual Plainfield Outdoor Festival of Art in the City of Plainfield in 1990. That same year, she participated in the 13th Annual Tri-State Juried Exhibition hosted by the Artists League of Central New Jersey. 1993 saw her participating in the Salon Show of the Northern Indiana Arts Association in Merrillville. In 1994, she refereed the 84th annual Associated Artists of Pittsburgh Exhibition at the Carnegie Museum of Art.
Between 1989 and 1992, Wright served as the advisor for the visual media sector of the “A Stronger Soul Within a Finer Frame: Portraying African-Americans in the Black Renaissance” exhibition, curated by John Wright, her brother, and Colleen Sheehy.
In 1991, Wright became the first African American curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) in Chicago, where she would work until 1994 under the MCA director Kevin Consey (1952-2020). Some exhibitions that Wright curated at MCA include Options 43: Lorie Novak (1991-1992), Options 44: Yasumasa Morimura (1992), Lorna Simpson: For the Sake of the Viewer (1992-1993), Art at the Armory: Occupied Territory (1992-1993), In the Spirit of the Fluxus (1993-1994).
Wright’s curatorial and research focus spanned African American art throughout the 20th century. She traveled widely throughout the South to collect, preserve, and study Black art. Wright engaged in a large amount of oral history work, including visiting artists’ homes to conduct interviews.
Along with Richard Powell and Mary Schmidt Campbell (b. 1947), Beryl Wright is regarded as one of the three pioneer scholars who helped to launch the research on Harlem Renaissance. Her work covered artists like Beauford Delany, Bob Thompson, and Oliver Jackson.
Wright was the first scholar to study Lorna Simpson’s (b. 1960) work. Wright’s chapter, “Back Talk: Recoding the Body” in her book Lorna Simpson: For the Sake of the Viewer, co-written with Saidiya Hartman (b. 1961), builds from her curatorial work and exhibitions around Lorna Simpson’s productions. The chapter discusses a dichotomy and differences between the male gaze and the “public surveillance” gaze on the black and female body in art.
As part of her employment at MCA, she was active in the Chicago art environment. She participated as a juror at the Artists Residents of Chicago (ARC) Gallery. In 1994, she worked with the Evanston Art Center in organizing the Biennial Evanston + Vicinity juried exhibition.
Wright’s engagement with the artists’ community gained her tremendous support. Yet, her employment at museums often came with pressure and racial discrimination from the administration. The intensity of her work burdened her health, ultimately resulting in Wright suffering from fibromyalgia. In the late 1990s, Wright, who had extensive experience and dedication to the MCA, was passed over for curatorial promotion. She left the museum with the intention of completing her Ph.D. back at Yale.
However, her dissertation committee required Wright to restart her Ph.D. work from scratch. The workload and pressure intensified her deteriorating health. In 2000, Wright traveled briefly to Canada, where she committed suicide on January 20.
In 2009, Kerry James Marshall (b. 1955) created a painting titled Portrait of a Curator (In Memory of Beryl Wright) in commemoration of Beryl Wright.
Selected Bibliography
and Reynolds, Gary A. Against The Odds: African-American Artists and The Harmon Foundation. Newark: Newark Museum, 1989.
“Back Talk: Recoding the Body.” Callaloo 19, no. 2 (1996): 397-413.
and Hartman, Saidiya V. Lorna Simpson: For the Sake of the Viewer. New York: Museum of Contemporary Art, 1992.
Tyrone Mitchell. Newark: Newark Museum, 1990.
and Bruegmann, Robert, and Rorimer, Anne. Art at the Armory: Occupied Territory. Chicago: Museum of Contemporary Art. 1992.
Sources
[obituaries:] Her, Lucy Y. “African-American art historian Beryl Wright.” Star Tribune, February 4, 2000.
Personal Correspondence. John S. Wright, phone conversation, July 30, 2024.
Armstrong, Elizabeth and Joan Rothfuss, In the Spirit of the Fluxus. Minneapolis: Walker Art Center, 1993.
Brotman, Barbara. “Crash Course for Museum Curators.” Chicago Tribune, August 23, 1992.
Editorial. “Associated Curator Appointed At MCA.” New Art Examiner 18 (1991): 11.
Editorial. “Many Awards in Museum’s Associated Artists Exhibit.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 5, 1994.
Editorial. “Religious Art Transcends the Here and Now.” The Star-Ledger, November 15, 1990.
Editorial. “Scores of Artists to Show Works at Plainfield Fest.” The Star-Ledger, July 14, 1990.
Locastro, Jane. “Sculptor Could Feel It in His Bones Fashioning Award-Winning Piece.” The Star-Ledger, June 21, 1990.
McWhorter, Darrel. “Rhapsodies in Black: Art of the Harlem Renaissance.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 12, 1990.
Puente, Michael. “Pictures at an Exhibition Salon Show Exposes Area Artist’s Talents.” The Post-Tribune (Merrillville, Indiana), October 8, 1993.
Raynor, Vivien. “ART: Helping Black Artists Start Their Careers.” New York Times, April 1, 1990.
Weichbrodt, Elissa Yukiko. “Through the Body: Corporeality, Subjectivity, and Empathy in Contemporary American Art.” PhD diss., Washington University in St. Louis, 2013.
Marshall, Kerry James. “Mastry,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, April 23, 2016.
Contributors: Zhihui Jerry Zou