Beyond the Bramble Bush, 1996-1997. Courtesy the Estate of Richard Mayhew and Venus Over Manhattan, New York
Artist Richard Mayhew Has Died
by Phillip Barcio
African American artist Richard Mayhew died on 26 September. He was 100 years old. Mayhew’s death was announced by Venus Over Manhattan.
Mayhew was born in Amityville, New York in 1924. His first artistic experiences came while helping his father with his sign painting business. Mayhew moved to New York City in 1947, and formally studied art at the School of Art at the Brooklyn Museum, the Pratt Institute, and Columbia University. As a mature artist he gravitated towards Landscape painting as his primary subject matter. He referred to his paintings as “mindscapes” through which he could “internalise [his] emotional interpretation of desire, hope, fear, and love.”
Mayhew was a recipient of a Tiffany Foundation Award, a grant from the National Institutes of Arts and Letters, and the National Academy of Design Merit Award. His works are included in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Los Angeles County Museum and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, among others.
