Richard Mayhew 1924-2024
I’m concerned with the spiritual sensitivity and the illusion of time and space…I thought that nature was very important so I had to use some element, but that was part of my ethnic background — respect for the way that nature is constantly reinventing itself. That reinvention is part part of my improvisation as a jazz singer and a painter, because when I start to paint I just smear paint on the canvas and it evolves into my experiences and my internal creative expression. — Richard Mayhew, 2009, from The Art of Richard Mayhew.
Richard Mayhew, an esteemed American artist celebrated for his abstract landscapes, passed away on September 26, 2024 at 100. The Heckscher Museum is privileged to have his work in our collection and to have hosted Mayhew at the opening of his solo show Richard Mayhew: Reinventing Landscape in 2022.
Mayhew was born on Long Island in 1924. He grew up on the south shore, in Amityville, where he formed a deep connection to the natural world. His abstract landscapes, which he called mindscapes, convey inner states and feelings through evocative color, diffused forms, and atmospheric space. His work reflects his Native American and African American Heritage.
In the 1950s and early 1960s, Mayhew studied art in New York City and throughout Europe. Beginning in 1963, during the Civil Rights Movement, he participated in Spiral, an influential group of African American artists who met to discuss the relationship between art and society. These dialogues solidified his commitment to exploring abstraction and landscape painting in conjunction with race and identity. In the decades since, Mayhew had lived, painted, and taught throughout the country including in New York, Pennsylvania and California.
Mayhew is survived by his wife, Rosemary, children, Ina and Scott, and a vast community of admirers who will continue to cherish his artistry and profound impact on American art and culture.