The Studio Museum in Harlem

“Art is involved with the uniqueness of special sensibility, which makes a difference not only to a viewer, but to the whole nation.”—Richard Mayhew ⁠
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With heavy hearts, the Studio Museum mourns the passing of artist and educator Richard Mayhew. His imaginative, colorful, and abstract landscape paintings, which he called “mindscapes,” do not directly represent a place and instead depict his emotional connection to the natural world as influenced by his African American and Native American heritages. ⁠
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Born and raised in Amityville, Long Island, Richard Mayhew spent summers observing the many artists who flocked to his hometown to paint its vistas and shorelines. At a young age, he borrowed brushes and paints from his father’s sign-painting business to create his own work. Mayhew committed himself to becoming an artist at age seventeen. In 1947, Mayhew moved to New York City, where he was surrounded by the growing Abstract Expressionism movement. While in New York, he explored the connection between landscapes and the spirituality at the center of his Shinnecock and Cherokee heritages. In 1963, he became a founding member of the artist group Spiral, a collective of African American artists formed at the height of the civil rights movement to discuss the issues affecting Black artists in the United States at the time. Mayhew later taught at the Brooklyn Museum, the Art Students League, Smith College, and Pennsylvania State University. When Mayhew retired from teaching in 1991, he relocated with his wife to Santa Cruz, California, where he continued to paint. ⁠
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We celebrate and honor Mayhew’s life and work, including “Gorge,” which is held in the Studio Museum’s collection, and extend our heartfelt condolences to his family and friends. ⁠