{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2016}} {{Infobox person |image = File:Houston Conwill '74.jpg |caption = Houston Conwill in 1974, Washington D.C. | name = Houston Conwill | birth_date = {{birth date|1947|4|2}} | birth_place = Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2016|11|14|1947|4|2}} | death_place = The Bronx, New York, U.S. | alma_mater = Howard University<br>University of Southern California | occupation = Artist | years_active = 1971–2016 }}
'''Houston Eugene Conwill''' (April 2, 1947 – November 14, 2016) was an American multidisciplinary artist known best for large-scale public sculptural installations. Conwill was a sculptor, painter, and performance and conceptual artist whose site-specific works explore and celebrate spirituality and African-American artists, activists, and intellectuals.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://nkaa.uky.edu/record.php?note_id=1219 |title=Notable Kentucky African Americans Database |publisher= University of Kentucky Libraries|access-date=December 14, 2014}}</ref> Studio Museum in Harlem recognised his body of work as a "lasting monument to black culture."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.studiomuseum.org/article/remembering-houston-conwill|title=Remembering Houston Conwill|website=Studio Museum in Harlem|date=January 11, 2018 |language=en|access-date=2018-03-20}}</ref>
==Early life and career==
Houston Eugene Conwill was born on April 2, 1947, in Louisville, Kentucky, to Mary Luella Herndon, an educator, and Giles Adolph Conwill, a waiter. He was the third of their six children. His father died when he was a child and his maternal grandmother (Estella Houston, who he was named for) played an important role in his upbringing. Conwill was raised Catholic, his mother a teacher and administrator at a predominantly black parochial school. His sister Estella Conwill Majozo is an author, poet, and professor. At least one of his brothers, Giles Conwill, went on to join the priesthood. For a time, in his late teens, Conwill lived in Saint Meinrad Archabbey, a monastery in Saint Meinrad, Indiana.
After joining the Air Force in 1966 where he served three years until the fall of 1970, he enrolled in Howard University's art department. During his time at Howard, Conwill worked with Sam Gilliam, Lois Mailou Jones, and Skunder Boghossian, and took in the displays of traditional African art exhibited in Howard's gallery. It was here, and in his first student exhibition in 1971, that Conwill started making works with canvases stretched over pyramid shapes, a motif that would recur throughout his artistic career.<ref name=dissertation>{{cite book|last1=Jeffries|first1=Rosalind Robinson|title=Arthur Carraway and Houston Conwill: ethnicity and re-Africanization in American art|date=1992|publisher=Yale University}}</ref> Conwill was graduated from Howard in 1973 and moved with his wife, fellow Howard art school graduate Kinshasha Holman Conwill, to California. Houston pursued his master's degree from University of Southern California<ref name=MOMA>{{cite news|title=Projects: Houston Conwill|agency=Museum of Modern Art|date=November 1989}}</ref> and Kinshasha worked at curator of Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House, where they lived for two years.<ref name="dissertation"/>
== Personal life == Conwill married Karen Holman (also known as Kinshasha Holman Conwill) in a Ghanaian ceremony at Metropolitan Baptist Church in Washington D.C. in 1971.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=20 Jan 1972|title=Gerri Major's Society World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w1sDAAAAMBAJ&q=%22houston%20conwill%22&pg=PA39|journal=Jet}}</ref> Conwill died on November 14, 2016, of prostate cancer.
==Significant works== In 1989, Conwill produced an installation piece for the Museum of Modern Art's series, Projects, called ''The Cakewalk Humanifesto: A Cultural Libation''. An etched-glass frame, reminiscent of the rose window at Chartres, was etched with words and maps, projecting patterns onto the marble floor of the gallery. The piece also featured a table on which rested a book of letters, written by his sister, Estella. Readings of the letters were a component of the exhibition.<ref name=NYmag>{{cite news|last1=Larson|first1=Kay|title=Corn King|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ROgCAAAAMBAJ&q=%22houston+conwill%22&pg=PA156|work=New York Magazine|date=December 4, 1989}}</ref> Perhaps Conwill's most prominent work is ''Rivers,'' his terrazzo and brass floor design at the New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Unveiled in February 1992, the floor honors poet Langston Hughes whose ashes are buried in a book-shaped urn within the design. The name of the work, ''Rivers'', is in reference to Hughes's poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers", and includes visual elements from Yoruba, Haitian voodou, and Christian traditions. Conwill again collaborated with his sister, Estella, as well as architect Joseph De Pace.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Mythologies|url=http://archives.newyorker.com/?iid=15742&startpage=page0000014#folio=012|access-date=February 19, 2015|magazine=The New Yorker|date=February 2, 1992}}</ref>
thumb|left|''ARC'' (1986) by Houston Conwill - composed of African brass in concrete, whose shadow tracks etched and inlaid metal circles in the pavement beneath
In 1986 ''Arc'', a large scale installation, was created by Conwill for the 160th Street entrance to the York College, CUNY campus.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://web.york.cuny.edu/campus-art/installation/houston_conwill.html|title=Arc, by Houston Conwill|website=web.york.cuny.edu|access-date=2018-03-19}}</ref> ''Arc'' has a span of 26 feet, it is composed of metals, commonly known as "African brass", embedded in concrete. It is covered by inlays of various symbols rising out of the surface created by arc spraying, a technique in which an electric arc melts metal wires onto the surface. ''Arc'' is oxidized to a teal green color, similar to New York City's Statue of Liberty. The piece includes three inlaid metal circles embedded in nearby concrete pavements. Each circle has one word repeated twice in capital letters. 'MEMORY' is placed beneath the arched feature, followed by 'VISION' a few stairs over and then, few steps away is 'IMAGINATION'. Each circle is divided into four equal sections with inlaid lines reminiscent of ''Yowa,''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/afbg/learn/historyculture/yowa.htm|title=YOWA - Continuity of Human Life - African Burial Ground National Monument (U.S. National Park Service)|website=www.nps.gov|language=en|access-date=2017-12-12}}</ref> the Kongo cosmogram for the continuity of human life through reincarnation. Many symbols are used by Africans to represent the retention of their culture in the United States of America. Depending on the time of day and the sun's position, the shadow of ''Arc'' moves over the metal circles in the ground surrounding it.
Conwill's work is in the permanent collections of Museum of Modern Art in New York; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and the Studio Museum in Harlem.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.artforum.com/news/houston-conwill-1947-2016-64874|title=Houston Conwill (1947–2016)|website=www.artforum.com|date=November 21, 2016 |access-date=2018-03-20}}</ref>
=== List of selected works === * ''The Joyful Mysteries (1984–2034 A.D.)'', (1984) at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York * ''Arc'' (1986) at York College, CUNY, New York * ''The Open Secret'', (1986) mezzanine of 125th Street, New York<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://web.mta.info/mta/aft/permanentart/permart.html?agency=nyct&line=6&artist=1&station=11|title=MTA - Arts & Design {{!}} NYCT Permanent Art|website=web.mta.info|language=en|access-date=2018-03-19}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/06/nyregion/transit-agency-creates-art-havens-in-subways.html|title=Transit Agency Creates Art Havens in Subways|work=The New York Times |date=November 6, 1989 |access-date=2018-03-19|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nycsubway.org/wiki/Artwork:_Open_Secret_(Houston_Conwill)|title=Open Secret (Houston Conwill)|website=www.nycsubway.org|language=en|access-date=2018-03-20}}</ref> * ''The Cakewalk Humanifesto: A Cultural Libation'' (1989) at MOMA, New York * ''Poets Rise (1989)'' exterior of Joseph P. Addabbo Federal Building, Jamaica, Queens, New York<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.loc.gov/item/2010720134/|title=Sculpture "Poets Rise" exterior of Joseph P. Addabbo Federal Building, Jamaica, Queens, New York|work=The Library of Congress|access-date=2018-03-19|language=en}}</ref> * ''Rivers'' (1992) at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York * ''Du Sable's Journey'' (1991), with Estella Majoza and Joseph De Pace, in the Harold Washington Library, Chicago<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/chicago_s_publicartharoldwashingtonlibrary.html|title=City of Chicago :: Harold Washington Library|website=www.cityofchicago.org|language=en|access-date=2018-03-19}}</ref> * ''Revelation'' (1993), also known as the ''Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial'', with Estella Majoza and Joseph De Pace, at Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco * ''New Calypso'' (1994), with Estella Conwill Majoza and Joseph De Pace, in Park West Station, Miami<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.miamidade.gov/transit/art-en-route.asp#16|title=Art en Route - Miami-Dade County|last=Services|first=Miami-Dade County Online|website=www.miamidade.gov|language=en|access-date=2018-03-20}}</ref> * ''The New Ring Shout'' (1995), in the Ted Weiss Federal Building (near the African Burial Ground National Monument), New York, New York<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.loc.gov/item/2010720135/|title=Architectural art "The New Ring Shout" at Ted Weiss Federal Building, New York, New York|work=The Library of Congress|access-date=2018-03-19|language=en}}</ref>
== Selected exhibitions == * 1976 ''JuJu,'' The Gallery, Los Angeles * 1980 ''Passages: Earth/Space H3,'' Nexus Gallery, Atlanta * 1981 ''Easter Shout!,'' PS1, New York * 1982 ''Afro-American Abstraction'', Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/4154?locale=en|title=Afro-American Abstraction {{!}} MoMA|website=The Museum of Modern Art|language=en|access-date=2018-03-19}}</ref> * 1986 ''Houston Conwill: The Passion of St. Matthew—Painting and Sculpture'', Alternative Museum, New York * 1990 ''Houston Conwill: Project Series'', Museum of Modern Art, New York * 1990 ''Hirshhorn WORKS 89: Daniel Buren, Buster Simpson, Houston Conwill, Matt Mullican / Sidney Lawrence, Ned Rifkin, and Phyllis Rosenzweig'', Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. * 1990 ''The Decade Show: Frameworks of Identity in the 1980s'', New Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art, and Studio Museum in Harlem, New York * 2013 ''Now Dig This! Art and Black, Los Angeles 1960–1980'', MOMA PS1, New York<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/3759?locale=en|title=Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles 1960–1980 {{!}} MoMA|website=The Museum of Modern Art|language=en|access-date=2018-03-19}}</ref>
== Awards and honours == * 1982 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.york.cuny.edu/campus-art/installation/houston_conwill.html|title=Houston Conwill Arc, 1986 – Metals and Concrete, span 26 feet|last1=Buie|first1=Linda|date=2008|publisher=York College, City University of New York|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130419004925/http://www.york.cuny.edu/campus-art/installation/houston_conwill.html|archive-date=April 19, 2013|url-status=dead|access-date=December 14, 2014|df=mdy-all}}</ref> * 1984 Rome Prize (USA) * 1987 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation award<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://hammer.ucla.edu/now-dig-this/artists/houston-conwill/|title=Houston Conwill {{!}} Now Dig This! digital archive {{!}} Hammer Museum|website=Hammer Museum|language=en|access-date=2018-03-19}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Conwill, Houston}} Category:1947 births Category:2016 deaths Category:African-American sculptors Category:Artists from Louisville, Kentucky Category:Sculptors from Kentucky Category:Howard University alumni Category:20th-century African-American people Category:21st-century African-American artists Category:African-American Catholics