Howardena Pindell
The 2020 Berkshire Conferences signature image is “Autobiography: Water / Ancestors / Middle Passage / Family Ghosts” by Howardena Pindell.

“Autobiography: Water / Ancestors / Middle Passage / Family Ghosts” by Howardena Pindell
Born in Philadelphia in 1943, Howardena Pindell studied painting at Boston University and Yale University.
After graduating, she accepted a job in the Department of Prints and Illustrated Books at the Museum of Modern Art, where she remained for 12 years (1967–1979). In 1979, she began teaching at the State University of New York, Stony Brook where she is now a full professor.
Throughout her career, Pindell has exhibited extensively. Notable solo-exhibitions include:
- Spelman College (1971, Atlanta
- A.I.R. Gallery (1973, 1983, New York)
- Just Above Midtown (1977, New York)
- Lerner-Heller Gallery (1980, 1981, New York)
- The Studio Museum in Harlem (1986, New York)
- the Wadsworth Atheneum (1989, Hartford)
- Cyrus Gallery (1989, New York)
- G.R. N’Namdi Gallery (1992, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2002, 2006, Chicago, Detroit, and New York)
- Garth Greenan Gallery, New York (2014)
- and Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta (2015)
Learn more about Howardena Pindell on her website.
Image credit:
Howardena Pindell
Howardena Pindell
American, born 1943
Autobiography: Water / Ancestors / Middle Passage / Family Ghosts, 1988
Acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 118 x 71 in. (299.8 x 180.4 cm),
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT
The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1989.17