Constance Lewallen (1939–2022) was an American

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

. She was curator at the

Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA, formerly abbreviated as BAM/PFA) are a combined art museum, repertory movie theater, and archive associated with the University of California, Berkeley. Lawrence Rinder was Director fro ...

. She was known for her support of

Conceptual art Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called inst ...

and West Coast artists.

Life and career

Lewallen was born in New York. She attended

Fieldston School Ethical Culture Fieldston School (ECFS), also referred to as Fieldston, is a private independent school in New York City. The school is a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League. The school serves approximately 1,700 students with 480 facult ...

followed by an undergraduate degree from

Mount Holyoke College Mount Holyoke College is a private liberal arts women's college in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It is the oldest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite historically women's colleges in the Northeastern United State ...

. She received a master's from

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) syste ...

in 1970. Lewallen's first worked at

Bykert Gallery Bykert Gallery was a contemporary art gallery in New York City between 1966 and 1975, run by Klaus Kertess (1940 - 2016) and Jeff Byers who had been classmates at Yale College, class of 1958. The gallery originally was located at 15 West West 57th ...

in New York, where she met

Michael Snow Michael Snow (born December 10, 1928) is a Canadian artist working in a range of media including film, installation, sculpture, photography, and music. His best-known films are '' Wavelength'' (1967) and '' La Région Centrale'' (1971), with the ...

and

Vito Acconci Vito Acconci (, ; January 24, 1940 – April 27, 2017) was an influential American performance, video and installation artist, whose diverse practice eventually included sculpture, architectural design, and landscape design. His foundational ...

. After moving to Los Angeles, Lewallen worked for

Cirrus Editions Cirrus Gallery and Cirrus Editions Limited Publishing and Printing is an art gallery, print workshop and publishing venue in Los Angeles, California. Cirrus Gallery, which houses Cirrus Editions, was founded by Jean Milant and opened in January 197 ...

and Broxton Gallery (with

Larry Gagosian Lawrence Gilbert "Larry" Gagosian (born April 19, 1945) is an American art dealer who owns the Gagosian Gallery chain of art galleries. Working in concert with collectors including Douglas S. Cramer, Eli Broad, and Keith Barish, he developed ...

). Lewawllen then founded ThomasLewallen Gallery and Foundation for Art Research, a non-profit. Lewallen moved to the Bay Area in 1980. She worked for the Berkeley Art Museum from 1980 until 2007; first as Matrix curator (1980–88), then as Senior Curator (1998–2007). Lewallen also worked as associate director of

Crown Point Press Crown Point Press is a long-established printmaking workshop, primarily creating and publishing etched, intaglio prints. Located in San Francisco since 1986, Crown Point Press was first established in 1962 in Richmond California by Kathan Brown. ...

, a fine-art printer and publisher, in the 1980s and 90s. She was a contributing editor to the

Brooklyn Rail ''The Brooklyn Rail'' is a publication and platform for the arts, culture, humanities, and politics. The ''Rail'' is based out of Brooklyn, New York. It features in-depth critical essays, fiction, poetry, as well as interviews with artists, criti ...

. Lewallen was married to poet

Bill Berkson William Craig Berkson (August 30, 1939 – June 16, 2016) was an American poet, critic, and teacher who was active in the art and literary worlds from his early twenties on. Early life and education Born in New York City on August 30, 1939, Bil ...

Curatorial work

Lewallen was known for her work around the California Conceptual art movement of the 1970s. Her exhibitions helped to assert that Conceptual art had roots beyond New York City. "State of Mind New California Art circa 1970", curated with Karen Moss in 2011, was a seminal contribution to the history of West Coast conceptualism. In 1980, Lewallen wrote a chronology for the

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...

about the development of conceptual art in the 1970s. In addition to her work on conceptualism, Lewallen was known for her solo shows of single artists, including

Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Theresa Hak Kyung Cha ( ko, 차학경; March 4, 1951 – November 5, 1982) was an American novelist, producer, director, and artist of South Korean origin, best known for her 1982 novel, '' Dictee''. Considered an avant-garde artist, Cha ...

Bruce Nauman Bruce Nauman (born December 6, 1941) is an American artist. His practice spans a broad range of media including sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing, printmaking, and performance. Nauman lives near Galisteo, New Mexico. Life and work ...

, Joe Brainerd,

Jay DeFeo Jay DeFeo (March 31, 1929 – November 11, 1989) was a visual artist who first became celebrated in the 1950s as part of the spirited community of Beat artists, musicians, and poets in San Francisco. Best known for her monumental work ''The Rose' ...

, and

Paul Kos Paul Joseph Kos (born December 23, 1942) is an American conceptual artist and educator, he is one of the founders of the Bay Area Conceptual Art movement in California. Kos incorporates video, sound and interactivity into his sculptural installa ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewallen, Constance Living people American art curators American women curators Mount Holyoke College alumni 21st-century American women University of California, San Diego alumni Women art historians 1939 births