Constance Lewallen (July 25, 1939 – April 24, 2022) was an American

curator A curator (from , 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 particular ins ...

. 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 film archive associated with the University of California, Berkeley. Lawrence Rinder was Director ...

. She was known for her support of Conceptual art and West Coast artists. Lewallen died on April 24, 2022, at the age of 82.

Life and career

Lewallen (née Ehrlich) was born in New York. She attended

Fieldston School The Ethical Culture Fieldston School (ECFS), also known more simply as Fieldston or Ethical Culture, is a private pre-K through twelfth grade coeducational school in New York City with two campuses, in Manhattan and in the Bronx. The school is ...

followed by an undergraduate degree from

Mount Holyoke College Mount Holyoke College is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in South Hadley, Massachusetts, United States. It is the oldest member of the h ...

. She received a master's from

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Diego, California, United States. Founded in 1897, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CS ...

in 1970. Lewallen's first worked at Bykert Gallery in New York, where she met

Michael Snow Michael James Aleck Snow (December 10, 1928 – January 5, 2023) was a Canadian artist who worked in a range of media including film, installation, sculpture, photography, and music. His best-known films are ''Wavelength'' (1967) and '' La Rég ...

and

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

. After moving to Los Angeles, Lewallen worked for Cirrus Editions and Broxton Gallery (with

Larry Gagosian Lawrence Gilbert "Larry" Gagosian (born April 19, 1945) is an Armenian 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 ...

). Lewallen then founded ThomasLewallen Gallery with Morgan Thomas 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, a fine-art printer and publisher, in the 1980s and 90s. She was a contributing editor to the

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

. Lewallen was married to poet Bill Berkson.

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 art, modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art ...

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 (; March 4, 1951 – November 5, 1982) was an American novelist, producer, director, and artist of South Korean origin, best known for her 1982 novel, '' Dictée''. Considered an avant-garde artist, Cha was fluent in ...

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, 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 American art curators American women curators Mount Holyoke College alumni 21st-century American women University of California, San Diego alumni American women art historians American art historians 1939 births 2022 deaths