Lowery Stokes Sims (born 1949) is an American art historian and curator of modern and contemporary art known for her expertise in the work of African, African American, Latinx, Native and Asian American artists such as

Wifredo Lam Wifredo Óscar de la Concepción Lam y Castilla (; December 8, 1902 – September 11, 1982), better known as Wifredo Lam, was a Cuban artist who sought to portray and revive the enduring Afro-Cuban spirit and culture. Inspired by and in conta ...

Fritz Scholder Fritz William Scholder V (October 6, 1937 – February 10, 2005) was a Native American artist. Scholder was an enrolled member of the La Jolla Band of Luiseno Indians, a federally recognized tribe of Luiseños, a California Mission tribe. Schol ...

Romare Bearden Romare Bearden (September 2, 1911 – March 12, 1988) was an American artist, author, and songwriter. He worked with many types of media including cartoons, oils, and collages. Born in Charlotte, North Carolina, Bearden grew up in New York City ...

, Joyce J. Scott and others. She served on the curatorial staff of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 100 ...

, the

Studio Museum in Harlem The Studio Museum in Harlem is an American art museum devoted to the work of artists of African descent. The museum's galleries are currently closed in preparation for a building project that will replace the current building, located at 144 W ...

, and the

Museum of Arts and Design The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), based in Manhattan, New York City, collects, displays, and interprets objects that document contemporary and historic innovation in craft, art, and design. In its exhibitions and educational programs, the mus ...

. She has frequently served as a guest curator, lectured internationally and published extensively, and has received many public appointments. Sims was featured in the 2010 documentary film ''

!Women Art Revolution ''!Women Art Revolution'' is a 2010 documentary film directed by Lynn Hershman Leeson and distributed by Zeitgeist Films. It tracks the feminist art movement over 40 years through interviews with artists, curators, critics, and historians. Syn ...

''.

Education

Raised

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

, Sims graduated from Bishop Reilly High School in

Fresh Meadows, Queens Fresh Meadows is a neighborhood in the northeastern section of the New York City borough of Queens. Fresh Meadows used to be part of the broader town of Flushing and is bordered to the north by the Horace Harding Expressway; to the west by Pom ...

, New York in 1966. She holds a B.A. in art history from

Queens College, City University of New York Queens College (QC) is a public college in the Queens borough of New York City. It is part of the City University of New York system. Its 80-acre campus is primarily located in Flushing, Queens. It has a student body representing more than 170 ...

, and a M.A. in art history from

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consiste ...

. Sims received her Ph.D. in

art history Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today, ...

in 1995 from the

Graduate School Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor's) degree. The organization and st ...

of the

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the public university system of New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven senior colleges, seven community colleges and seven pr ...

. The subject of her dissertation was the Afro-Cuban Chinese

Surrealist art Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

ist

and the International

Avant-Garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

, 1923–1992, which was published by the

University of Texas Press The University of Texas Press (or UT Press) is a university press that is part of the University of Texas at Austin. Established in 1950, the Press publishes scholarly books and journals in several areas, including Latin American studies, Texan ...

in 2002.

Career

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Sims was on the education and curatorial staff of the

from 1972 to 1999. She said her mission "was to make sure that artists of color and overlooked white artists were represented in the museum's collection." She participated in the organization of several exhibitions including

Ellsworth Kelly Ellsworth Kelly (May 31, 1923 – December 27, 2015) was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker associated with hard-edge painting, Color Field painting and minimalism In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art ...

(1979),

John Marin John Marin (December 23, 1870 – October 2, 1953) was an early American modernist artist. He is known for his abstract landscapes and watercolors. Biography Marin was born in Rutherford, New Jersey. His mother died nine days after his birth, ...

: ''Selected Works'' from the Museum’s Collection (1981),

Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract art, abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. As well as sculpture, Mo ...

: ''60 Years of His Art'' (1983), and

Charles Burchfield Charles Ephraim Burchfield (April 9, 1893 – January 10, 1967) was an American painter and visionary artist, known for his passionate watercolors of nature scenes and townscapes. The largest collection of Burchfield's paintings, archives and jo ...

(1984). In 1991, she curated Stuart Davis, ''American Painter'', and she was the principal author of the catalogue. In 1995, Ms. Sims coordinated the Museum’s venue of the exhibition ''I Tell My Heart: The Art of

Horace Pippin Horace Pippin (February 22, 1888 – July 6, 1946) was a self-taught American artist who painted a range of themes, including scenes inspired by his service in World War I, landscapes, portraits, and biblical subjects. Some of his best-known work ...

'', organized by the Museum of the Pennsylvania Academy of Art, and curated

Paul Cadmus Paul Cadmus (December 17, 1904 – December 12, 1999) was an American artist widely known for his egg tempera paintings of gritty social interactions in urban settings. He also produced many highly finished drawings of single nude male figures ...

: ''The Seven Deadly Sins'' and ''Selections from the Collection''. In 1997, Dr. Sims curated the exhibition

Richard Pousette-Dart Richard Warren Pousette-Dart (June 8, 1916 – October 25, 1992) was an American abstract expressionist artist most recognized as a founder of the New York School of painting.Kimmelman, Michae"Richard Pousette-Dart, 76, Dies; An Early Abstract E ...

, 1916–1992 and coordinated

Francesco Clemente Francesco Clemente (born 23 March 1952) is an Italian contemporary artist. He has lived at various times in Italy, India and New York City. Some of his work is influenced by the traditional art and culture of India. He has worked in various ar ...

: ''Indian Watercolors'' organized by the

Indianapolis Museum of Art The Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) is an encyclopedic art museum located at Newfields, a campus that also houses Lilly House, The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park: 100 Acres, the Gardens at Newfields, the Beer Garden, and more. It i ...

. In 1999, she organized

Hans Hofmann Hans Hofmann (March 21, 1880 – February 17, 1966) was a German-born American painter, renowned as both an artist and teacher. His career spanned two generations and two continents, and is considered to have both preceded and influenced Abstrac ...

in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and coordinated the exhibition Barbara Chase-Riboud: ''Monument Drawings'', organized by the St. John’s Museum in

Wilmington, North Carolina Wilmington is a port city in and the county seat of New Hanover County in coastal southeastern North Carolina, United States. With a population of 115,451 at the 2020 census, it is the eighth most populous city in the state. Wilmington is t ...

. Sims also organized several exhibitions from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum in cooperation with the

American Federation of Arts The American Federation of Arts (AFA) is a nonprofit organization that creates art exhibitions for presentation in museums around the world, publishes exhibition catalogues, and develops education programs. The organization’s founding in 1909 ...

, for which she was also involved in writing catalogues: ''The Figure in Twentieth Century Art'': Selections from the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1985), ''The Landscape in Twentieth Century Art'': Selections from the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1991), ''American Still Life Painting'' (1995). For more than a decade, Sims also was responsible for the annual installation of the Museum's Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden, including the 1999 installation, ''Abakanowicz on the Roof''.

The Studio Museum in Harlem

From 2000 to 2007, Sims was executive director, then president, of The Studio Museum in Harlem and served as adjunct curator for the permanent collection. She was the coordinating curator for the 2003 exhibition, ''Challenge of the Modern'': African American Artists, 1925–1945, and Fred Brown: ''Icons and Heroes'' (2003), which she originally curated for the

Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art opened in 1994 in Kansas City, Missouri. With a $5 million annual budget and approximately 75,000 visitors each year, it is Missouri's first and largest contemporary museum. Founders The core of the museum's perm ...

. In 2004, she was the curator for ''Curator's Eye'', focusing on contemporary

installation art Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often calle ...

in Jamaica, at the National Gallery, Kingston, Jamaica. She was also the curator for ''The Persistence of Geometry'', selections from the collection of the

Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egypt ...

, which was shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland in 2006. That same year she co-curated ''Legacies: Contemporary Artists Reflect on Slavery'' at the

New York Historical Society The New-York Historical Society is an American history museum and library in New York City, along Central Park West between 76th and 77th Streets, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museum. ...

The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD)

Sims is the retired curator emerita at the

, where between 2007 and 2015, she served as the Charles Bronfman International Curator and then the William and Mildred Lasdon Chief Curator. At MAD, Sims co-curated "Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary" (2008) and "Dead or Alive: Artists Respond to Nature" (2010). She also conceived and co-curated "The Global Africa Project" (2010–11) and "Against the Grain: Wood in Contemporary Art, Craft and Design" which opened in March 2013. In 2014, she curated the exhibitions "Maryland to Murano: Neckpieces and Sculptures by Joyce J. Scott," and "New Territories: Laboratories for Design, Craft and Art in Latin America."

Awards

Sims received the 1991

Frank Jewett Mather Frank Jewett Mather Jr. (6 July 1868 – 11 November 1953) was an American art critic and professor. He was the first "modernist" (i.e., post-classicist) professor at the Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University. He was a direct desc ...

Award from the

College Art Association The College Art Association of America (CAA) is the principal organization in the United States for professionals in the visual arts, from students to art historians to emeritus faculty. Founded in 1911, it "promotes these arts and their understa ...

for distinction in art criticism and the association's 2018 Distinguished Feminist Award. Sims has also received honorary degrees from the

Maryland Institute College of Art The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) is a Private university, private art school, art and design college in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1826 as the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, making it one of t ...

(1988),

Moore College of Art and Design Moore College of Art & Design is a private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its undergraduate programs are available only for female students, but its other educational programs, including graduate programs, are co-educational. Histo ...

(1991),

Parsons School of Design Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhatt ...

at the

New School University The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...

(2000), the

Atlanta College of Art The Atlanta College of Art (ACA) was a private four-year art college located in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1905, it was the oldest art college in the Southeast when it was sold out by the Woodruff Arts Center board of directors to the Sa ...

(2002), and

College of New Rochelle The College of New Rochelle (CNR) was a private Catholic college with its main campus in New Rochelle, New York, but also in Australia, England, and Germany. It was founded as the College of St. Angela by Mother Irene Gill, OSU of the Ursuline ...

and Brown University (2003).

Teaching

Sims was a fellow at the

Clark Art Institute The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, commonly referred to as the Clark, is an art museum and research institution located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. Its collection consists of European and American paintings, sculp ...

in spring 2007. In 2005 and 2006, she was visiting professor at

Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the Queens borough of New York City. It is part of the City University of New York system. Its 80-acre campus is primarily located in Flushing, Queens. It has a student body representing more than 170 ...

and

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also adm ...

in New York City and in fall 2007, visiting scholar in the Department of Art at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

, Twin Cities. She is an adjunct professor at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University and a distinguished professor at the University of California Irvine

Claire Trevor School of the Arts The Claire Trevor School of the Arts (CTSA, Claire Trevor) is an academic unit at the University of California, Irvine, focused on the performing and visual arts. The four departments housed in the school are for art, dance, drama, and music ...

Guest curator

Sims has lectured nationally and internationally and guest curated numerous exhibitions, most recently at the

National Gallery of Jamaica The National Gallery of Jamaica, in Kingston, Jamaica, is Jamaica's public art museum. It was established in 1974 and is located in the Kingston Mall, a commercial and cultural center on Kingston harbour. The National Gallery of Jamaica also ha ...

, Kingston, Jamaica (2004), The

and the

(2006). She has served nationally and internationally as a juror and guest curator at The Queens Museum, The Studio Museum in Harlem,

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was founded in 1887 ...

, the Caribbean Cultural Center (New York),

Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (Cooper Union) is a private college at Cooper Square in New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique in ...

, The

New Museum of Contemporary Art The New Museum of Contemporary Art, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is a museum in New York City at 235 Bowery, on Manhattan's Lower East Side. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-named New Sch ...

, the

California African American Museum The California African American Museum (CAAM) is a museum located in Exposition Park, Los Angeles, California, United States. The museum focuses on enrichment and education on the cultural heritage and history of African Americans with a focus o ...

, the

, and the

Contemporary Arts Center The Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) is a contemporary art museum in Cincinnati, Ohio and one of the first contemporary art institutions in the United States. The CAC is a non-collecting museum that focuses on new developments in painting, sculptur ...

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

Cultural Institutions Group The Cultural Institutions Group (CIG) is a coalition of institutions providing cultural and educational resources to the public in New York City that are subsidized by the city. The group originated in the last quarter of the 19th century with pla ...

, a coalition of botanical gardens, historic sites, museums and zoos funded by the City of New York. She also served on panels for the

New York City Department of Cultural Affairs The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) is the department of the government of New York City dedicated to supporting New York City's cultural life. Among its primary missions is ensuring adequate public funding for non-profit cultur ...

, The

Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the New York City metropolitan area of the U.S. state of New York. The MTA is the largest public transit authority in t ...

of New York City, The Metropolitan Life Foundation, the

New York State Council on the Arts The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) is an arts council serving the U.S. state of New York. It was established in 1960 through a bill introduced in the New York State Legislature by New York State Senator MacNeil Mitchell (1905–1996 ...

, and the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federa ...

and the Humanities. In 1981, Ms. Sims was elected member of the Commission on the Status of Women of the City of New York, and in 1987 was appointed for a five-year term to the New York State Council on the Arts by

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Mario Cuomo Mario Matthew Cuomo (, ; June 15, 1932 – January 1, 2015) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 52nd governor of New York for three terms, from 1983 to 1994. A member of the Democratic Party, Cuomo previously served as ...

. She has served on the board of Art Table, Inc., and the Caribbean Cultural Center and the advisory committee of the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at the New School for Social Research, and the advisory committee of the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College. She is currently on the boards of the Art Matters,

The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation was founded in 1918 by Louis Comfort Tiffany to operate his estate, Laurelton Hall, in Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island. It was designed to be a summer retreat for artists and craftspeople. In 1946 the estate ...

and Art 21. In 1993, she was elected to the board of the College Art Association for a four-year term, and was co-chair of the studio art program for the 1994 annual conference of the CAA. In 2003 and 2004, she served on the jury for the

World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition The World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition was an open, international memorial contest, initiated by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) according to the specifications of the architect Daniel Libeskind, to design a memorial ...

to choose the memorial for the World Trade Center site. In 2006 and 2015, she was the

James A. Porter Colloquium on African American Art The James A. Porter Colloquium is a three-day scholarly program at Howard University exploring African American art history and African American culture, cultural development. Started in 1990 by art historian Dr. Floyd Coleman, the Porter Colloquiu ...

keynote speaker.

Bibliography

Sims, L. S. & Davis, S. (1991). ''Stuart Davis: American Painter''. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), Sims, L. S., Rewald, S., Lieberman, W. S., & American Federation of Arts. (1996). ''Still Life: The Object in American Art, 1915-1995: Selections from the Metropolitan Museum of Art''. New York: Rizzoli. Sims, L. S., & Bearden, R. (1993). ''Romare Bearden''. New York, N.Y.: Rizzoli Publications. Sims, L. S., & Lam, W. (2002). ''Wifredo Lam and the International Avant-Garde, 1923-1982''. Austin, Tex: University of Texas Press. Sims, L.S. (editor). (2008). ''Fritz Scholder: Indian Not Indian''. Washington, DC, and New York, NY: Smithsonian Institution and New York, N.Y.: Prestel. Sims, L. S., Ramírez, M. C., Rangel, G., Rivas, J., Basha, R., Pope, N. L., Lopes, F., ... Museum of Arts and Design (New York, N.Y.). (2014). ''New Territories: Laboratories for Design, Craft and Art in Latin America''. Sims, L. S., Carr, D., & Museum of Fine Arts. (2015). ''Common Wealth: Art by African Americans in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston''. Boston: MFA Publications. Sims, L. S. and Sims, Patterson. (2018). ''Joyce J. Scott: Harriet Tubman and Other Truths.'' Hamilton, New Jersey: Grounds for Sculpture.

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sims, Lowery Stokes 1949 births Living people African-American academics African-American artists American art curators Frank Jewett Mather Award winners Artists from New York City Date of birth missing (living people) 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people American women curators American art historians African-American Catholics