Lydia Puccinelli (born Lydia Marie Puccinelli-Robbins; December 7, 1930 – December 27, 2023) was an American exhibition designer, curatorial assistant, registrar and curator of exhibitions and of collections.
Early life and education
Born on December 7, 1930, Lydia Puccinelli was became interested in art in her early life. She briefly attended
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...
, but, discovering art's creative and expressive capabilities, she then attended the
Cooper Union
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly known as Cooper Union, is a private college on Cooper Square in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-s ...
School of Art majoring painting and graduated in 1959.
She was later accepted by
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
, while also studying painting at the Aspen School of Art in Colorado.
Interested in textiles, she also studied textile design and designed textiles for large American textile firms.
Career
The African Art Museum
In 1966, Puccinelli was told that she was suitable for a position at a new museum on Capitol Hill, then known as the African Art Museum. There she met her husband
Warren M. Robbins, also the founder of the African Art Museum. After she joined, Puccinelli was gradually promoted from Designer to Curator of Exhibitions.
The African Art Museum initially consisted of Warren Robbins' personal collections, which include artworks from different African tribes such as
Mali
Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...
,
Kongo
Kongo may refer to:
Kongo culture
*Kingdom of Kongo
*Kongo cosmogram
*Kongo language or Kikongo, one of the Bantu languages
*Kongo languages
*Kongo people
*Kongo religion
Places
* Kongo, Ghana, a town in Ghana
*Kongo Central, formerly Bas-Cong ...
, and
Dogon
Dogon may refer to:
*Dogon people, an ethnic group living in the central plateau region of Mali, in West Africa
*Dogon languages
The Dogon languages are a small closely related language family that is spoken by the Dogon people of Mali and may ...
.
Later, Robbins' collections would grow to 9100 pieces, all of which were managed by Puccinelli and Robbins.In 1979, when the museum was merged into the
Smithsonian, Puccinelli was promoted to Curator and directed over 75 exhibitions and 3 catalogues.
In 2000, she retired from the Museum.
Personal Connections with African Art
Puccinelli received honors for her great contributions to promoting cultural communication with African art, and she personally devoted herself to the studies of African art. She visited Africa personally in 1974 and 1981.
She studied African art collections in museums at Amsterdam, Belgium, Paris, London, Oxford, Vienna, and Germany, funded by the Museum Professional Fellowship grant.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Puccinelli, Lydia
Curators of African art
American artists
American art curators
Smithsonian Institution
1930 births
2023 deaths