Lou Stovall: Of Land and Origins

This exhibition features selected works by celebrated American master printmaker Lou Stovall, the 2022 recipient of the museum’s Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Award. The exhibition will celebrate Stovall’s unique artistry and contribution to the visual arts, which are inspired by his life, nature and his poetic meditations. Included in the exhibition are several silkscreens from Stovall’s 1974 series “Of the Land,” a body of prints that form the basis of an upcoming book on Stovall’s art and poetry forthcoming from Georgetown University Press in 2022. The publication is edited by his son, Will Stovall.

Born in Athens, Georgia, in 1937 but raised in Springfield, Massachusetts, Stovall matriculated at the Rhode Island School of Design before attending Howard University, where he studied under important artists such as James A. Porter, James Lesesne Wells and David Driskell. Stovall graduated from Howard in 1965 and in 1968 opened a printmaking studio, the Workshop, Inc., adjacent to his residence in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of Washington, D.C. His designs and work in community poster printmaking were transformative in the visual culture of both art and politics in the 1960s and 1970s, attracting artists and collaborators for later printmaking projects. Over the decades, Stovall has successfully worked with notable American artists such as Sam Gilliam, Josef Albers, Jacob Lawrence, Alexander Calder and Robert Mangold.

Although Stovall’s projects with artistic collaborators are well known, his vision and craft as a draftsman, colorist and printmaker have been largely overlooked until recent years. Recent survey exhibitions at the Columbus Museum (Columbus, Georgia) and an upcoming one at the Kreeger Museum (Washington, D.C.) are only beginning to shed light on Stovall’s importance.

Stovall has garnered various awards over the decades, including the Printmaker of Distinction Award at the Southern Graphics Conference, Washington, D.C. (2005); commissions from the White House, American Red Cross, Amnesty International and National Endowment for the Arts (NEA); and several grants from the NEA. His work can be found in collections including the Smithsonian American Museum, National Gallery of Art and the Phillips Collection (Washington, D.C.); the Ringling Museum of Art (Sarasota, Florida) and the Columbus Museum. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, artist Di Bagley Stovall, a Columbus, Georgia native.

Lou Stovall: Of Land and Origins