“Born in Philadelphia in 1943, Howardena Pindell studied painting at Boston University and Yale University. After graduating, she accepted a job at the Museum of Modern Art, where she worked from 1967–1979 [and became] the museum’s first African American curator.

…Dialectical patterns (like that of rupture and healing) abound in Pindell’s life and ideas: her seemingly opposed commitments to abstract and political, issue-based art; her sense of self as an African American and as a composite of many cultures and backgrounds; her affection for rationality, science, and mathematics, alongside her interest in ritual, tradition, and spirituality.

…In addition to her curatorial, professorial, and artistic work, Pindell has written countless essays about racism and sexism in the art world that have been collected in volumes like The Heart of The Question (1997). She also co-founded A.I.R. Gallery in New York, the first all-female artists’ cooperative gallery in the United States.”