Tom Lloyd (artist)

Tom Lloyd was born in Jamaica, Queens in 1929. He studied art at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and the Brooklyn Museum.[1]^:25

In 1968, Tom Lloyd’s work was chosen as the subject for the inaugural exhibition of the Studio Museum in Harlem. The exhibition, Electronic Refractions II, opened on September 24, 1968, and featured his electronically programmed light sculptures.[2] Lloyd’s work in the exhibition proved controversial, departing as it did from a figurative aesthetic prevalent in African-American art at the time.[1]^:27

A few months before the opening, Lloyd participated in the 1968 round-table discussion The Black Artist in America: A Symposium, convened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and chaired by Romare Bearden. The discussion included Richard Hunt, Jacob Lawrence, Hale Woodruff, Sam Gilliam and William T. Williams.[3]

In 1971, Lloyd edited a volume of commissioned essays written by African-American cultural producers called Black Art Notes, to which he also contributed. In his essay he addressed the need for a relationship between art and social and political action.[2] The publication as a whole was intended as a “counter-statement”[4] to Robert Doty’s catalog introduction of the Contemporary Black Artists in America exhibition held at the Whitney Museum in 1971.[5]

Also in 1971, Lloyd founded the Store Front Museum in Queens, NY. Located in the predominantly Black neighborhood of Jamaica, the space served as a vital cultural hub hosting exhibitions, concerts, lectures and festivals as well as other community enrichment activities like dance and karate lessons.[2]

Lloyd was a founding member of the Art Workers Coalition, and initially, the only Black artist. He was instrumental in recruiting Faith Ringgold into the group[1] and together with John Hendricks and others, used the group as a platform to advocate for integrating museums through the creation of Black and Puerto Rican advisory boards and through acquiring and holding more exhibitions of Black and Puerto Rican artists' work.[1] Before joining the AWC, Lloyd briefly joined the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition (BECC), but found their approach to social change too meek.[1]^:178

1965, Amel Gallery[6]

1965, Art Turned On, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston[1]^:178

1965, Light as a Creative Medium, Carpenter Art Center, Harvard University[1]^:178

1966, Light in Art, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston[1]^:178

1966, Art Electric, Sonnabend Gallery, Paris[1]^:178

1966, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut[1]^:25

1967, Counterpoints, Lever House, New York[1]^:178

1968, Howard Wise Gallery[7]

1971, Electronic Refractions II, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York[1]^:27

1971, Contemporary Black Artists in America, Whitney Museum of American Art[1]^:178  

2006, Energy/Experimentation, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York[8]

2007, Black Light White Noise, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston[9]

2019, Black Refractions: Highlights from the Studio Museum in Harlem, traveling exhibition[10]

1. Bearden, Romare, Sam Gilliam, Richard Hunt, Jacob Lawrence, Tom Lloyd, William Williams, and Hale Woodruff. "The Black Artist in America: A Symposium." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 27, no. 5 (1969): 245–61.
2. Cahan, Susah E. Mounting Frustration: The Art Museum in the Age of Black Power. Durham: Duke University Press, 2016. ISBN 9780822358978. OCLC 994318514
3. English, Darby. 1971: A Year in the Life of Color. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016. ISBN 9780226131054. OCLC 944087514.
4. Godfrey Mark and Zoe Whitley, eds. Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power. London: Tate, 2017. ISBN 978184764636. OCLC 972385518

• Tom Lloyd audio interview on Electronic Refractions II at the Studio Museum in Harlem, recorded December 11, 1968