Constance Lewallen (1939–2022) was an American curator.[1][2] She was curator at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.[2] She was known for her support of Conceptual art and West Coast artists.[2][3]
Life and career
Lewallen was born in New York.[2] She attended Fieldston School followed by an undergraduate degree from Mount Holyoke College.[4] She received a master's from San Diego State University in 1970.[2]
Lewallen's first worked at Bykert Gallery in New York, where she met Michael Snow and Vito Acconci.[3] After moving to Los Angeles, Lewallen worked for Cirrus Editions and Broxton Gallery (with Larry Gagosian).[5] Lewawllen then founded ThomasLewallen Gallery and Foundation for Art Research, a non-profit.[4] Lewallen moved to the Bay Area in 1980.[2] She worked for the Berkeley Art Museum from 1980 until 2007; first as Matrix curator (1980–88), then as Senior Curator (1998–2007).[6][3] Lewallen also worked as associate director of Crown Point Press, a fine-art printer and publisher, in the 1980s and 90s.[4] She was a contributing editor to the Brooklyn Rail.[4]
Lewallen was married to poet Bill Berkson.[7]
Curatorial work
Lewallen was known for her work around the California Conceptual art movement of the 1970s.[2] Her exhibitions helped to assert that Conceptual art had roots beyond New York City.[3] "State of Mind New California Art circa 1970", curated with Karen Moss in 2011, was a seminal contribution to the history of West Coast conceptualism.[3][8] In 1980, Lewallen wrote a chronology for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art about the development of conceptual art in the 1970s.[3]
In addition to her work on conceptualism, Lewallen was known for her solo shows of single artists, including Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Bruce Nauman, Joe Brainerd, Jay DeFeo, and Paul Kos.[2][3]