Remembering Artist Floyd Newsum, 74, Co-Founder of Project Row Houses and ‘Pillar of the Houston Arts Community’

Floyd Newsum (1950-2024) stands before his work. | Photo: Madison Museum of Contemporary Art

HOUSTON, TEXAS, LOST a celebrated arts leader over the summer. Floyd Newsum (1950-2024), an artist, educator, and co-founder of Project Row Houses (PRH), died on Aug. 14. He was 74. Newsum was a professor of art at the University of Houston Downtown (UHD) for more than 40 years. He was also a long-serving deacon at Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, where his memorial service was held on Aug. 27. The local ABC news station described the artist as “a pillar of the Houston arts community.”

Several artists, curators, and institutions shared remembrances of Newsum on social media at the time of his passing. Newsum is on the roster at Art is Bond, the Houston gallery owned by Janice Bond. The gallery paid tribute to the artist on Instagram. The statement said in part: “Floyd Newsum, a beloved member of the Houston art community, was not only renowned for his vibrant canvases that interwove historical narratives with personal symbolism but also for his commitment to social change through art. His contributions to the African American art scene have been particularly impactful, bringing forward stories and histories that are often overlooked.”

Valerie Cassel Oliver, curator of modern and contemporary art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Va., was previously senior curator at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, where she spent nearly two decades. Cassel Oliver’s post on Instagram included: “Just hearing of the loss of Floyd Newsum. A long thread in the fabric of Houston’s art scene.… A brilliant artist and all around beautiful human being.… I didn’t see this one coming…a real sucker punch!! Blessed to have spent time with Floyd in the studio discussing his work and practice over the years.”

In 1993, Newsum was one of seven artists who established Project Row Houses. The organization is a platform for art and community based in a series of renovated shot-gun houses in Houston’s Third Ward, one of city’s oldest African American neighborhoods. The nonprofit has grown significantly over the years. Today, Project Row Houses focuses on exhibitions, fellowships, residencies, and grant opportunities for artists, alongside community enrichment and neighborhood development programs.

The co-founders of PRH are Newsum and Jesse Lott (1943-2023), who died last year; James Bettison: (1958-1997) and Bert Long, Jr. (1940-2013); and Rick Lowe, Bert Samples, George Smith, the last three living founders.

Project Row Houses announced Newsum’s death on Facebook. “Our hearts have cracked wide open learning that our dear founder Floyd Newsum has gone to be with the ancestors. Floyd was vibrant, insightful, and ready with a challenging question or unexpected suggestion followed by a smile and a laugh to let you know he was pushing you because he felt you were worth pushing,” Project Row Houses said in the Aug. 14 statement.

“Floyd found joy in his art, but talked about how personal it was to him, and what a contrast his intensely personal practice was to the Project Row Houses’ practice of socially engaged art. But he also found joy as a teacher, a calling rooted in the full meaning of collective creative action.”

“Floyd found joy in his art, but talked about how personal it was to him, and what a contrast his intensely personal practice was to the Project Row Houses’ practice of socially engaged art. But he also found joy as a teacher, a calling rooted in the full meaning of collective creative action.”
— Project Row Houses

NEWSUM WAS BORN IN MEMPHS, TENN., where he also grew up. Four years ago, on the My Brother Podcast, Laolu Davies-Yemitan spoke with Newsum about his life and work. The artist said he had a “great dad and great mom,” two siblings and lots of cousins. He described his childhood and family life growing up in Memphis, where his father was one of 12 Black firefighters who integrated the city’s fire department in 1955. Newsum witnessed the sanitation workers strike and recalled Martin Luther King’s assassination at the local Lorraine Motel.

He attended segregated schools and said he “never experienced whites” until he pursued his undergraduate education at the Memphis College of Art. His father wasn’t sure about him attending a school that only offered art. Newsum said his mother must have convinced him it would be okay because his parents let him go and paid for his tuition. Newsum graduated from the Memphis College of Art (1973) and earned an MFA from Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pa. (1975). The following year, he moved to Houston.

Newsum’s artwork explores his personal history, myth, spirituality, the environment, cultural observations, and reflections on the Civil Rights Movement. He has also centered women, paying homage to his wife and the other women in his family. He said he preferred to work in two-dimensions, specifically painting, drawing, and printmaking. He also produced sculptures for several public art commissions. His works feature an array of ideas and symbols, lines and shapes, blending figuration with abstraction. Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, Charles White, Henri Matisse, and Marc Chagall, were among the artists who inspired him, he said.

FLOYD NEWSUM (American, 1950-2024), “After the Storm CNN,” 2008 (acrylic and oil paint on paper mounted to board with mixed media, framed: 59 1/4 × 88 3/4 × 1 7/8 inches / 150.5 × 225.4 × 4.8 cm). | © Floyd Newsum. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift to the People of America from the Van Fleets of Texas, Object Number 2013.235

“After the Storm CNN” (2008) references the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the fateful storm that hit New Orleans, La., in 2005. The painting includes images of a dog, bird, television, house, and many other objects and geometric structures, and whimsical lines and marks strewn across a deep blue ground. Katrina’s floodwaters breached countless homes, eventually taking nearly 1,400 lives, devastating families and communities. The chaos is deeply felt in the artist’s interpretation. It’s a meditation on tragedy, displacement, as well as hope.

Multiple images of ladders can be seen in the painting. Ladders are a recurring motif in the artist’s work. Their inclusion is a tribute to his father, one of the first African American firefighters in Memphis. In a video interview with UHD art historian Susan Baker, the artist said ladders are “a means of transition, second chances, and revival Growing up in Memphis, Tennessee, in the 60s with the social issues evolving all around, surely it affected the way I created work.”

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., acquired “After the Storm CNN” in 2013. Kinshasha Holman Conwill, former deputy director of NMAAHC, was instrumental in the acquisition. She commented on Cassel Oliver’s Instagram post, fondly recalling her interactions with Newsum over the years. Conwill wrote:

Dearest @casseloliver this is a huge loss and such very heartbreaking news. Floyd was indeed amazing all around. I first met him decades ago when we exhibited his work at the Studio Museum. My great colleague Jackie Serwer and I visited his studio in Houston in the early days of collecting art for @nmaahc. We also went with him on a visit to @projectrowhouses. His work was among the first art that we acquired. In a wonderful piece of serendipity I learned that he and my dear niece and nephew, Patrice and Jim Lowe all worshipped at Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church. Floyd was in DC several months ago and was as always a beacon of brilliance, ever gracious. I see his warm smile as I remember him.

When the National Museum of African American History and Culture opened in 2016, “After the Storm CNN” was featured in the inaugural visual art exhibition. In the caption for the work, Newsum stated: “A painting is a collection of thoughts in a single composition…and sometimes my intent is to present more than one interpretation.”

“Throughout the course of all of my years of work, there are certain things that you will always see present—the objects, the icons, the shapes, the content. My love affair with color.” — Floyd Newsum

In 2016, Floyd Newsum talked about what it means to have his work represented at the Smithsonian. “After the Storm CNN” by Newsum, which is about Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, was acquired by the National Museum of African American Culture. | Video by ABC-13 Houston

NEWSUM WAS THE SUBJECT of solo exhibitions and his work was included in numerous group shows. His public art commissions include works at Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church and two Houston Metro Light Rail Stations. Last year, a 50-year survey of Newsum, his first large-scale retrospective, was presented at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art in Madison, Wisc.

“Floyd Newsum: Evolution of Sight” explored his work across mediums and decades. In the introduction to the exhibition, Newsum stated that his works “are exploring color, marks, and surfaces in various mediums. I call my evolution in creativity a problem-solving event of expression of the soul.”

“Evolution of Sight” was guest curated by Lauren Cross and Mark Cervenka. Cross is associate curator of American Decorative Arts at the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, Calif. Previously, she was an assistant professor and program coordinator of interdisciplinary art and design studies at University of North Texas in Denton, Texas. Cross shared a heartfelt remembrance of Newsum on Instagram (Aug. 15). She wrote in part:

I am so heartbroken to learn that my dear friend and fellow artist Floyd Newsum has transitioned. One of the leading artists in Houston’s art scene, I have literally known his work since I was a little girl. From his co-founding of Project Row Houses, which was born right in front of my home church, to his iconic public art works that transformed the city landscape. His impact went so far and wide. I am so profoundly grateful that I had the opportunity to get to know him and his family personally throughout the years, and had the honor of working with him to co-curate his retrospective @mmocamadison. What a joy to see him so happy and to share his brilliance with their community and beyond, and to see so many people embrace his greatness. He was the type of person who was always showing up for others. Whether it’s coming out to support an event or hanging out with @janicebond and I to express our joy in all of his upcoming projects. He even dropped me off at the airport the last time I was in Houston and made sure I got a meal for the journey. This kind of care for people is what I will miss so much about him…the way he loves his family and his community.

A light-hearted painting about the artist’s dog, encapsulates his approach to making work. “D.O.G. at Playtime” (2017), centers a pit/lab mix he said his wife brought home from New York. Newsum made a video narrating the work and explaining some of the meaning behind the content.

“I love this dog so much that I had to do something about her. It incorporates all the things that I’ve always dealt with. The ladder. My great-grandmother, who I have in there, like right in the back of the dog. The houses. My marks, my whimsical marks. The birds, the clouds. Primarily it’s it’s all about line, really. It’s all about a love affair with line and constructing images based on these marks and the whole gestural effect of creating a painting. You know, not being confined to being so accurate, you know, but but having a playful attitude,” Newsum said in the video. “Throughout the course of all of my years of work, there are certain things that you will always see present—the objects, the icons, the shapes, the content. My love affair with color.”

Newsum maintained his art practice alongside a career as an educator. He began teaching at UHD in 1976, the same year he arrived in Houston. Over the years, his courses included painting, drawing, printmaking, and art appreciation, among other subjects.

“Professor Newsum was more than an artist, more than a teacher,” UHD President Loren J. Blanchard said in a statement. “He was a connector, a motivating force who worked to touch lives every day and who brought people together in remarkable ways. His art was intricately linked with his desire to nurture young artists and invest in the next generation of change agents, not only here at UHD but also in the historic Third Ward of Houston and even in communities he visited when his art was on view.” CT

FIND MORE about Floyd Newsum on his website and on Instagram

FIND MORE about Project Row Houses, the Houston arts organization Floyd Newsum helped co-found on its website

Standing before his painting “D.O.G. at Playtime” (2017), Floyd Newsum explains the work and notes the many motifs and objects pictured in the image regularly appear in his works. | Video by Arizona (Newsum’s daughter)

Floyd Newsum tours young students through “Floyd Newsum: Evolution of Sight,” his 2023 retrospective exhibition at Madison Museum of Contemporary Art in Madison, Wisc. | Video by MMoCA

In a video partially narrated by University of Houston Downtown Art Historian Susan Baker, Floyd Newsum talks about his practice. Several collectors also discuss what draws them to his work. | Video by Arizona (Newsum’s daughter)

Floyd Newsum made prints at Bradywine Workshop in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1995, 2001, and earlier this year, in July 2024. Brandywine published a memorial tribute in its August newsletter and shared this video featuring Newsum speaking about his work and experiences at Brandywine. | Video by Bradywine Workshop

Four years ago, on the My Brother Podcast, Laolu Davies-Yemitan spoke with Floyd Newsum about his life and work. The conversation covers the artist’s five-decade career. | Video by My Brother Podcast

BOOKSHELF
Floyd Newsum is among the artists highlighted in “Outside the Lines,” which was published a decade ago marking the 65th anniversary of Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. The volume is co-edited by Valerie Cassel Oliver and Nancy O’Connor. Newsum’s work is also included in “Three Decades of American Printmaking: The Brandywine Workshop Collection” and “Texas: 150 Works from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.”