Acclaimed artist Richard Mayhew has died at the age of 100

On September 26, 2024, the renowned artist Richard Mayhew died at the age of 100. Known for his hazy depictions of landscapes, Mayhew became known for his “mindscapes” and “moodscapes”, a mode that combined representations of the world and emotions.

“I’m a painter of the landscape of the mind. I’m not a landscape painter… because when I’m going to a canvas I just put paint on it and it’s evocative, very evocative.” – Mayhew he said in 2019explaining the thought process behind his artistry. “Because I’m connected to the feeling of desire, ambition, love, hatred, fear – these are my images. It adopts this type of structure and imagery. I take advantage of landscape as a metaphor to specific emotions.

Born in 1924 in Amityville, Long Island, New York, Mayhew became all for the visual arts at an early age. Under the tutelage of his grandmother, Sarah Steele Mayhew, the young artist often visited the Metropolitan Museum of (*100*), took art classes and discovered connections in his ancestors. Mayhew, who’s of black and Native American heritage, said his heritage inspired him to color landscapes because “when it comes to African Americans and Native Americans, their blood is in the soil of the United States,” he says. ARTnews.

After serving in the Marine Corps during World War II and spending time in Europe, Mayhew returned to New York in 1947. At age 23, he began his semi-formal education, taking classes at Pratt Institute, Columbia University, the Brooklyn Museum School of (*100*), and more, without having to totally enroll in any of these institutions or possibly go abroad to check.

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Although Mayhew achieved his own fame, he gained recognition primarily through his association with Spiral, a mid-century black artist collective. Founded in 1963 at the height of the civil rights movement, the group, which included Romare Bearden, Norman Lewis, Hale Woodruff and Charles Alston, served as an area to debate issues facing black artists and showcase their art.

“It was an advisory panel of all African-American artists,” he added. “It involved debating and questioning the system and challenging each other. …we took up the challenge of the New York community at the time, which did not include African-American artists in various major exhibitions and galleries. Spiral was one of the initiators of that time who challenged the system of arts.”

Mayhew’s work lives on, with the (*100*) Institute of Chicago hosting everlasting exhibitions across the country; Detroit (*100*) Institute, Detroit; Atlanta High (*100*) Museum; Los Angeles County Museum of (*100*); Metropolitan Museum of (*100*), New York; National Gallery of (*100*), Washington, DC; The Smithsonian Museum of American (*100*) in Washington, D.C.; San Francisco Museum of Modern (*100*), San Francisco; Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; and the Whitney Museum of American (*100*) in New York.