Roy DeCarava Passes Away

Roy DeCarava, 1996 By Sherry Turner DeCarava

Roy DeCarava died last Tuesday. I was working on a post of ephemera from his career but had not written a bio for it. Now, I'll just refer you to the New York Times obituary and run the ephemera.

DeCarava's first major museum show was at the Studio Museum of Harlem, NYC. His first retrospective was at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, in 1975. What follows is the publication released in conjunction with that show. It's 76 pages so I haven't scanned the whole booklet.

Stiff wraps, 8.5 x 8.5 inches, saddle-stiched, 76 pages, 1976

The show that brought him the attention of the larger audience he deserved was the retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, NYC, in 1996. There was a nice catalog published to accompany the exhibit and this was the brochure handed out at the museum.

5.25 x 8.5 inches, accordion-style fold unfolds to 26.25 x 8.5 inches with 5 panels per side, 1996

You can see an interview by Charlie Rose here with DeCarava around the time of the MoMA retrospective.



And again, around the same time, he did an interview with NPR.

Postcard, 6 x 4.25 inches, 2004

Card stock, 5.75 x 8.5 inches, unfolds twice to produce a 17.25 x 8.5 invite, 2006

Glossy photo-printer paper, 4 x 6 inches, 2006

In 2006, Roy DeCarava was awarded a National Medal of Arts by then President George Bush.


Caption that accompanied the above photo: 2006 National Medal of Arts recipient and photographer Roy R. DeCarava accepts his award from President and Mrs. Laura Bush in an Oval Office ceremony on November 9, 2006. Mr. DeCarava's citation reads, "In the midst of the Civil Rights movement, his revealing work seized the attention of our Nation while displaying the dignity and determination of his subjects." White House photo by Paul Morse.