Overview
- Her galleries confirmed Wednesday that she died Sunday, May 10, in Mérida, Mexico, at age 84.
- She pioneered the Lampblack paintings, rubbing soot pigment into unstretched canvas with a chalkboard eraser or her hands to create deep black fields cut by fine lines.
- Her civil rights work began at Howard University, where she co‑founded the Non‑Violent Action Group, joined SNCC, and worked closely with Stokely Carmichael.
- She taught for nearly three decades and in 1985 became the first Black woman to earn tenure in UC Berkeley’s Department of Art Practice.
- Recognition accelerated late in her career, with three works in the 2024 Whitney Biennial and new acquisitions by the de Young, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.