Richard Mayhew

The Life and Legacy of Richard Mayhew

Richard Mayhew (April 3, 1924 – September 26, 2024) was an American landscape painter, illustrator, and arts educator, of Native and African American descent. His abstract, brightly colored landscapes are
informed by his experiences as an African American/Native American and his interest in Jazz and the performing arts. He lived and worked in Soquel and Santa Cruz, California. Mayhew studied at the Art Students League of New York and the Brooklyn Museum Art School in 1948 to 1959. And he also took some courses at Columbia University. Mayhew was a founding member of Spiral, a black painters' group in the 1960s New York, which included Romare Bearden, Charles Alston, Charles White, Felrath Hines, Norman Lewis, Emma Amos, Reginald Gammon, and Hale Woodruff as members. The Spiral collective formed in 1963, after the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, as a way for artists to discuss their experiences in the Civil Rights movement. This talented artist taught art and/or interdisciplinary thinking at schools around the United States,
including Brooklyn Museum Art School (1963), Pratt Institute (1963), Art Students League of New York (1965), Smith College (1969), Hunter College (1971), California State University, East Bay (1974), San Jose State University (1975), Sonoma State University (1976. Mayhew also taught at Pennsylvania State University (1977 – 1991) and the University of California, Santa Cruz (1992). Mayhew's work is featured in various permanent collections including: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (CA), Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY), Whitney Museum of American Art (NY), and the Smithsonian Institution (DC) among others.