Image: Square (detail), 1973–74, Al Loving (American, 1935–2005), quilt canvas and mixed media, 93 x 93 in. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Price and Elaine Rogers Collection, Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Endowment, and Sydney and Frances Lewis Endowment Fund, 2024.316
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts will host ‘Terrains and Galaxies of Abstraction,’ a talk by Columbia University scholar Dr. Kellie Jones examining the work of African American abstract painter Al Loving. The event is scheduled for Thursday, October 1, 2026, from 6 to 7 p.m. in the Cheek Theater in Richmond, Virginia.
Jones’s lecture will trace Loving’s practice from his early explorations of purely optical geometries in the 1960s to his later engagement with craft and objects made “by hand,” according to the museum. The program will place Loving within the broader field of late-20th-century abstraction, considering the creative possibilities artists found in a medium often described as boundless.
The talk will also address the relationship between painting and sculpture in this period. VMFA’s description notes that hard-edge sculpture could become softer and more physically responsive, drawing inspiration from bodies in motion, whether in performance or everyday life. The discussion therefore presents Loving’s work not as isolated formal experimentation, but as part of a wider conversation about material, movement and the limits of abstract practice.
Loving is represented in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts collection by ‘Square,’ made in 1973–74. The work measures 93 by 93 inches and is identified as quilt canvas and mixed media. The museum lists it as part of the Price and Elaine Rogers Collection, with support from the Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Endowment and the Sydney and Frances Lewis Endowment Fund. An image of ‘Square’ accompanies the event listing.
Jones is Hans Hofmann Professor of Modern Art in Columbia University’s Department of Art History and Archaeology and a professor in the university’s Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies. She is a member of the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow in 2016.
Her books include ‘EyeMinded: Living and Writing Contemporary Art’ and ‘South of Pico: African American Artists in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s.’ Her edited publications include ‘October Files: David Hammons’ and, with Tumelo Mosaka, ‘Black Curators Matter: Conversations on Art and Change.’
VMFA lists the event as part of CultureWorks’ artoberVA program and says it is offering a “Pay-What-You-Will” ticket price during the reservation process. General admission is listed as $0, and the museum also provides an option to watch the talk via livestream. The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is located at 200 N Arthur Ashe Boulevard in Richmond.
