Dr. Eddie Chambers

The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth announces the launch of the Exhibition Lecture Series, a dynamic new program featuring curators and artists from the Modern’s special exhibitions and permanent collection. This series provides a rare opportunity to explore the creative processes, curatorial strategies, and artistic visions that shape modern and contemporary art. The Exhibition Lecture Series is a free program open to the public.

Seating begins at 5:30 pm. Free admission tickets (limit two per person) are available at the Modern’s information desk beginning at noon on the day of the lecture. A limited number of tickets (limit two per person) will be available for purchase online ($5) from 10 am until 4 pm the day before the lecture.

Join us for "The Delayed Presence of Bowling, Williams, et al," a lecture presented by Dr. Eddie Chambers in conjunction with the special exhibition Feeling Color: Aubrey Williams and Frank Bowling. Organized by the Modern and Curator María Elena Ortiz, the exhibition brings together for the first time the work of these two groundbreaking artists, highlighting their individual contributions to late-twentieth-century abstraction. Williams and Bowling, both originally from Guyana, pursued distinct artistic paths despite their shared connections to London. The exhibition showcases key works from Williams’s series Shostakovich, 1980-81, and Olmec-Maya and Now, 1982-88, reflecting his deep engagement with music and Pre-Columbian cultures, alongside Bowling’s influential Map Paintings, 1967-71, and later Poured Paintings, 1977-78, which explore both the materiality of paint and sociopolitical themes.

Dr. Eddie Chambers, a leading scholar of African diaspora art history, will provide insight into the complex artistic legacies of Williams and Bowling, examining their belated recognition within broader art historical narratives. Chambers, who joined the University of Texas at Austin in 2010, holds the David Bruton, Jr. Centennial Professorship in Art History. Both an artist and curator, he has worked extensively with modern and contemporary artists, including Bowling, and has published widely on Black British art. His deep engagement with postwar visual culture and critical contributions to the field position him as an essential voice in contextualizing the work of Williams, Bowling, and their contemporaries.