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Patton, Sharon F. print view role Collector Scholar/Critic/Expert dates 1944- city Chicago state IL other cities New York, NY; Washington, DC; Ann Arbor, MI; Mankato, MN; Oberlin, OH sex F historical notes Sharon F. Patton is an American art historian who made significant contributions to the field of African American art history. Born in Chicago in 1944, Patton was drawn to the arts from a young age and pursued her passion by studying studio art at Roosevelt University, where she earned her B.A. in humanities in 1966. She went on to earn an M.A. in art history at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, where she wrote her thesis on the 16th century Italian Renaissance painter Georgione. Patton later pursued a Ph.D. in African Art History at Northwestern University, earning her degree in 1980. Throughout her career, Patton held various teaching positions at universities across the United States including the University of Maryland, Lake Forest College, and Virginia Commonwealth University. She also served as the Chief Curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem and the John G.W. Cowles Director of Oberlin College’s Allen Memorial Art Museum. Patton was the director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art from 2003 until her retirement in 2009. Her research and publications focused on African American art, and she curated numerous exhibitions, including "Memory and Metaphor, the Art of Romare Bearden, 1940-1987" and "The Decade Show: Frameworks of Identity in the 1980s." Her book Memory and Metaphor: The Art of Romare Bearden (1991) won Choice’s Outstanding Academic Book of the Year Award. decades of activity 1980-1990 1990-2000 2000-2010 2010-2020 updated 02/14/2025 10:12:30 bibliographic search Search Frick Art Reference Library Catalog Search Photoarchive Search Worldcat Search Library of Congress Name Authority File (LCNAF) Search Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) Search Wikidata Entry Archives/Repository Collection Title Collection Details Oberlin College Archives 420 Mudd Center Sharon F. Patton Papers, 1916-2003, n.d. see details... Oberlin College Archives 420 Mudd Center Allen Memorial Art Museum Records, 1899-2007, 2013 see details... «  back