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Dumouchelle, Kevin

Curator

Positions

Research specialties: African art history; ‘traditions of modernity’ in 19th/20th century African arts and visual culture; arts of Western and Central Africa; African architecture; history of collecting; contemporary art and artists; African avant-gardes.

Geographic Focus

education and training

  • Ph.D. in Art History, Columbia University , Department of Art History & Archaeology, Traditions of Modernity in an African City: Continuity and Change in the Architecture of Kumasi 2009 - 2017
  • M.Phil. in Art History, Columbia University , Department of Art History & Archaeology 2007 - 2009
  • M.A. in Art History, Columbia University , Department of Art History & Archaeology 2006 - 2007
  • M.S. in Modern History (MSt. Hons), Oxford University 2003 - 2005
  • B.S. in Foreign Service, Georgetown University , School of Foreign Service 1998 - 2002

Professional Biography

  • Kevin D. Dumouchelle joined the National Museum of African Art in October 2016. He was the lead curator for Visionary: Viewpoints on Africa’s Arts, the museum’s recent, award-winning permanent galleries, which present the full range of time, place, and media represented in the National Museum’s collection. He has served as the NMAfA in-house curator for World on the Horizon: Swahili Arts Across the Indian Ocean and Good as Gold: Fashioning Senegalese Women.

    Previously, Dumouchelle served a decade at the Brooklyn Museum as the curator in charge of the arts of both Africa and the Pacific Islands. At Brooklyn, he conceived two award-winning re-installations of the African collection: African Innovations (2011) and Double Take: African Innovations (2014). He has written books and articles on a range of topics and curated exhibitions on both contemporary and historical African art, including Power Incarnate: Allan Stone’s Collection of Sculpture from the Congo (2011) at the Bruce Museum and the Brooklyn Museum presentations of Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui (2013) and Disguise: Masks and Global African Art (2016).

    Dumouchelle earned a Ph.D, M.Phil., and M.A. in Art History and Archaeology from Columbia University. His doctoral research in Ghana examined architectural modernity in Asante. He is also the recipient of a first-class master’s degree in history from Oxford University and a B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.