Floyd Newsum

Floyd Elbert Newsum Jr. (November 3, 1950 – August 14, 2024) was an American artist, educator and co-founder of Project Row Houses, a development merging art, cultural identity and community action in Houston, Texas' Third Ward.

As an artist he was best known for his large, colorful, childlike paintings filled with personal iconography and West African motifs. Two of his pieces are in the collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. He is also noted for several large public sculptures in Houston and Ft. Worth, Texas.

Early life and education

The oldest of three siblings, Floyd Elbert Newsum Jr. was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to Floyd Elbert Newsum Sr. and Evelyn Forestine LaMondue Newsum. Newsum Sr. was the first black firefighter in the city. As a teen, Newsum Jr. learned about the Memphis sanitation strike and assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Like Floyd, Newsum's younger brother H. Ike Okafor-Newsum became a painter, sculptor and professor.

Newsum attended then-segregated Hamilton High School. He practiced martial arts and played briefly on the football team. After graduation, he was accepted to Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri. But, instead of enrolling there, he decided to follow his love for art and register at Memphis College of Art (formerly Memphis Academy of Arts). He initially majored in graphic arts, but switched to studio arts. One of them, After the Storm CNN (2008), depicts a landscape of scattered objects on a background of deep blue. The piece refers to news coverage of Hurricane Katrina and the racial disparity associated with the event. It was acquired in 2013 and was on display at the 2016 opening of the museum. The second painting, Ghost Series Sirigu, Janie's Apron, a piece inspired by his grandmother, was acquired in 2012.

The first large-scale retrospective of his work was held from May through October 2023 at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art in Wisconsin. Floyd Newsum: Evolution of Sight presented early foundational pieces through work made shortly before his death, tracing his journey from realism to more surrealistic and abstract paintings. Newsum explained the exhibition as an examination of a career covering "50-plus years of creating works of art that are exploring color, marks and surfaces in various mediums. I call my evolution in creativity a problem-solving event of expression of the soul.”

From 1976 to 2024, Newsum taught art at UHD. His courses included drawing, painting, printmaking and art appreciation. He also held a range of administrative positions.

When UHD began expanding and renovating the original campus at One Main Street, Floyd played a large part in arranging for renowned artist John Biggers to paint one of his last murals in the refurbished space. Later, he would sometimes mount the paper onto canvas. He enjoyed making tactile surfaces with different colored paints applied to multiple papers combined into a single composition. Less commonly, Newsum made lithographs and silkscreen prints. A term he often used when describing his work was "fractured landscapes."

During his career, he explored numerous styles. His early work largely consists of highly detailed, realistic watercolor portraits. At some point, he abandoned realism in favor of a more surrealistic approach. These richly-colored paintings feature personal, perhaps unconscious, symbols set in complex, loosely defined spaces. 2008, Primary Concerns, Joan Wich Gallery, Houston, Texas 2002, One person exhibition, The University of Memphis Art Museum, Memphis, Tennessee 2000, One person exhibition of paintings and drawings, O’Kane Gallery, UHD, Houston, Texas 2004, Contemplating Success (four paintings for the lobbies of four floors), University of Houston-Downtown, Commerce Building 2003, Planter and Stems (seven painted stainless steel sculptures), City of Houston, Main Street Square, Main Street between Dallas and McKinney 2002, Houston Metro Light Rail Stations, Main at McGowen and Main at Berry Stations

Following his death, UHD established an endowed scholarship, the Floyd Newsum Visionary Artist and Humanitarian Scholarship, for students pursuing degrees focused on art or social justice.