"The artist cannot and must not take anything for granted, but must drive to the heart of every answer and expose the question the answer hides."
– James Baldwin, "The Creative Process," 1962.
a little more about me…
Photo: Stephanie Gracés
Lucia Olubunmi Momoh is a curator, writer, and scholar who works as a the Constance E. Clayton Curatorial Fellow at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and was previously a curatorial associate for Prospect.5 *Yesterday we said tomorrow* in New Orleans.
Momoh grew up in Sacramento as the oldest daughter of an interracial and multi-national (Nigerian-Sicilian-American) household—this multicultural upbringing greatly influences her curatorial and scholarly perspective. She completed her bachelor's in art history and French at the University of Oregon in 2012 and spent 2012-2016 working for the Washington Council for Behavioral Health, a community behavioral health advocacy organization in Seattle. She obtained her master's in Art History at Tulane University in 2019. Her thesis examines an 1837 portrait of a free woman of color from New Orleans in the Historic New Orleans Collection that a professional restorer egregiously altered by covering up markers of wealth. Momoh addresses the damage and brings it into conversation with issues of systemic racism, the destruction of cultural property, and the role museums play in the formation of national and regional identities.
Momoh’s work is most informed by Caribbean theorists and Black feminist thought. She views her curatorial practice, which blends historical scholarship with contemporary art, as a form of social activism rooted in decolonial practices and prefers to view museum curators as civil servants.
Master’s Thesis | Tulane University 2019
The Art of Erasure
Lucia’s master’s thesis looks at the history of a portrait of an unidentified free woman of color painted in 1837 by Francois (born Franz) Fleischbein, a Bavarian-born recent immigrant in New Orleans. It examines how Southern art historians, art critics, and museum specialists have imposed their own prejudices on the narratives they created pertaining to the woman portrayed; and, how one professional art restorer drastically altered the physical appearance of the sitter and her portrait to better fit these unfounded and ultimately racist narratives.
“History is the fruit of power, but power is never so transparent that its analysis becomes superfluous. The ultimate mark of power may be its invisibility; the ultimate challenge, the exposition of its roots.”
– Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Silencing the Past (1995)