5+1 exhibition opening at Stony Brook University, 1969, with attendees Bill Rivers (left front), Melvin Edwards (left, behind Rivers), Jayne Cortez (middle, back to camera), and Frank Bowling (second from right), among others, photographed by Adger Cowans (© Adger Cowans; Courtesy Bruce Silverstein Gallery, New York, NY)
STONY BROOK, New York — University museums and galleries don’t often get the credit they deserve for the important roles they play in art history. I was reminded of this when I went to see the exhibition Revisiting 5 + 1 at the Paul W. Zuccaire Gallery at Stony Brook University (November 10, 2022–March 31, 2023), curated by Elise Armani, Amy Kahng, and Gabriella Shypula. Artist and Stony Brook professor Howardena Pindell, art historian and curator Katy Siegel, and the Zuccaire’s director and curator, Karen Levitov, also helped shape the exhibition. In Revisiting 5 + 1, the three curators examine and expand upon 5 + 1, a groundbreaking exhibition held at the State University of New York at Stony Brook (now Stony Brook University) in 1969. The timing of this exhibition resonates with the original on many levels.
