Benjamin Wigfall (1930–2017) was a pioneering African American artist, educator, and community builder whose work, after going unrecognized for over 60 years, has recently gained major institutional recognition, highlighted by The Museum of Modern Art’s (MoMA) recent print acquisition.
The artworks [pictured below] were acquired in early 2026 through Dolan/Maxwell Galleryin Philadelphia, which represents the Wigfall estate.
About the acquisition, Esther Adler, MoMA curator of Drawings and Prints, wrote, “Ben Wigfall’s print practice reflects his tremendous knowledge of the medium, and his belief that printmaking is uniquely suited to bring communities together. We are thrilled to have his unique and experimental approach to capturing sound and stories represented in our collection.”
After becoming one of the first African American students at the Yale School of Art, Wigfall achieved national acclaim in the 1950s. He later shifted his focus from his personal exhibition career to teaching and mentorship. In 1963, he became one of the first African American faculty members at SUNY New Paltz. In 1969, he co-founded the nation’s second Black Studies Department there.
Seeking greater community outreach, Wigfall founded Communications Village (1973–1983), a printmaking workshop in an African American neighborhood in nearby Kingston, NY. He invited legendary Black artists – among them Benny Andrews, Romare Bearden, Bob Blackburn, Betty Blayton, Ernest Crichlow, Mel Edwards, Charles Gaines, and Mavis Pusey – to give talks and make prints assisted by the local African American youth. The emphasis was always on the youth, however, getting them to see communication and daily survival activities as art forms.
Wigfall rarely promoted his own artwork. But a posthumous collaborative retrospective, Benjamin Wigfall & Communications Village, by the Samuel Dorsky Museum at SUNY New Paltz and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in 2022 and 2023, respectively, along with the publication of a comprehensive catalogue of Wigfall’s life and work by the VMFA sparked a wave of national acclaim, culminating in other high-profile exhibitions and major museum acquisitions.
Richard Frumess, art administrator of the Wigfall estate said, “It is a profound honor to have Ben’s work acquired by MoMA. Knowing that his innovative contributions to printmaking will live in their permanent collection alongside other masters of the medium is an incredible milestone for his legacy.”
To purchase the catalogue, go to https://vmfashop.com/benjamin-wigfall-communications-village-catalogue.html
