Amanda Jirón-Murphy, Curator, Resident Artist + Collector Liaison, Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington
On behalf of MoCA Arlington I want to say that we are so deeply saddened to hear about the sudden passing of Dereck Magnus. Dereck came to MoCA Arlington back in May to see the exhibition “Tales of the New World” by Johab Silva, which he wrote about with great thought and care for the May 24 digital edition of BmoreArt.
Dereck came to meet me at the museum on a Monday afternoon and was extremely gracious from the get-go. Right away he struck me as being passionate about…well, just about everything, but in particular art and cinema and culture. I was really struck by Dereck’s quick and astute observations. He gave Johab’s exhibition his full attention and spoke enthusiastically to me about everything it conjured for him, specifically the 1983 movie “Koyaanisquatsi” by Godfrey Reggio and the Alejandro Jodorowsky film “The Holy Mountain.” I walked Dereck through the entire museum, and he got really excited by artist Liz Enz’s exhibition “No Grids, No Masters” because of its multifaceted use of the square as a motif, something he was also interested in as a photographer. He talked at length about Marxism, the modernist use of the square and the industrial revolution vis a vis textile production, all of which Liz was also referencing in her work. Dereck even stopped in and spent time visiting with one of MoCA’s resident artists, Olivia Tripp Morrow. He left saying he was excited about the space, and that he’d like to return in the future.
Dereck’s writeup about “Tales of the New World,” meanwhile, was a massive gift to me, MoCA Arlington and Johab Silva. What a thrill it was to see it on your homepage when the story landed! Artists are really starved for the kind of writer that Dereck was, and both Johab and I felt extremely lucky that Dereck showed so much enthusiasm for seeing the show and writing about it with so much care. Dereck’s writing was everything that you’d want to see in an arts journal: unpretentious, generous and thoughtful. I’d like to think the article reflects who Dereck was as a person.
It pains me to know that he is gone. The fact that he made such an impression on me is a testament to the uniqueness of his spirit.
Linda Smith, Songwriter and Recording Artist, Former BMA Guard
In my 15 years on the security staff at the BMA, I encountered many other fellow artists, people who found being around great art everyday to be an hourly wage occupation preferable to, say, working at Target. Though Dereck Mangus started out in the Visitors Services dept. back in 2016, he soon transferred to the galleries as a security officer and eventually became known to us as someone who not only made art but also wrote about and reviewed it. Because I worked the night shift and he was a day shift officer there were few opportunities for extensive conversations over the years. We might only have a brief exchange in passing every now and again.
Gradually, I came to understand how serious he was about art and writing and often thought that he might certainly have qualified for a better paying position in the museum. I understand that he did apply for other jobs there, though it was generally understood that the museum seldom if ever promoted security personnel to other positions, no matter what one’s level of education was. (Staff in other departments often had more luck, as I observed.)
Later on, just before I retired in 2021, I had the opportunity to work some day shifts and to speak with Dereck more often. Though I would not be present to see it happen, I was very glad to witness the beginning of the effort towards unionization, something long overdue and much needed. Though discussions among staff were still under the radar, it finally seemed like a real possibility, with similar efforts happening in museums throughout the country as they cautiously reopened during the pandemic. Dereck was very much a part of these early discussions and was an important player because he had already experienced unionization at another museum. He knew the pitfalls but he also knew that it could be successful. With his help, it was.
Last April, I heard from Dereck out of the blue via FB Messenger. We had not been directly in touch for a few years and I was surprised to hear from him. He wanted to come to a show at Normals Bookstore where I would be performing some songs with my friend Paul Baroody (also a former BMA staff member.) Dereck said that he didn’t have enough cash to pay to get in but that he would bring some books to sell. It was great to see him and very touching when he told me that he “really needed” to come to our show. I had no idea about the difficulties he had experienced in his personal life until after the show and only then did I understand what he meant. I was glad that our performance seemed to have helped him in some way. It was a reminder that music and art and books can make a difference in ways that other things don’t and can’t.
A couple of months later, in June, I saw Dereck again at an opening in Hampden. This time he was the artist proudly displaying his work and I was part of the audience, so to speak. He was surrounded by friends and happily posing for photos with his art. I know he loved writing about art but as an artist he loved making it even more; having it seen by others is a validation whenever and wherever one can manage to arrange it. Many of us spend so much time not making art because we simply have to pay rent and buy food that such moments of recognition become doubly precious. After years spent as a museum guard in the daily presence of art by other artists, or hours given to writing about the work of other artists for various publications, Dereck seemed to be on a path toward more moments like this, moments that would be all his own.
Linda Smith is a songwriter and recording artist who also makes visual art on occasion. Her music can be heard at lindasmith2.bandcamp.com.
Kristen Hileman, Independent Curator
For many years, first as a BMA colleague and then as a reader of his writing, I have admired Dereck’s passionate and independent voice when it comes to art and museums. He combined a probing appreciation of art and ideas with a needed critique of the art world’s hierarchies. Several weeks ago, he reached out about scheduling a visit to a show that I had organized in Washington. Whether or not he would have affirming or critical feedback on that project, I don’t presume to say. Regardless, I know that he would have interpreted the artwork in the exhibition with intelligence, clarity, and originality, and I would have been grateful for his consideration. We are all fortunate to have the insights he committed to writing, and the loss of his perspective in the future dialogue around art and institutions is a sad and heavy one.
Roberta Fallon, Co-Founder, Editor and Executive Director, Artblog
As someone who runs an online publication I “meet” lots of people through their writing. That was the case with Dereck Mangus, who I met when he applied to the Artblog Art Writing Challenge in 2019 and had his article awarded honorable mention. In his writing I sensed Dereck’s gravitas as a human, an artist and writer, and also sensed the fearlessness of someone who was taking a risk and revealing himself in his written words. In my experience, arts writers are not so much inclined to self revelation.
Dereck’s forte was to tell a story that revealed himself along with other truths (confessing his joy at discovering the many Duchamp’s at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and how he spun Duchamp’s bicycle wheel when nobody was looking; or weeping in a gallery at the Barnes Foundation before all the beauty there). Even though he didn’t live in Philadelphia, I reached out to invite him to join our writing team and he joined. He wrote about Baltimore, mostly, and I was delighted for that, because the art world is small and we all should know more about each other’s backyards.
Dereck was both a soulful writer, as well as a researcher and idea generator who loved a challenge. When AI crashed onto the Internet’s front page last year, I asked our writing team if anyone wanted to write about AI and I knew Dereck would jump on that, and he did, turning in a fine reasoned essay on the subject that reminded everyone that technology had always caused changes and that those changes always trickled over into the art world. Painting survived the advent of photography, basically, so don’t panic.
He loved being part of a community of writers. During the Covid pandemic, Dereck attended Artblog’s team Zooms and had thoughtful things to say. When we had a team meetup last summer, he came up to Philly with a friend and joined us (then went to the Barnes the next day to see all that beauty!). I am personally heartbroken to think that Dereck is no longer with us. I am humbled to have been a small part of his world for a brief time. He made a contribution.
Dereck Mangus reading list on Artblog
Honorable Mention award, 2019 Artblog Art Writing Challenge
AI and technology article