National Portrait Gallery, London, England, The Time is Always Now
Artists Reframe the Black Figure
Formidable … Nanny of the Maroons’ Fifth Act of Mercy by Kimathi Donkor (2012). Photograph: Courtesy of the Artist and Niru Ratnam, London. Photo: Tim Bowditch
Exhibition Dates: February 22, 2024 - May 19, 2024, National Portrait Gallery St Martin’s Place London, England
Fault-lines and glitches … Father Stretch My Hands by Nathaniel Mary Quinn (2021). Photograph: © Nathaniel Mary Quinn. Photo: Rob McKeever. Courtesy Gagosian
She was learning to love moments, to love moments for themselves by Amy Sherald (2017) © Amy Sherald. Courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth.
A major study of the Black figure – and its representation in contemporary art.
The exhibition, curated by writer Ekow Eshun, showcases the work of contemporary artists from the African diaspora, including Michael Armitage, Lubaina Himid, Kerry James Marshall, Toyin Ojih Odutola and Amy Sherald, and highlights the use of figures to illuminate the richness and complexity of Black life. As well as surveying the presence of the Black figure in Western art history, we examine its absence – and the story of representation told through these works, as well as the social, psychological, and cultural contexts in which they were produced. —National Portrait Gallery
New York
The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism
February 25th, 2024 through July 28th, 2024
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, New York, United States
The Picnic by Archibald Motley.
“The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism,” will include the works of more than 100 artists from the early 20th century — a time early in the Great Migration, when Black life and Black art was being transformed. It was an artistic revolution that, according to the Met, upended the international understanding of modern art and modern life and changed “the very fabric of early 20th-century modern art.”
Curator Denise Murrell, said the term “Harlem Renaissance” generally refers to a cohort of artists who were “committed to the idea of portraying the modern Black subject in a modern way,” reflecting the changing cultural reality and vibrancy of places like Harlem. She described the style as one that combines African aesthetics with more experimental and expressionistic forms of European modernism.
Denise Murrell, curator of the exhibit, speaking with our founder, Gregroy T. Walker.