Black Arts & Culture Feature:
AMY SHERALD, “A God Blessed Land (Empire of Dirt),” 2022 (oil on linen, 96 1/8 × 130 1/8 × 2 1/2 inches / 244.1 × 330.2 × 6.35 cm.). | Courtesy the Tymure Collection. © Amy Sherald. Photo by Joseph Hyde
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions
AN EXPANSIVE VIEW of the American people is on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art, a parade of poetic and engaging portraits by Amy Sherald. More than 40 paintings are featured in “Amy Sherald: American Sublime,” the largest exhibition of the artist and her first solo museum show in New York.
Sherald is one of America’s most prominent contemporary artists working in figuration. The exhibition is anchored by some of her greatest hits, including portraits of First Lady Michelle Obama (2018) and Breonna Taylor (2020); “For love, and for country” (2022), which re-interprets Alfred Eisenstaedt’s famous 1945 photograph of a U.S. Navy sailor kissing a woman in Times Square on “V-J Day”; and “Ecclesia (The Meeting of Inheritance and Horizons)” (2024), a new three-panel, triple portrait influenced by the work of filmmaker Wes Anderson. In addition, “If You Surrendered to the Air, You Could Ride It” (2020) is being shown for the first time since it was acquired by the Whitney Museum five years ago.
The works on view were produced between 2007 to 2024. The exhibition is organized chronologically and the earliest work is “Hangman” (2007). Sherald’s depiction of a man “hanging” in mid-air against a vivid background is at once ominous and peaceful. “I wanted to kind of tell this story as a way to show her progression as an artist, but also to show her complexity and deepening ambition, deepening kind of commitment to herself, as well as to her subject,” Whitney Museum curator Rujeko Hockley said when she introduced the exhibition at the press preview.
“Hangman”… has not been seen since 2007, in any real way… Amy was not sure about it, but I think it opens the show very beautifully because it does bridge these ideas of individuality, of thinking about Black people, Black subjects in the context of American realism. Thinking about a history. It is called “Hangman.” It’s kind of the closest illusion to the history of racial violence in the United States, that Amy is interested in and invested in, but also thinking about how that is only one facet of any person’s identity, of any Black person’s identity, anybody’s identity.” CT
“Amy Sherald: American Sublime” is on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, N.Y., from April 9- Aug. 10, 2025.
FIND MORE about the exhibition and the public artwork that accompanies the show
Editor’s Note: The exhibition originated at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art before traveling to the Whitney Museum and was expected to be shown next at the Smithsonian’ National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Those plans are no more. Last week, Sherald canceled the exhibition, citing censorship, after the Smithsonian’s concerns about the presentation of one of her paintings (“Trans Forming Liberty,” 2024) could not be resolved to the satisfaction of both parties.
Installation view of “Amy Sherald: American Sublime,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, N.Y. (April 9-August 10, 2025). Shown, from left, AMY SHERALD “Saint Woman,” 2015; “The Girl Next Door,” 2019; “She had an inside and an outside now and suddenly she knew how not to mix them,” 2018; “Try on dreams until I find the one that fits me.They all fit me,” 2017; “Mama Has Made the Bread (How Things Are Measured),” 2018. | Photo by Tiffany Sage/BFA.com. © BFA 2025
AMY SHERALD, “A Midsummer Afternoon Dream,” 2021 (oil on canvas, 106 × 101 × 2 1/2 inches / 269.24 × 256.54 × 6.35cm). | Private Collection. © Amy Sherald. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo by Joseph Hyde
AMY SHERALD, “Mother and Child,” 2016 (oil on canvas, 54 × 43 × 2 1/2 inches / 137.16 × 109.22 × 6.35 cm). | Courtesy The Blanchard Nesbitt Family. © Amy Sherald. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo by Joseph Hyde
Installation view of “Amy Sherald: American Sublime,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, N.Y. (April 9-August 10, 2025). Shown, from left, “Well Prepared and Maladjusted,” 2008; “It Made Sense…Mostly in Her Mind,” 2011; “The Boy with No Past,” 2014; “Freeing herself was one thing, taking ownership of that freed self was another,” 2013; “They Call Me Redbone, but I’d Rather Be Strawberry Shortcake,” 2009; “The Bathers,” 2015; “Hangman,” 2007; “Guide Me No More,” 2011; “The Rabbit in the Hat,” 2009. Photograph by Tiffany Sage/BFA.com. © BFA 2025
AMY SHERALD, “Hangman,” 2007 (oil on canvas, 100 × 67 × 2 1/2 inches / 254 × 170.18 × 6.35 cm). | Collection of Sheryll Cashin and Marque Chambliss. | © Amy Sherald. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo by Kelvin Bulluck
Installation view of “Amy Sherald: American Sublime,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, N.Y. (April 9-August 10, 2025). Shown, from left, “Ecclesia (The Meaning of Inheritance and Horizions),” 2024; “Trans Forming Liberty,” 2024. | Photo by Tiffany Sage/BFA.com. © BFA 2025
AMY SHERALD, “Trans Forming Liberty,” 2024 (oil on linen, 123 × 76 1/2 × 2 1/2 inches / 312.4 × 194.3 × 6.35 cm). | Courtesy the artist and Hauser and Wirth. © Amy Sherald. Photo by Kevin Bulluck
AMY SHERALD, “She Always Believed the Good about Those She Loved,” 2018 (oil on canvas, 54 × 43 × 2 1/2 inches / 137.16 × 109.22 × 6.35 cm). | Private collection, courtesy Monique Meloche Gallery. © Amy Sherald. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo by Joseph Hyde
AMY SHERALD, “What’s precious inside of him does not care to be known by the mind in ways that diminish its presence (All American),” 2017 (oil on canvas, 54 × 43 × 2 1/2 inches / 137.16 × 109.22 × 6.35 cm). | Private collection, Courtesy Monique Meloche Gallery. © Amy Sherald. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo by Joseph Hyde
AMY SHERALD, “As American as Apple Pie,” 2020 (oil on canvas, 123 × 101 × 2 1/2 inches / 312.4 × 256.5 × 6.4 cm). | Courtesy that artist and Hauser and Wirth. © Amy Sherald. Photo by Joseph Hyde
AMY SHERALD, “Mama Has Made the Bread (How Things Are Measured),” 2018 (oil on canvas, 54 × 43 × 2 1/2 inches / 137.16 × 109.22 × 6.35 cm). | Private collection. © Amy Sherald. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo by Joseph Hyde
Installation view of “Amy Sherald: American Sublime,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, N.Y. (April 9-August 10, 2025). Shown, from left to right: “A Midsummer Afternoon Dream,” 2021; “For Love, and for Country,” 2022; “A God Blessed Land (Empire of Dirt),” 2022. | Photo by Tiffany Sage/BFA.com. © BFA 2025
AMY SHERALD, “For love, and for country,” 2022 (oil on linen, 313 x 236.5 x 6.4 cm / 123 1/4 x 93 1/8 x 2 1/2 inches). | San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; © Amy Sherald; photo: Joseph Hyde, courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth
AMY SHERALD, “A Bucket Full of Treasures (Papa Gave Me Sunshine to Put in My Pocket),” 2020 (oil on linen, 54 × 43 × 2 1/2 inches / 137.16 × 109.22 × 6.35 cm). | Private collection. © Amy Sherald. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo by Joseph Hyde
Installation view of “Amy Sherald: American Sublime,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, N.Y. (April 9-August 10, 2025). Shown, “Try on dreams until I find the one that fits me.They all fit me,” 2017. | Photoby Matthew Carasella
AMY SHERALD, “It Made Sense…Mostly in Her Mind,” 2011 (oil on canvas, 54 × 43 × 2 1/2 inches / 137.16 × 109.22 × 6.35 cm). | Nancy and Sean Cotton Collection. © Amy Sherald. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo by Lowy Art Services
AMY SHERALD, “Miss Everything (Unsuppressed Deliverance),” 2014 (oil on canvas, 54 × 43 × 2 1/2 inches / 137.16 × 109.22 × 6.35 cm). | Private Collection. © Amy Sherald. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo by Joseph Hyde
Installation view of “Amy Sherald: American Sublime,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, N.Y. (April 9-August 10, 2025). Shown, “The Bathers,” 2015. | Photo by Matthew Carasella
Installation view of “Amy Sherald: American Sublime,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, N.Y. (April 9-August 10, 2025). Shown, from left, “They Call Me Redbone, but I’d Rather Be Strawberry Shortcake,” 2009; “The Bathers,” 2015. | Photo by Matthew Carasella
AMY SHERALD, “Breonna Taylor,” 2020 (oil on linen, 54 × 43 × 2 1/2 inches). | The Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Ky., Museum purchase made possible by a grant from the Ford Foundation; and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Purchase made possible by a gift from Kate Capshaw. © Amy Sherald. Photo by Joseph Hyde
AMY SHERALD, “As Soft as She Is…,” 2022 (oil on linen, 54 × 43 × 2 1/2 inches / 137.16 × 109.22 × 6.35 cm). | Tate, Purchased with funds provided by the Tymure Collection. © Amy Sherald. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo by Joseph Hyde
Installation view of “Amy Sherald: American Sublime,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, N.Y. (April 9-August 10, 2025). Shown, “The Rabbit in the Hat,” 2009. | Photo by Matthew Carasella
AMY SHERALD, “If You Surrendered to the Air, You Could Ride It,” 2019 (oil on linen, 130 × 108 × 2 1/2 inches / 330.2 × 274.3 × 6.4 cm). | Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, N.Y.; Purchase with funds from the Painting and Sculpture Committee, Sascha S. Bauer, Jack Cayre, Nancy Carrington Crown, Nancy Poses, Laura Rapp, and Elizabeth Redleaf, 2020.148. © Amy Sherald. Photo by Joseph Hyde
AMY SHERALD, “Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama,” 2018 (oil on linen, 72 1/8 × 60 1/8 × 2 3/4 inches / 183.1 × 152.7 × 7 cm). | National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. The National Portrait Gallery is grateful to the following lead donors for their support of the Obama portraits: Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg; Judith Kern and Kent Whealy; Tommie L. Pegues and Donald A. Capoccia. Courtesy Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery
Installation view of “Amy Sherald: American Sublime,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, N.Y. (April 9-August 10, 2025). Shown, “Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama,” 2018. Photo by Tiffany Sage/BFA.com. © BFA 2025
BOOKSHELF
“Amy Sherald: American Sublime” documents the first major survey of the artist. The fully illustrated volume is the first comprehensive monograph of Amy Sherald. Edited by Sarah Roberts, the catalog includes contributions by Elizabeth Alexander, Dario Calmese, Rhea L. Combs, and Deborah Willis. “Amy Sherald: The World We Make” was published on the occasion the artist’s first international exhibition at Hauser & Wirth gallery in London. A detail of her monumental painting “For love, and for country” (2022) graces the cover of the book, which includes a conversation between Sherald and Ta-Nehisi Coates. “Amy Sherald” documents her 2018-19 exhibition organized by the Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis. Sherald was included in a few group exhibitions where her work graced the cover of the accompanying catalogs. Those volumes include Ekow Eshun’s “Reframing the Black Figure: An Introduction to Contemporary Black Figuration” and “Women Painting Women.” In addition, Sherald’s portrait of Breonna Taylor anchored “Promise, Witness, Remembrance” at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Ky., and covers the exhibition catalog. Also consider, “The Obama Portraits” and, for children, “Parker Looks Up: An Extraordinary Moment.”
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