Black Arts & Culture Feature:
- Lorna Simpson shifted from conceptual photography to large-scale paintings using archival sources like Ebony and Jet.
- The Met’s “Source Notes” is the first comprehensive exhibition of Simpson’s painting practice.
- Exhibition includes nearly three dozen works: 21 large paintings, a dozen collage vitrines, and one magazine-based sculpture.
- Simpson’s process emphasizes uncertainty, recontextualizing found photography to bridge figuration and abstraction.
- The show runs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York from May 19–Nov. 30, 2025.
LORNA SIMPSON (American, born Brooklyn, New York, 1960), “For Beryl Wright,” 2021 (ink and screenprint on two gessoed fiberglass panels, Overall: 75 1/2 in. × 9 ft. 10 inches / 191.8 × 299.7 cm). LSN.017
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions
NEW YORK ARTIST Lorna Simpson (b. 1960) built a critically recognized practice exploring her own brand of conceptual photography. A decade ago she shifted directions, focusing on large-scale paintings that draw on images from vintage Ebony and Jet magazines and other sources, including a Smithsonian book on meteorites. Bridging figuration and abstraction, the atmospheric paintings engage with the complexities of identity and representation.
“Lorna Simpson: Source Notes” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is the first comprehensive exhibition of Simpson’s painting practice. Nearly three-dozen works are on view—21 large paintings, a dozen small collage works displayed in vitrines, and one sculpture assembled with stacked magazines. The exhibition concludes this weekend.
“I embrace uncertainty, but also unpredictable outcomes. Process is very important in that way, much more probably than the outcome itself,” Simpson said in the video below. “The title of the exhibition, ‘Source Notes,’ it’s kind of an homage to my way of working, using archival images from Ebony or Jet magazines or just photography that I’ve either found on auction sites or just come across in garage sales, just looking and kind of re-contextualizing photography and image making in a way that allows me to play with those images and to make something new.” CT
“Lorna Simpson: Source Notes” is on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, N.Y., from May 19–Nov. 30, 2025
Artist Lorna Simpson discusses “Source Notes” at The Met, the first exhibition dedicated to her paintings. She also talks about adapting to working on a large scale and her ongoing “analog” collage practice. | Video by The Met
Installation view of “Lorna Simpson: Source Notes,” Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, N.Y. (May 19–Nov. 2, 2025). Shown, LORNA SIMPSON (American, born Brooklyn, New York, 1960), “True Value,” 2015 (ink and acrylic on gessoed wood, 9 ft. × 96 inches / 274.3 × 243.8 cm). | Photo by Eileen Travell, Courtesy The Met
‘Source Notes,’ it’s kind of an homage to my way of working,… looking and kind of re-contextualizing photography and image making in a way that allows me to play with those images and to make something new.”
— Lorna Simpson
Installation view of “Lorna Simpson: Source Notes,” Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, N.Y. (May 19–Nov. 2, 2025). | Photo by Eileen Travell, Courtesy The Met
LORNA SIMPSON (American, born Brooklyn, New York, 1960), “Head on Ice #3,” 2016 (ink and screenprint on gessoed fiberglass, 67 × 50 inches / 170.2 × 127 cm). | © Lorna Simpson. Collection of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Gift of the Director’s Council and Musuem purchase, 2017 (2017.6)
Installation view of “Lorna Simpson: Source Notes,” Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, N.Y. (May 19–Nov. 2, 2025). Shown, from left, “For or by the eyes” (2023), “Third Person” (2023), and “Head on Ice #4” (2016). | Photo by Eileen Travell, Courtesy The Met
Installation view of “Lorna Simpson: Source Notes,” Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, N.Y. (May 19–Nov. 2, 2025). Shown, LORNA SIMPSON, “5 Properties,” 2018 (Ebony and Jet magazines, poly sleeves, bronze, plaster, glass, 45 1/8 × 13 × 17 1/2 in. (114.6 × 33 × 44.5 cm). | © Lorna Simpson. Private Collection, Photo by Victoria L. Valentine
Installation view of “Lorna Simpson: Source Notes,” Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, N.Y. (May 19–Nov. 2, 2025). Shown, from left, “Time” (2021) and “Night Fall” (2023). | Photo by Eileen Travell, Courtesy The Met
LORNA SIMPSON (American, born Brooklyn, New York, 1960), “True Value,” 2015 (ink and acrylic on gessoed wood, 9 ft. × 96 inches / 274.3 × 243.8 cm). | © Lorna Simpson, Forman Family Collection
Installation view of “Lorna Simpson: Source Notes,” Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, N.Y. (May 19–Nov. 2, 2025). Shown, foreground, from left, “Night Fall” (2023) and “Vanish” (2019). | Photo by Eileen Travell, Courtesy The Met
LORNA SIMPSON (American, born Brooklyn, New York, 1960), “Mind Reader,” 2019 (ink and screenprint on gessoed fiberglass, 67 × 50 inches/ 170.2 × 127 cm). | © Lorna Simpson. Collection of Denise and Gary Gardner
Installation view of “Lorna Simpson: Source Notes,” Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, N.Y. (May 19–Nov. 2, 2025). Shown, From left, “Vanish” (2019) and “For Beryl Wright”(2021). | Photo by Eileen Travell, Courtesy The Met
LORNA SIMPSON (American, born Brooklyn, New York, 1960), “Three Figures,” 2014 (ink and screenprint on clayboard, Overall: 9 ft. 8 3/4 inches × 97 1/2 inches / 296.5 × 247.7 cm). | Forman Family Collection
Installation view of “Lorna Simpson: Source Notes,” Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, N.Y. (May 19–Nov. 2, 2025). | Photo by Eileen Travell, Courtesy The Met
LORNA SIMPSON (American, born Brooklyn, New York, 1960), “did time elapse,” 2024 (acrylic and screenprint on gessoed fiberglass, 8 ft. 6 in. × 12 ft. (259.1 × 365.8 cm). | © Lorna Simpson. Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2025.14
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