Black Arts & Culture Feature:
TOP NEW YORK MUSEUMS are presenting exhibitions of major African American artists this spring and summer with most on view through fall 2025. Solo exhibitions include the largest-ever surveys of Rashid Johnson at the Guggenheim Museum, Amy Sherald at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Jack Whitten at the Museum of Modern Art. The Drawing Center is presenting the first museum show dedicated to Beauford Delaney’s drawings and the Brooklyn Museum is hosting the first museum exhibition of under-known sculptor Nancy Elizabeth Prophet.
At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, multiple must-see presentations are on view throughout the institution. The newly nenovated Michael C. Rockefeller Wing is now open, showcasing The Met’s Arts of Africa, Ancient Americas, and Oceania collections. New exhibitions feature paintings by Lorna Simpson, a roof garden installation by Jennie C. Jones, and at the Met’s Costume Institute, the much-talked about “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” show explores Black dandyism, highlights Black designers, and inspired the theme for the recent Met Gala.
From Brooklyn to the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the following exhibitions span painting, drawing, sculpture, fashion, and more (listed in chronological order beginning with the most recent openings):
From left, BEAUFORD DELANEY, Untitled, circa 1960 (watercolor and gouache on paper, 25 1/2 x 19 1/2 inches / 64.8 x 49.5 cm). | © Estate of Beauford Delaney, by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator, Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY. Photo: Knoxville Museum of Art; BEAUFORD DELANEY, “James Baldwin,” 1945 (pastel on paper, 23.5 x 18.5 inches / 59.7 x 47 cm). | © Estate of Beauford Delaney, by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator, Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY. Photo: Ben Conant
In the Medium of Life: The Drawings of Beauford Delaney @ The Drawing Center, 35 Wooster Street, Soho, Manhattan. | May 30–Sep 14, 2025
The drawings of Beauford Delaney (1901-1979) were a significant source of inspiration and experimentation. Delaney produced drawings throughout his career from the early 1920s to the early 1970s, nearly all were stand-alone works as opposed to sketches for paintings. Born in Knoxville, Tenn., Delaney studied art in Boston, then moved to New York in 1929 at the height of the Harlem Renaissance. In 1953, he went to Paris at the suggestion of James Baldwin, his friend and frequent subject. Delaney spent the rest of his life in French capital, where he continued to make portraits and added an all-over calligraphic-form of abstraction to his oeuvre. More than 90 works are on view in the show, including works on paper, works on canvas, and archival materials. The presentation is the first major museum exhibition of Delaney in New York in 30 years and the first to focus on his drawings, a central aspect of his artistic practice that has gone understudied.
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: Source Notes @ Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan. | May 19–Nov. 2, 2025
New York artist Lorna Simpson (b. 1960) built a critically recognized practice exploring her own brand of conceptual photography. A decade ago she changed directions, focusing on large-scale paintings that draw on images from vintage Ebony and Jet magazines and other archives. Bridging figuration and abstraction, the atmospheric paintings engage with the complexities of identity and representation. This is the first comprehensive exhibition of Simpson’s painting practice with more than 30 works on view.
Installation view of “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” Disguise, Gallery View, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, N.Y. (May 10-Oct. 26, 2025). Exhibition design by artist Torkwase Dyson. | Photo © The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Superfine: Taioring Black Style @ Costume Institute, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan. | May 10-Oct. 26, 2025
A dandy is someone who dresses elegantly and impeccably with particular attention paid to tailoring and individual style. This much-anticipated exhibition “interprets the concept of dandyism as both an aesthetic and a strategy that allowed for new social and political possibilities.” An array of Black designers is among the clothiers represented. The displays include garments and accessories, paintings, drawings, photographs, and decorative arts, dating from the 18th century to present, along with archival materials. For the first time in its history, the Costume Institute is exploring Black style.
FAITH RINGGOLD, “Woman on a Bridge #1 of 5: Tar Beach,” 1988 (acrylic paint, canvas, printed fabric, ink, and thread, 74 5/8 x 68 1/2 inches / 189.5 x 174 cm). | Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York Gift, Mr. and Mrs. Gus and Judith Leiber, 88.3620. © 2023 Faith Ringgold / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York
Collection in Focus | The Reach of Faith Ringgold @ Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue (at 88th Street), Upper East Side. | May 9–Sept. 14, 2025
The Guggenheim is exhibiting Faith Ringgold‘s “Woman on a Bridge #1 of 5: Tar Beach” for the first time since the museum acquired the work in 1988, the same year it was made. The painted story quilt visualizes the adventures of Cassie Louise Lightfoot, a young girl with an active imagination who dreams of a life of freedom and gets her wish when she alights from her Harlem rooftop soaring throughout the city. The quilt is on view with other works in the museum’s collection, including modernists who preceded Ringgold and informed her work, such as Marc Chagall, Jacob Lawrence, and Pablo Picasso, and a new generation of contemporary artists she influenced, including Sanford Biggers, Christopher Myers, Howardena Pindell, Tschabalala Self, Alan Shields, Mickalene Thomas, and Carrie Mae Weems.
Installation view of “Sandra Poulson: Este quarto parece uma República! [This Bedroom Looks Like a Republic!],” MoMA PS1, Long Island City, Queens. (April 24-Oct. 6, 2025). | Courtesy MoMA PS1. Photo: Kris Graves
Sandra Poulson: Este quarto parece uma República! [This Bedroom Looks Like a Republic!] @ MoMA PS1, Long Island City, Queens. | April 24–Oct. 6, 2025
The first museum exhibition of Angolan interdisciplinary artist Sandra Poulson (b. 1995) features a tight curation of eight sculptures produced in 2024. The assemblage works unite furniture and materials of various origin, including a headboard with a European Union logo; American-style, veneered chip board furniture made in China; and Dutch furniture fabricated from tropical wood sourced from Angola and other locales. “Reflecting on the abstraction of nation-building within the domestic sphere,” Poulson’s latest body of work “takes an archaeological approach to Angolan symbols, codes, and cultural objects to untangle histories, oral traditions, and geopolitics.”
Installation view of “Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers,” Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, N.Y. (April 18, 2025–Jan. 18, 2026,). Shown, from left, RASHID JOHNSON, “God Painting “What’s Happenin’,” 2024 (oi on linen); RASHID JOHNSON, “Black Yoga,” 2010 (Persian rug, spray enamel, monitor, and color video with sound, transferred from 8 mm film, 4 min., 42 sec.). | Photo: David Heald © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York
Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers @ Solomon R. Guggeneheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue (at 88th Street), Upper East Side, Manhattan. | April 18, 2025-Jan. 18, 2026
The practice of New York artist Rashid Johnson (b. 1977) is informed by history, philosophy, literature, and music. On view throughout the Guggenheim’s storied rotunda, this mid-career survey presents nearly 90 works, across multiple mediums, produced over 30 years. Featured works include an early series of photographic portraits of homeless men; glazed stoneware sculptures; videos and films; mosaic and collage paintings; Anxious Men, Bruise, and Seascape paintings; new Soul Paintings; and Sanguine, a monumental installation composed of a black steel structure housing plants, shea butter, books, and a piano activated two days a week. The exhibition travels next to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in Texas (March 8-Oct. 4, 2026) and Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (Nov. 7, 2026-April 25, 2027).
Installation view of “The Roof Garden Commission: Jennie C. Jones, Ensemble,” 2025, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, N.Y. (April 15-Oct. 19, 2025). | Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Photo by Hyla Skopitz
The Roof Garden Commission: Jennie C. Jones, Ensemble @ Metropolitan Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan. | April 15-Oct. 19, 2025
The Met’s expansive rooftop offers majestic, panoramic views of the New York City skyline. Jennie C. Jones works at the intersection of minimalism, conceptualism, and abstraction. Her sound-based works engage music, art history, and Black creativity. For the 2025 Roof Garden Commission, Jones responded to the museum’s picturesque, outdoor space with three large-scale sculptures inspired by string instruments. The installation includes “a trapezoidal zither, modeled on a low frequency–absorbing bass trap; a tall Aeolian harp, activated by the wind; and a doubled, leaning one-string, conceived as an homage to the twentieth-century improvisers Moses Williams and Louis Dotson, who performed on the instrument.”
Installation view of “Saya Woolfalk: Empathic Universe,” Museum of Arts and Design, New York, N.Y. (April 12-Sept. 7, 2025). | Courtesy Museum of Arts and Design
Saya Woolfalk: Empathic Universe @ Museum of Arts and Design, 2 Columbus Circle, Manhattan. | April 12-Sept. 7, 2025
Saya Woolfalk‘s practice is an exercise in world building. Her imagined universe centers “Empathics,” a race of women inspired by her multicultural background and elements of science fiction, fashion, feminist theory, anthropology, and Eastern religion. Two decades of installations with garment-based sculptures, painting, works on paper, and video are on view. The works reflect Woolfalk’s exploration of African, African American, Japanese, European, and Brazilian craft, symbolism, and storytelling. The show is Woolfalk’s first retrospective and first major museum exhibition in New York.
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. | Photograph by Tiffany Sage/BFA.com. © BFA 2025
Amy Sherald: American Sublime @ Whitney Museum of American Art, 99 Gansevoort Street, Meatpacking District, Manhattan. | April 9-Aug. 10, 2025
Amy Sherald usually paints timeless, poetic, and engaging portraits of ordinary people, but she is best known for her 2018 portrait of a world-famous figure: First Lady Michelle Obama. “American Sublime” is the first major museum survey of Sherald and her first museum exhibition in New York. About 50 paintings dating from 2007 to the present are on view. The selections include Sherald’s most iconic paintings: Mrs. Obama; a posthumous tribute to Breonna Taylor; and “For love, and for country” (2022), which reimagines Alfred Eisenstaedt’s famous 1945 photograph of a U.S. Navy sailor kissing a woman in Times Square. Sherald’s version of the image replaces the white heterosexual couple with two Black men. The show travels next to the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., where it opens Sept. 19, 2025.
Installation view of “Jack Whitten: The Messenger,” Museum of Modern Art, New York, N.Y. (March 23-Aug. 2, 2025). | Photo: Jonathan Dorado, Courtesy MoMA
Jack Whitten: The Messenger @ Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street, Midtown, Manhattan. | March 23, 2025-Aug. 2, 2025
This is the first full-scale examination of Bessemer, Ala.-born, New York artist Jack Whitten (1939-2018). The exhibition showcases his singular practice, working in abstraction across six decades. Known for his inventive methods, materials, and techniques, Whitten explored weighty issues, reflecting his experiences growing up during segregation (what he called “American apartheid”) and the Civil Rights Movement. More than 175 works are on view in the retrospective, including paintings, sculptures, and works on paper.
Installation view of “Nancy Elizabeth Prophet: I Will Not Bend an Inch,” Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, N.Y. (March 14–July 13, 2025). | Photo: Timothy Doyon
Nancy Elizabeth Prophet: I Will Not Bend an Inch @ Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn. | March 14–July 13, 2025
Long overdue, this is the first museum presentation of Afro-Indigenous sculptor Nancy Elizabeth Prophet (1890-1960). Born in Providence, R.I., Prophet was the first woman of color to graduate from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1918. She went to Paris for a decade, returned to the United States in 1934, and moved to Atlanta, Ga., where she co-founded the art department at Spelman College. Exploring Prophet’s life and studio practice, the exhibition showcases a rare selection of 20 works (only a modest amount of her work still exists) alongside a collaborative film by artist Simone Leigh and artist/filmmaker Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich. The show originated at RISD Museum and after its run at the Brooklyn Museum will travel to the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art later this year. CT
BOOKSHELF
New catalogs document the exhibitions of Lorna Simpson, Amy Sherald, Rashid Johnson, Jennie C. Jones, Beauford Delaney, and Jack Whitten. Also consider “In the Studio: Jack Whitten,” another new publication. “Superfne: Taioring Black Style,” the exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, is accompanied by a new fully illustrated catalog. Another volume inspired the show: “Slave to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity,” a scholarly publication authored by guest curator Monica L. Miller, chair of Africana Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University. “Saya Woolfalk: Empathic Universe” was published on the occasion of the museum exhibition and is the first monograph of the artist.
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