Art by African Americans

Mickalene Thomas, Portrait of Mnonja, 2010, rhinestones, acrylic, and enamel on wood panel, Smithsonian American Art Museum

SAAM is home to one of the most significant collections of African American art in the world, boasting more than two thousand works by more than two hundred African American artists.

Covering centuries of creative expression, the artworks explore themes that reflect the African American experience in paintings, sculpture, prints, textiles and photographs. From an important grouping of recently acquired works by self-taught artist Bill Traylor to William H. Johnson’s vibrant portrayals of faith and family, to Mickalene Thomas’s contemporary exploration of black female identity, the museum’s holdings reflect its long-standing commitment to black artists and the acquisition, preservation, and display of their works.

Themes

The artists included in SAAM’s collection powerfully evoke themes both universal and specific to the African American experience. Many reflect the tremendous social and political change that occurred from the early Republic to the Civil War, through the rise of industry, the Jazz Age and the Harlem Renaissance, the post-war years, the Civil Rights movement to present day questions of self and society.

The Collection

Beginning in the mid-1960s the museum acquired significant works by African American artists including Sargent Johnson’s Mask and James Hampton’s visionary installation, The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millennium General Assembly, as well as works by Romare Bearden, William H. Johnson, and Alma Thomas from New York’s Harmon Foundation. In 1980, objects from the Warren Robbins collection became part of the museum, including works by 19th century artists Joshua Johnson, the earliest documented professional African-American painter; classical landscapes by Edward Mitchell Bannister and Robert Scott Duncanson; and neoclassical sculptures by Edmonia Lewis, the first professional African American sculptor.

Six years later, the museum acquired more than four-hundred works by folk and self-taught artists from the holdings of Waide Hemphill, Jr. including paintings by Sister Gertrude Morgan and Bill Traylor.

In addition, SAAM contains key works by Benny Andrews, John Biggers, Thornton Dial, Sr., Loïs Mailou Jones, Jacob Lawrence, and Alma Thomas. Contemporary artists in SAAM’s collection include Mark Bradford, Sam Gilliam, Kerry James Marshall, Martin Puryear, and Faith Ringgold among others.