Fact Sheet “Artworks by African Americans in the Permanent Collection”
Exhibition
Installation of Artworks by African Americans in Permanent Collection Galleries
Aug. 31, 2016 – Feb. 28, 2017
Where
American Art Museum, Eighth and F streets N.W. Permanent collection galleries, first through third floors
Description
The Smithsonian American Art Museum is home to an extraordinary collection of artworks by African Americans. The museum has long been a champion of black artists, beginning a collecting initiative in the 1960s that has grown to more than 2,000 artworks by more than 200 artists. The museum will display 184 of these works this fall and winter, adding 48 objects to the galleries in addition to 136 currently on view.
The artworks span four centuries and various media, including painting, sculpture, textiles and photography, and represent numerous artistic styles, from realism to neoclassicism, abstract expressionism, modernism and folk art. Visitor favorites by William H. Johnson and Lois Mailou Jones; abstractions by Washington’s own Sam Gilliam, Felrath Hines and Alma Thomas; contemporary works by Mark Bradford, Faith Ringgold and Mickalene Thomas; key pieces by self-taught artists such as Clementine Hunter and Purvis Young; and influential works by John Biggers, Sargent Johnson, Augusta Savage and Henry Ossawa Tanner are on view. A selection from the museum’s in-depth collections of works by William H. Johnson and Tanner are on display in its Luce Foundation Center and in the galleries. A number of works in the installation have recently returned to the museum following a national tour.
The featured artists powerfully evoke themes both universal and specific to the African American experience. Many mirror the tremendous social and political change occurring from the early Republic to the rise of industry, the Jazz Age and Harlem Renaissance, the post-war years and the civil rights movement into present day. The artworks will be arranged chronologically and thematically throughout the permanent collection galleries. A complete list of works on display is available in a brochure available to visitors and online
Credit
The installation is presented in celebration of the 2016 Grand Opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
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About the Smithsonian American Art Museum and its Renwick Gallery
The Smithsonian American Art Museum is the flagship museum in the United States for American art and craft. It is home to one of the most significant and inclusive collections of American art in the world. The museum’s main building, located at Eighth and G streets N.W., is open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. The museum’s Renwick Gallery, a branch museum dedicated to contemporary craft, is located on Pennsylvania Avenue at 17th Street N.W. and is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Check online for current hours and admission information. Admission is free. Follow the museum on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. Smithsonian information: (202) 633-1000. Museum information (recorded): (202) 633-7970. Website: americanart.si.edu.
