African American Art in the 20th Century

This traveling exhibition presents 42 paintings and 5 sculptures by 32 African American artists from the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s collection. The artists featured came to prominence during the period bracketed by the Harlem Renaissance and the Civil Rights movement. The means of these artists varied–from representational to modern abstraction to stained color to the postmodern assemblage of found objects–and their subjects are diverse. These works were created during a significant social and political moments in America.