Amy Sherald Paints a 'Sublime' Portrait of Black America in New Whitney Show

At the Whitney Museum of American Art, celebrated painter Amy Sherald is unveiling American Sublime, marking her first New York museum solo show. In a suite of nearly 50 paintings, including her powerful portraits of Michelle Obama and Breonna Taylor, the exhibition traces her journey from 2007 into today in lyrical compositions, centering the beauty and depth of Black life in America.

Sherald paints with a steady, loving hand. Taking technical cues from the American Realist tradition – a movement which originated in the halls of HBCUs – she captures the faces of those left out of the art historical narrative, each opulent in their ordinariness and radiant individuality.

“Sherald’s contemplative subjects appear most concerned with their own interiority, prioritizing their own peace and self-realization over how others might perceive them and the shackles of history, though they are inevitably impacted by both,” the museum wrote in a recent statement. “Her audacious project highlights what she has called the ‘wonder of what it is to be a Black American,’ rendering a rich and unconstrained Black world in vibrant Technicolor.”

Alongside the gallery presentations, Sherald presents “Four Ways of Being,” a newly commissioned work displayed on the facade of the Horatio Street building facing the museum. “American Sublime is a salve,” the artist expressed. “A call to remember our shared humanity and an insistence on being seen.”

Head to the Whitney’s website for more information on how to visit.

Whitney Museum of American Art
99 Gansevoort St,
New York, NY 10014