Black American Portraits

Anonymous, Portrait of a Sailor (Paul Cuffe?), United States, circa 1800, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Purchased with funds provided by Cecile Bartman, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA

Remembering Two Centuries of Black American Art, guest curated by David Driskell at LACMA 45 years ago, Black American Portraits reframes portraiture to focus on Black American subjects, sitters, and spaces. Spanning over two centuries from ca. 1800 to the present day, the selection of approximately 150 works draws primarily from LACMA’s permanent collection and highlights emancipation and early studio photography, scenes from the Harlem Renaissance, portraits from the Civil Rights and Black Power eras, and multiculturalism of the 1990s. The exhibition complements the presentation of The Obama Portraits by Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald on tour from the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery (NPG). A special soundtrack accompanies the exhibition, celebrating the radiance of Black musical culture in its most joyful forms, featuring song selections from several of the artists represented in the show: Karon Davis, Reggie Burrows Hodges, Shinique Smith, and Umar Rashid alongside additional song curation by dublab’s Mark “Frosty” McNeill.