Black Abstractionists: From Then 'til Now

Black Abstractionists: From then ‘til Now brings together a multigenerational group of 38 pioneering, mid-career, and emerging Black artists. The history of Black artists working in abstraction is inseparable from the history of modern and contemporary art. While they were often marginalized by the art world power structure of museums, galleries, and collectors for most of the 20th-century, the contributions of Black artists were inexorable. During one of the most radical periods in 20th-century American politics, the Black Power era, a group of Black artists was working with what was, and still is, one of the most radical forms of art — abstraction. Radicalism is relative, though, and in this case politics and culture were on different tracks.

Opening of the curatorial text by Dexter Wimberly, Green Family Art Foundation, 2022. Read the full press release

Artists

Alma Thomas, Hale Woodruff, Beauford Delaney, Charles Alston, Norman Lewis, Thornton Dial, Jack Whitten, Ed Clark, Sam Gilliam, Frank Bowling, Virginia Jaramillo, Daniel LaRue Johnson, Melvin Edwards, David Hammons, Howardena Pindell, Mary Lovelace O'Neal, William T. Williams, McArthur Binion, Fred Eversley, Stanley Whitney, Glenn Ligon, Leonardo Drew, Odili Donald Odita, Mark Bradford, Rick Lowe, Kevin Beasley, Spencer Lewis, Oscar Murillo, Reginald Sylvester II, Rachel Jones, Vaughn Spann, Gabriel Mills, Jadé Fadojutimi, Theaster Gates, Ficre Ghebreyesus, Julie Mehretu, Shinique Smith, Michaela Yearwood-Dan