Charles Ethan Porter, Still Life with Apples, 1886, oil on canvas, Gift of Lisa Unger Baskin, in honor of Emma Nogrady Kaplan and Sidney Kaplan, 2013.131.1

Black Artists

Explore works by Black artists through more than two centuries.

Browse the works of artists from 19th century painters Joshua Johnson and Robert Seldon Duncanson—to modern and contemporary artists Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, Kerry James Marshall, Charles White, Gordon Parks, Alma Thomas, Kara Walker, and more.

Selected works

  • A scene with a person holding a cornucopia is set against a night sky on this wood block. The person has peachy-brown skin and long silvery hair. A piece of drapery, also silver, flows around the hips as the person holds a cornucopia angled down and to the left. Blue and green material pours or hangs out of the horn. The person is contained within a silver oval frame. Fifteen green teardrop- or sperm-shaped orbs approach the oval to the left and fourteen approach from the right. Everything described so far is shown in low relief on the wood block. A translucent star is pinned or nailed to the panel near the top left corner and a translucent, crescent moon to the top right. To either side of the person are textured triangular shapes. The form to the left is green and points up, like a mountain, and the form to the right is blue and points in, like a cresting wave. Both have ragged edges and appear to be carved and affixed with nails, the heads of which are visible. Two translucent rectangles, possibly the same material as the star and moon, lie side-by-side between the green and blue forms on the bottom edge of the block.
  • Painted and drawn with areas of flat, vibrant colors, we look slightly down onto a bustling street market in this stylized, horizontal scene. It is created almost entirely with shades of sky and royal blue, buttercup and harvest yellow, caramel and ash brown, and spearmint green with only a few touches of brick and crimson red. The people all have black-colored skin with their features outlined in white. They sit, stand, gather, or walk along stalls lining the street that extends away from us. Some wear caps, headdresses, or are bareheaded. They wear wraps or togas that mostly leave arms bare. Some carry goods on their heads, sit and eat, hold children and babies, or reach for wares. One person holds a white chicken and another leads a couple of goats along the street. The inverted, narrow V of the street meets the shallow V of the rooflines of the buildings or awnings of the stalls just above the center of the composition. The upside-down triangular filling the distant area between the rooflines has a dark yellow ground where densely packed tables, carts, buildings, people, and several chickens are tiny in scale. A strip of blue along the top edge of the painting suggests the sky above. The artist signed and dated the work in graphite in the lower right corner, “Jacob Lawrence 64.”
  • Printed with black against cream-white paper, a woman pointing to our right nearly fills this vertical linocut. Her body is angled slightly to our right, and she looks off in that direction with hooded eyes. She has wide cheekbones, a thin upper lip, full lower lip, and her mouth is closed over a pointed chin. Her head is covered in a patterned cloth, and she wears a knee-length coat over a long skirt. A knapsack hangs across her torso, and she braces the barrel of a rifle with her right hand, to our left, as she points with the other hand. Two people with short, dark hair stand behind her and to our right. The front person wears pants, square-toed shoes, and a jacket over a shirt. Bracelet-like objects on his wrists could be broken shackles. The other person touches that man’s arm. A fourth person digs in the background to the left. The ground, trees, hills, and sky are dense flicks, slivers, and strokes. The artist signed the sheet in the bottom right corner under the image, “Elizabeth Catlett.”
  • Three pale-skinned, blue-eyed children wearing green suits stand in a row facing us in this horizontal portrait painting. They all have round faces and full, pink cheeks. The tallest child is to the right, and he has shoulder-length cinnamon-brown hair. The other two come up to his shoulder and have blond hair. The tallest puts one arm on the far shoulder of the middle child, and the two smaller children hold hands. Each wears a pine-green, one-piece outfit with pewter-gray buttons, a wide, ivory-white collar lined with ruffles, and black, shin-high boots. The boy on our left holds a branch of dark red cherries. The middle child holds a pink rose, and the tallest a basket filled with pink roses. A black dog holding a gray and mauve-pink bird in its mouth stands in profile facing our left in the lower right corner of the canvas. The room around them has a tan-colored floor and gray walls. The room opens onto an alcove to our right with a rectangular window. A slender tree is along the left edge of the opening and a few pale, pink-tinged gray mountains line the bottom edge. Clear blue sky fills the rest of the window.
  • Several pieces of fruit, a bunch of green grapes, a stem of raisins, and several types of nuts in their shells are piled on a putty-brown tabletop or ledge with rounded corners against a dark background in this horizontal still life painting. The food is brightly lit from the front, and we look slightly down onto the table. There are two round red apples and two pieces of small yellow fruit, perhaps quinces, flanking a golden yellow pear at the back center. The bunch of grapes drapes over the fruit to our right and the raisins lie between the apples. Thirteen walnuts, peanuts, almonds, hazelnuts, and perhaps a brazil nut are scattered in a loose band in front of the fruit. The surface on which the still life sits becomes swallowed in shadow behind the fruit, and blends into the dark brown background. The artist signed and dated the work in dark paint in the lower right corner, almost lost in shadow under the ledge: “R.S. Duncanson 1848.”
  • A city skyline is silhouetted in plum purple against a vivid peach and butter-yellow sky in this horizontal landscape painting. The brilliant sky is reflected in the water below, where a boat is moored along a riverbank. The scene is loosely painted with visible brushstrokes throughout. A wedge-shaped piece of olive green could be land or a dock in the lower right corner of the composition. A few people standing near the boat tied to a pier there are loosely painted with strokes of dark green and gray. A shallowly arched bridge marches across the river in the middle distance. Two towers and a few rounded buildings of the skyline beyond are outlined against the twilight sky. The artist’s signature is partially legible in the lower left corner: “F.F. Gut H.O.T.” It was also dated “July 10, 1902” but only the y of “July” is visible.
  • The spruce-green silhouette of a broad-shouldered man standing among palm fronds looks up at a faint red star against a field of green circles radiating out from the horizon in this abstracted vertical painting. The scene is made with mostly flat areas of color to create silhouettes in shades of slate and indigo blue, lemon-lime and pea green, plum purple, and brick red. To our right of center, the man faces our left in profile. His eye is a slit and he has tight curly hair. The position of his feet, standing on a coffin-shaped, brick-red box, indicate his back is to us. He stands with legs apart and his arms by his sides. Terracotta-orange shackles around his wrists are linked with a black chain. A woman to our left, perhaps kneeling, holds her similarly shackled hands up overhead. A line of shackled people with their heads bowed move away from this pair, toward wavy lines indicating water in the distance. The water is pine green near the shore and lightens, in distinct bands, to asparagus green on the horizon. On our left, two, tall pea-green ships sail close to each other at the horizon, both titled at an angle to our right. Concentric circles radiate out from the horizon next to the ships to span the entire painting, subtly altering the color of the silhouettes it encounters. To our left, a buttercup-yellow beam shines from the red star in the sky across the canvas, overlapping the man’s face. Spruce-blue palm trees grow to our right while plum-purple palm fronds and leaves in smoke gray and blood red frame the painting along the left corners and edge. The artist signed the painting in the lower right, in black, “AARON DOUGLAS.”
  • Painted with small areas of mostly flat color, this horizontal painting shows three brown-skinned people in the room of a home with pale gray walls and wood floors. To our right, a woman wears slate-gray skirt, a white apron and shawl, and a red headscarf with black and white polka dots. She sits in a black wooden chair facing our right in profile, smoking a pipe. A steaming kettle and bright green coffee pot sit on a black wood stove behind and to the right of the woman, with firewood stacked to the right. A clock or timer and an oil lamp sit on a red shelf above the stove and the woman’s head. Beneath her feet is one of three rectangular area rugs with a pattern of green, black, white, and red stripes. A window at the center of the back wall of the room is mostly covered by a dark green curtain. The panes along the bottom are black and lined with white, suggesting snow or frost. A bucket and pewter-colored, shallow bowl sit on a bench on the second striped rug under the window. To our left, a small person standing on the third patterned rug wears short black pants, stockings, and suspenders over a white shirt. That person turns away from us and rests elbows near a lit candle on a table with a red and gray checkered tablecloth. The third person, possibly a young girl, sits on a blanket or a fourth rug patterned with yellow, red, black, and green triangles. That young girl wears a gray dress and black shoes. She cradles a baby doll, and a white dog, perhaps a stuffed animal, sits next to her. A few cracks in the wall near the window expose horizontal bands, perhaps narrow wooden boards under damaged plaster. The artist signed the work with black letters in the lower right corner: “H. PiPPiN.”
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  • A dark-skinned girl stands on a dock holding a fish wider than her hips down in front of her with both hands, one ankle crossed over the other in this black and white photograph. Her body faces us, but she looks up and off to our right. A dark cloth covers her hair and shoulders over a knee-length dress. She wears loafer-style shoes. She stands in front of an upturned rowboat with a severed swordfish head laid on the flat stern, to our right. The long sword-like upper lip angles into the lower right corner of the photograph, and the fish’s large eye is a gaping hole. Buildings on a spit of land that comes about halfway up the composition enclose the body of water in the distance. The contrast of the girl’s dark head covering against the white sky creates an optical effect, making the cloth seem to glow.
  • A dark-skinned girl stands on a dock holding a fish wider than her hips down in front of her with both hands, one ankle crossed over the other in this black and white photograph. Her body faces us, but she looks up and off to our right. A dark cloth covers her hair and shoulders over a knee-length dress. She wears loafer-style shoes. She stands in front of an upturned rowboat with a severed swordfish head laid on the flat stern, to our right. The long sword-like upper lip angles into the lower right corner of the photograph, and the fish’s large eye is a gaping hole. Buildings on a spit of land that comes about halfway up the composition enclose the body of water in the distance. The contrast of the girl’s dark head covering against the white sky creates an optical effect, making the cloth seem to glow.
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Stories

Article:  10 Haitian Artists to Know

Meet the country’s leading painters who developed their own style of modern art.

Article:  12 Documentary Photographers Who Changed the Way We See the World

Photographers of the 1970s revolutionized the medium through innovations of both style and subject.

Scarlet-red dashes create loose vertical lines against a bright white background that fill this vertical abstract painting. Most of the dashes are vertical but some slant at an angle. The artist signed and dated the work with white paint in the lower right corner, “AWT 73.”

Article:  Alma Thomas: Life in Washington

Find out where artist the abstract painter was born, went to school, and lived.

Video:  Alma Thomas: Your New Favorite Artist

In this short video, Michelle Obama and others share why Alma Thomas and her art continue to inspire.

Article:  Alma Thomas’s Tiptoe Through the Tulips in Living Color

Author and art historian Katy Hessel on the abstract artist's love for flowers.

Interactive Article:  Art up Close: Starting from Clay, David Drake’s Storage Jar

A close look at the unseen labor that went in to David Drake’s stoneware pottery and inscribed poetry.

Article:  Artist Christopher Myers Considers What It Means to “Matter”

We talk with him about his process and inspiration, from the quilts of Gee’s Bend to cutouts by Henri Matisse.

Video:  Brazilian Painter Dalton Paula on “Zeferina” and “João De Deus Nascimento”

Dalton Paula painted imagined portraits of Zeferina and João De Deus Nascimento, leaders of Brazilian slave rebellions whose faces have been lost to history; these works were featured in the exhibition Afro-Atlantic Histories.

Video:  Called to Create: Black Artists of the American South Exhibition Trailer

The exhibition Called to Create: Black Artists of the American South featured Thornton Dial, James “Son Ford” Thomas, Lonnie Holley, Mary T. Smith, Purvis Young, and many other Black artists who lived and worked in the South. 

Video:  Carrie Mae Weems and the 54th Regiment

Artist Carrie Mae Weems and Carl J. Cruz, a descendant of Sgt. William H. Carney, the first Black soldier awarded the Medal of Honor, reflect on the story of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment and its connections to the struggles still going on today.

Article:  Carrie Mae Weems on the Everyday Experiences of Black Women at the Kitchen Table

Author and art historian Katy Hessel explores the photographer's renowned series.

We look onto the side of a rowboat crowded with nine men trying to save a pale, nude young man who flails in the water in front of us as a shark approaches, mouth agape, from our right in this horizontal painting. In the water, the man floats with his chest facing the sky, his right arm overhead and the other stretched out by his side. Extending to our left, his left leg is bent and the right leg is straight, disappearing below the knee. His long blond hair swirls in the water and he arches his back, his wide-open eyes looking toward the shark behind him. To our right, the shark rolls up out of the water with its gaping jaws showing rows of pointed teeth. In the boat, eight of the men have light or tanned complexions, and one man has dark brown skin. The man with brown skin stands at the back center of the boat, and he holds one end of a rope, which falls across the boat and around the upper arm of the man in the water. Another man stands at the stern of the boat, to our right, poised with a long, hooked harpoon over the side of the boat, ready to strike the shark. His long dark hair blows back and he wears a navy-blue jacket with brass buttons, white breeches, blue stockings, and his shoes have silver buckles. Two other men wearing white shirts with blousy sleeves lean over the side of the boat, bracing each other as they reach toward the man in the water. An older, balding man holds the shirt and body of one of this pair and looks on, his mouth open. The other men hold long oars and look into the water with furrowed brows. The tip of a shark’s tail slices through the water to our right of the boat, near the right edge of the canvas. Along the horizon line, which comes three-quarters of the way up the composition, buildings and tall spires line the harbor. The masts of boats at port creates a row of crosses against the light blue sky. Steely gray clouds sweep across the upper left corner of the canvas and the sky lightens to pale, butter yellow at the horizon.

Article:  Centering the Black Sailor in Copley’s "Watson and the Shark"

This sailor was one of the first Black figures at the center of a history painting. What can a close look tell us about Black life during colonial times?

Video:  Conversations with Artists: Amy Sherald

Amy Sherald, artist, in conversation with Erin Christovale, assistant curator at the Hammer Museum.

Video:  Conversations with Artists: Dawoud Bey

Produced in conjunction with the exhibition Dawoud Bey: The Birmingham Project, this ten-minute interview with the artist explores the inspiration and evolution of the project, as well as Bey's broader interests in portraiture and American history.

Video:  Conversations with Artists: Glenn Ligon

On March 15, 2013, Glenn Ligon discussed the layers of history, meaning, and physical material of three of his works in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Art. 

Video:  Conversations with Artists: Kerry James Marshall

In this program recorded on June 26, 2013, exhibition curator James Meyer and Kerry James Marshall discuss the works and themes of his exhibition In the Tower: Kerry James Marshall, on view at the Gallery from June 28 to December 8, 2013.

Video:  Conversations with Artists: Kerry James Marshall

On October 27, 2013, Kerry James Marshall discusses his painting Great America (1994), acquired by the National Gallery of Art in 2011 as a gift of the Collectors Committee, and the inspiration for the Gallery’s exhibition In the Tower: Kerry James Marshall, on view June 28 through December 8, 2013.

Video:  Conversations with Artists: Theaster Gates

In this conversation recorded on February 26, 2017, Theaster Gates and guest curator Sarah Newman discuss the works and themes of his exhibition Theaster Gates: The Minor Arts, which was on view at the Gallery from March 5 to September 4, 2017.

Video:  Dalton Paula's Portraits for the Future

Travel with Dalton Paula as he finds inspiration in Brazil’s Quilombo Kalunga, a community of resistance and empowerment founded centuries ago by Indigenous Brazilians and people fleeing enslavement.

Article:  David Drake’s Poetic Pottery Was Resistance

We know so much more about Dave than we otherwise would because he signed his vessels, and also inscribed them with poems, during a period of harsh anti-literacy laws.

Wendy MacNaughton's pen and ink illustration of artist Romare Bearden

Article:  Drawing with Scissors with Romare Bearden

Wendy MacNaughton takes us on a journey to meet the legendary Harlem artist known for his collages — and reflect on our own homes and families.

Article:  Eldzier Cortor Takes Us Inside the Slaughterhouse

Through his surrealist woodcut, Cortor considers the relationship between humans and animals and tells the stories of Black bodies.

Wendy MacNaughton's watercolor and ink illustration of Kerry James Marshall

Article:  Exquisite Corpse with Kerry James Marshall (and friends!)

The history painter takes inspiration from an old surrealist game — and so can we, as an opportunity for connection.

Video:  How Artist Chakaia Booker Turns Car Tires Into Transcendence

Examine how Chakaia Booker’s artistic practice serves as a metaphor for Black American experiences of struggle, strength, and survival.

Video:  How One Family Photographed a Black Renaissance

Art historian Rashieda Witter tells the story of the Scurlock Family, who photographed some of the artists and creatives responsible for the Black Renaissance in Washington, D.C.

Exhibitions

Exhibition:  Back and Forth: Rozeal., Titian, Cezanne

Three women's faces standing side-by-side. The two on either side are face each other and the middle one is facing straight ahead.

Exhibition:  Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist

Exhibition:  In the Tower: Chakaia Booker: Treading New Ground

Kwame Brathwaite's photograph of a young woman, Untitled (Portrait, Reels as Necklace), c. 1972

Exhibition:  Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955–1985

Exhibition:  The ’70s Lens: Reimagining Documentary Photography

Events

A man and a woman standing side-by-side and smiling.

Still from Juan Mora Catlett’s Betty y Pancho (1998) courtesy of Juan Mora Catlett

Films:  Betty y Pancho

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A man and a woman standing side-by-side and smiling.

Still from Juan Mora Catlett’s Betty y Pancho (1998) courtesy of Juan Mora Catlett

Films:  Betty y Pancho

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A man and a woman standing side-by-side and smiling.

Still from Juan Mora Catlett’s Betty y Pancho (1998) courtesy of Juan Mora Catlett

Films:  Betty y Pancho

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A man and a woman standing side-by-side and smiling.

Still from Juan Mora Catlett’s Betty y Pancho (1998) courtesy of Juan Mora Catlett

Films:  Betty y Pancho

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A boy and a girl playing with a ball.

Exhibitions:  Exhibition Tour—Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist

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A boy and a girl playing with a ball.

Exhibitions:  Exhibition Tour—Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist

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A boy and a girl playing with a ball.

Exhibitions:  Exhibition Tour—Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist

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A boy and a girl playing with a ball.

Exhibitions:  Exhibition Tour—Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist

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A boy and a girl playing with a ball.

Exhibitions:  Exhibition Tour—Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist

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A boy and a girl playing with a ball.

Exhibitions:  Exhibition Tour—Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist

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The wall-sized, horizontal sculpture consists of black rubber tires and tubing that has been sliced, stripped, woven, looped, twisted and otherwise manipulated into an expressive and abstract high-relief tableau.

Chakaia Booker, Acid Rain, 2001, rubber tires and wood, Courtesy of National Museum of Women in the Arts. © Chakaia Booker

Chakaia Booker, Acid Rain, 2001, rubber tires and wood, Courtesy of National Museum of Women in the Arts. © Chakaia Booker

Talks & Conversations:  Gallery Talk: Chakaia Booker

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The wall-sized, horizontal sculpture consists of black rubber tires and tubing that has been sliced, stripped, woven, looped, twisted and otherwise manipulated into an expressive and abstract high-relief tableau.

Chakaia Booker, Acid Rain, 2001, rubber tires and wood, Courtesy of National Museum of Women in the Arts. © Chakaia Booker

Chakaia Booker, Acid Rain, 2001, rubber tires and wood, Courtesy of National Museum of Women in the Arts. © Chakaia Booker

Talks & Conversations:  Gallery Talk: Chakaia Booker

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The wall-sized, horizontal sculpture consists of black rubber tires and tubing that has been sliced, stripped, woven, looped, twisted and otherwise manipulated into an expressive and abstract high-relief tableau.

Chakaia Booker, Acid Rain, 2001, rubber tires and wood, Courtesy of National Museum of Women in the Arts. © Chakaia Booker

Chakaia Booker, Acid Rain, 2001, rubber tires and wood, Courtesy of National Museum of Women in the Arts. © Chakaia Booker

Talks & Conversations:  Gallery Talk: Chakaia Booker

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The wall-sized, horizontal sculpture consists of black rubber tires and tubing that has been sliced, stripped, woven, looped, twisted and otherwise manipulated into an expressive and abstract high-relief tableau.

Chakaia Booker, Acid Rain, 2001, rubber tires and wood, Courtesy of National Museum of Women in the Arts. © Chakaia Booker

Chakaia Booker, Acid Rain, 2001, rubber tires and wood, Courtesy of National Museum of Women in the Arts. © Chakaia Booker

Talks & Conversations:  Gallery Talk: Chakaia Booker

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A man and a woman looking into each other's eyes with serious expressions on their faces.

Talks & Conversations:  Gallery Talk—Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist

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A woman singing into a microphone.

Concerts & Performances:  Kyaira

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A band, made up of three young men, holding their instruments.

Concerts & Performances:  New Jazz Underground

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A band posing with their instruments.

Concerts & Performances:  Plena Libre

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A sculpture of a woman holding a small child in her lap.

Elizabeth Catlett, Mother and Child, 1956, terracotta, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of The Friends of Education of The Museum of Modern Art, The Modern Women's Fund, and Dr. Alfred Gold (by exchange), 219.2011

Elizabeth Catlett, Mother and Child, 1956, terracotta, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of The Friends of Education of The Museum of Modern Art, The Modern Women's Fund, and Dr. Alfred Gold (by exchange), 219.2011

Talks & Conversations:  The Sculpture of Elizabeth Catlett

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Registration required
A sculpture of a woman holding a small child in her lap.

Elizabeth Catlett, Mother and Child, 1956, terracotta, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of The Friends of Education of The Museum of Modern Art, The Modern Women's Fund, and Dr. Alfred Gold (by exchange), 219.2011

Elizabeth Catlett, Mother and Child, 1956, terracotta, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of The Friends of Education of The Museum of Modern Art, The Modern Women's Fund, and Dr. Alfred Gold (by exchange), 219.2011

Talks & Conversations:  The Sculpture of Elizabeth Catlett

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Registration required
A sculpture of a woman holding a small child in her lap.

Elizabeth Catlett, Mother and Child, 1956, terracotta, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of The Friends of Education of The Museum of Modern Art, The Modern Women's Fund, and Dr. Alfred Gold (by exchange), 219.2011

Elizabeth Catlett, Mother and Child, 1956, terracotta, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of The Friends of Education of The Museum of Modern Art, The Modern Women's Fund, and Dr. Alfred Gold (by exchange), 219.2011

Talks & Conversations:  The Sculpture of Elizabeth Catlett

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Registration required