Talks & Conversations

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

Part of Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955–1985 Opening Day
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Anthony Barboza, Grace Jones, New York City, 1970s, gelatin silver print, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund, 2021.35.5

Celebrate the opening of Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955–1985 with this overview by exhibition curators Philip Brookman, the National Gallery’s consulting curator of photographs, and Deborah Willis, university professor and chair of the department of photography and imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts and director of the Center for Black Visual Culture at New York University. This exhibition is the first to consider photography’s impact on a cultural and aesthetic movement that celebrated Black history, identity, and beauty.

A signing of the exhibition catalog will follow in the East Building Concourse Shop.

About the exhibition

As Black Americans continued their struggle for political liberation and self-determination in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, a group of artists, poets, musicians, playwrights, and filmmakers united around a new approach—art. Using creative mediums to express messages of Black empowerment and advance social justice, their efforts became known as the Black Arts Movement, often considered the cultural arm of the Black Power Movement.

Photography was central to the movement, attracting all kinds of artists—from street photographers and photojournalists to painters and graphic designers. This expansive exhibition presents 150 examples by over 100 artists. Explore the radical vision shaped by generations of artists including Billy Abernathy, Romare Bearden, Kwame Brathwaite, Roy DeCarava, Doris Derby, Emory Douglas, Barkley Hendricks, Barbara McCullough, Betye Saar, and Ming Smith. See how they both shaped and documented the Black Arts Movement.

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