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Stories of Black Artists

See more Black art and artists

To celebrate Black History Month, we’re bringing stories of Black American artists to the forefront. Collectively, their work in our collection explores universal themes of beauty, kinship, and the time-honored tradition of responding to the artists who preceded and inspired them. Discover your new favorite artist here.

The Beauty of Form

Simone Leigh: Acts of Transformation

In sculptor Simone Leigh’s hands, the Black female body is no longer mammy, maid, or muse. Transformed and abstracted, her subjects retain their power. 

Community and Kinship

Out of the Shadows, Lois Mailou Jones Finds Her Place in the Sun

Behind this idyllic landscape lies a hidden story of a Black enclave in Martha's Vineyard — and how the painter had to conceal her identity to make a name for herself.

Quilts That Embody the Legacy of Black America

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

Portrait by a Grandson: Motley’s "Portrait of My Grandmother"

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Table: Breaking Bread in Troubled Times

Photographs of Everyday Life

Rare Early Photographs of African American Life

A large collection of personal photographs offers a glimpse of Black entrepreneurship and self-expression in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Past and Present Reckonings

Look to the Light: A Reflection on Aaron Douglas’s “Into Bondage”

A leading artist of the Harlem Renaissance, Aaron Douglas unveiled Into Bondage on Juneteenth 1936. It offers a vision of hope and freedom amidst oppression and despair.

Artist Christopher Myers Considers What It Means to “Matter”

The Tangled Web of History: Carrie Mae Weems and The Shaw 54th Regiment Memorial

Twoness: Rashid Johnson’s Doubled Portrait of Emmett Till

Eldzier Cortor Takes Us Inside the Slaughterhouse

Artists Respond to Artists