amy sherald talks canceled smithsonian show 60 minutes 1234757994

Painter Amy Sherald has revealed in a "60 Minutes" interview with Anderson Cooper that she pulled out of her solo exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery because the museum considered removing her painting of a Black transgender Statue of Liberty, titled "Trans Forming Liberty." Sherald stated that the Smithsonian secretary, Lonnie G. Bunch III, proposed replacing the painting with a video discussing trans issues that would include anti-trans views, which she deemed unacceptable censorship. The exhibition, "American Sublime," was originally organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and last shown at the Whitney Museum; it is now expected to open at the Baltimore Museum of Art on November 2.