As the US Slides Into Tyranny, Europe Champions Black American Artists

Four major European museums are simultaneously staging ambitious exhibitions of Black American artists, including Kerry James Marshall at London's Royal Academy, Jacob Lawrence at Kunsthal KAdé in Amersfoort, Nina Chanel Abney in Paris and Amersfoort, and Mickalene Thomas at Les Abattoirs in Toulouse and the Grand Palais in Paris. The article, written as an opinion piece, describes the author's experience at the opening of Abney's show at Elbow Church in the Netherlands and contrasts the European embrace of these artists with the political climate in the United States.

romare bearden catalogue raisonne

The Wildenstein Plattner Institute (WPI) has released the first online tranche of the Romare Bearden Catalogue Raisonné Project, covering over 200 works from 1964 to 1969—a pivotal period when Bearden honed his signature collage style. The free digital publication fills a long-standing gap for the canonical Black American artist, who died in 1988, and includes works verified by an anonymous committee of experts, with a verified icon for examined pieces.

A $1B Evening With Nicole Kidman

Hyperallergic's newsletter reports on a record-setting $1 billion evening sale at Christie's on May 18, which included works by Jackson Pollock and Constantin Brancusi alongside Hollywood star Nicole Kidman. Other stories cover an exhibition at the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center celebrating Black American artists in Paris, a painted book cover trend analyzed by Tara Anne Dalbow, a Gaza Square sculpture unveiling in Paterson, New Jersey, and a performance event by Bahar Behbahani on Governors Island.

The Pain Behind the Colors

Der Schmerz hinter den Farben

Henry Taylor is the subject of a major exhibition at the Musée Picasso in Paris, where his monumental paintings addressing racism, poverty, hope, and pain are displayed in dialogue with art history. The article describes a key work featuring Martin Luther King Jr. in a park scene, with small adult-faced figures and a limousine of white men watching, highlighting Taylor's narrative style.

Edmonia Lewis Was the Earliest Known Black Artist to Depict Emancipation. This Is Her First Retrospective.

The Peabody Essex Museum is hosting "Said in Stone," the first-ever comprehensive retrospective dedicated to Edmonia Lewis, a pioneering 19th-century sculptor of Black and Ojibwe heritage. The exhibition assembles a significant body of her marble works, including the landmark sculpture "Forever Free" (1867), which is recognized as the first formal visual representation of emancipation by a Black American artist. The show traces her journey from her upbringing with her Ojibwe family and her traumatic years at Oberlin College to her eventual success as an expatriate artist in Rome.

Kerry James Marshall, National Gallery expansion, Picasso’s Three Dancers—podcast

This podcast episode from The Art Newspaper covers three major art stories. Ben Luke tours Kerry James Marshall's retrospective 'The Histories' at the Royal Academy of Arts in London—the largest European survey of the US artist's work—with curator Mark Godfrey, and visits a related exhibition of Marshall's graphic novel 'Rythm Mastr' at The Tabernacle in Notting Hill. The National Gallery in London announces a £400m expansion called Project Domani, the largest transformation in its 200-year history, with £375m already raised, and a shift in its collecting boundary beyond 1900. Finally, Tate Modern's centenary exhibition 'Theatre Picasso' centers on Pablo Picasso's 'The Three Dancers' (1925), discussed with co-curator Natalia Sidlina and designer Enrique Fuenteblanca.

'I do believe in love at first sight': plastic surgeon Charles Boyd on why his heart rules his head in matters of art

Plastic surgeon Charles Boyd, based in Michigan and deeply involved in the Detroit art scene, discusses his art collection and passion for visual art in an interview with The Art Newspaper. Boyd chairs the board at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, serves on the board of the Detroit Institute of Arts, and is on the acquisitions committee of the Studio Museum in Harlem. His collection, which began in earnest in 2004 after inheriting art from his father, includes works by prominent Black American artists such as Ming Smith, Kerry James Marshall, Titus Kaphar, Deborah Roberts, and Sanford Biggers. He shares stories about his first purchase (a sculptural work from Côte d'Ivoire), his most recent acquisition (by the late Cuban artist Belkis Ayón), and a regret over not buying a Norman Lewis painting when he was a resident.

The Black American Artists Who Dazzled Post-War Paris

An exhibition titled "Paris in Black: Internationalism and the Black Renaissance" at the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center in Chicago celebrates the Black American artists, writers, and performers who moved to Paris after World War II to escape American racism. Curated by Danny Dunson, the show features over 100 artworks from the museum's permanent collection, including paintings by Archibald J. Motley Jr., sculptures by Richmond Barthé, Augusta Savage, and William Artis, and ephemera related to Josephine Baker. It traces the global influence of the Harlem Renaissance and the cross-pollination between Paris and U.S. cities like Chicago.

Birmingham Museum of Art to unveil new Black American art exhibition

The Birmingham Museum of Art (BMA) announced it will unveil a landmark exhibition titled "Roll Call: Two Hundred Years of Black American Art" in September 2026. The show features 99 works drawn entirely from the museum's permanent collection, tracing two centuries of Black artistic production. Organized in four thematic sections—The Ground We Stand On, Ujima: Collective Work and Responsibility, What Freedom Feels Like, and In the Heart of It All—the exhibition highlights the museum's history of collecting Black art, which began in 1971 and now includes over 1,000 works by 250 Black artists. The exhibition coincides with the museum's 75th anniversary and runs from September 26, 2026 to January 17, 2027.

Black Artists Featured in Monet to Matisse Exhibition at Birmingham Museum of Art

The Birmingham Museum of Art (BMA) has opened its presentation of the traveling exhibition "Monet to Matisse: French Moderns, 1850–1950," which features over 100 masterworks from the Brooklyn Museum. Uniquely, the BMA version includes more than 40 additional works from its own collection, among them paintings by two Black American artists—Henry Ossawa Tanner and Charles Ethan Porter—who lived and worked in France during the period. Curator Dr. Maggie Crosland emphasized the importance of including these artists to highlight the contributions of Black Americans to French modernism, especially given the political climate that drove many to Paris between 1850 and 1950.

This California Art Show From Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys Pairs Major Artists With a Stunning Pacific Backdrop

The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego is hosting "Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys," an exhibition featuring over 130 works by 37 Black American and diasporic artists. The show, which began at the Brooklyn Museum in 2024, includes pieces by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Gordon Parks, Mickalene Thomas, and Derrick Adams, and was celebrated with a preview party attended by the collectors and their creative community.

Coming to campus this spring? Check out these exhibitions.

The University of Chicago is hosting a diverse slate of art exhibitions across its campus this spring. Highlights include 'A Bestiary of Ancient Nubia' at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, 'Beyond Boundaries: Three Decades of Contemporary Chinese Art' and 'Composing Color: Paintings by Alma Thomas' at the Smart Museum of Art, the photography exhibition 'Black Culture in Chicago' at the Logan Center, and 'History on the Edges: Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s Caribbean' at the Regenstein Library.

Noah Davis's exhibition

The Philadelphia Museum of Art announces a landmark survey of the late American artist Noah Davis (1983–2015), bringing together over 60 works across painting, sculpture, works on paper, and curating. The exhibition marks the final stop of an international tour organized with DAS MINSK in Potsdam, the Barbican in London, and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. Highlights include "40 acres and a unicorn" (2007), "Isis" (2009), "Savage wilds" (2012), and the "Pueblo del rio" series (2014). Curated by Eleanor Nairne and Wells Fray-Smith, the show is accompanied by a catalog co-published by Prestel with contributions from Tina M. Campt, Claudia Rankine, and others.

Elizabeth Catlett, a Master Artist With a Message, Gets Her Due at the Art Institute of Chicago

The Art Institute of Chicago has opened a major solo exhibition titled "Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist and All That It Implies," surveying 75 years of the artist's work. Catlett, who died in 2012, was a Black American artist who spent six decades in Mexico, creating prints and sculptures that depicted Black women and addressed social injustice. The show includes iconic works like "Target Practice" and "Sharecropper," and runs through January 4, 2026.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art to Present Largest-Ever Exhibition of Works by American Artist John Wilson

The Metropolitan Museum of Art will present "Witnessing Humanity: The Art of John Wilson" this fall, the largest-ever exhibition of works by American artist John Wilson (1922–2015) and his first solo museum show in New York. Featuring over 100 artworks—including paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture, and archival material—the exhibition draws from The Met, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and a dozen other lenders, with many works never before shown. Co-curated by Jennifer Farrell and Leslie King Hammond, the show spans Wilson's six-decade career, addressing themes of racial violence, labor, the Civil Rights Movement, and family life.

Boston artist John Wilson's work now the subject of Museum of Fine Arts exhibit celebrating humanity

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has opened a new exhibition titled "Witnessing Humanity: The Art of John Wilson," featuring 110 works by the late Boston artist. Born in 1922 to immigrants from British Guyana, Wilson spent over six decades creating paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures, and illustrated books that center on portraits of himself, his family, and his friends. The exhibition, co-curated by Edward Saywell, highlights Wilson's lifelong commitment to reclaiming the dignity and humanity of Black Americans in art, a response to the caricatured and dehumanized representations he saw as a student.