“Amy Sherald: American Sublime” at the Whitney Museum of American Art

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More than 50 paintings come together for Amy Sherald’s largest New York museum showing, a mid-career survey of her work from 2007 to the present. “Amy Sherald: American Sublime” at the Whitney Museum of American Art showcases the commanding, captivating portraits done in the artist's signature style — Black, front-facing figures with nuanced expressions against vibrant backgrounds — that has redefined American realism by centering those historically absent from the canon. Sherald’s acclaimed portraits of First Lady Michelle Obama and Breonna Taylor will be shown alongside new and never-before-seen artworks, including Sherald’s first triptych, “Ecclesia (The Meeting of Inheritance and Horizons),” which welcomes viewers at the exhibition’s opening. From the Greek word for meeting place or assembly, “Ecclesia” features three occupied watchtowers crowned with weather vanes whose uniformity reflects her interest in the work of Wes Anderson. A new commission, “Four Ways of Being,” features four portraits of subjects coexisting in a shared moment, displayed as an outdoor installation on the building facade on Gansevoort Street, across from the museum.

^{Amy Sherald, “A Midsummer Afternoon Dream,” 2021. Private Collection. © Amy Sherald. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photograph by Joseph Hyde}