"According to a BMA spokesperson reached by Hyperallergic, attendance stood at 63,000 as of Monday, February 9, and is expected to peak at 75,000 by the time the show closes on April 5. That makes Sherald's mid-career survey the museum's most-attended show since 2000 - a remarkable feat considering that the BMA was not an original destination on American Sublime's itinerary."
"After its run at the Whitney, Sherald's survey was scheduled to land at the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery (NPG) last September, but the artist cancelled the Washington, DC, leg in July over censorship concerns involving a painting in the exhibition. The work in question, "Trans Forming Liberty" (2024), depicts Arewà Basit, a well-known Black transwoman and drag performer, holding a torch and posing like Lady Liberty while wearing a pink wig and blue dress."
Amy Sherald's traveling exhibition American Sublime set a new attendance record at the Baltimore Museum of Art, attracting 63,000 visitors as of February 9 and expected to reach 75,000 by April 5. The mid-career survey, not originally scheduled for the BMA, comprises nearly 50 quietly contemplative grisaille portraits of Black Americans. The exhibition debuted at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in November 2024 and later traveled to the Whitney, where it marked Sherald's first solo museum show in New York. Sherald cancelled the planned National Portrait Gallery presentation in Washington, DC, in July over censorship concerns about the painting "Trans Forming Liberty," which depicts Arewà Basit holding a torch and posed like Lady Liberty while wearing a pink wig and blue dress.
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