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

"Something shifted the moment I stood inside the Elbow Church art space in Amersfoort in the Netherlands this past September. As journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones delivered a sharp lecture beneath Nina Chanel Abney's monumental installations, it became clear that this Medieval city was presenting narratives of Black American life that the United States is increasingly unwilling to hold. Jacob Lawrence: African American Modernist and Nina Chanel Abney: Heaven's Hotline opened in Amersfoort on the same evening."

"In fact, this year, four major European museums simultaneously staged ambitious exhibitions of Black American artists: Kerry James Marshall at London's Royal Academy, Lawrence at Kunsthal KAdé in Amersfoort, Abney in Paris and Amersfoort, and Mickalene Thomas at Les Abattoirs in Toulouse and forthcoming at the Grand Palais in Paris, all shows I visited with the exception of the first. This moment feels less like a coincidence and more like a long-overdue reckoning."

"These are not demure gallery shows. They are massive institutional commitments - entire floors and, in some cases, entire museums devoted to a single artist with hundreds of works spanning decades. These shows refuse simplification as they document Black American life, histories, love, resistance, queerness, labor, death, and joy without apology or translation. At Kunsthal KAdé, Dutch audiences are encountering Jacob Lawrence in his first European overview."

Four major European museums mounted large, single-artist exhibitions devoted to Black American artists, including Kerry James Marshall, Jacob Lawrence, Nina Chanel Abney, and Mickalene Thomas. Nikole Hannah-Jones delivered a lecture beneath Abney’s monumental installations at Elbow Church in Amersfoort while Lawrence’s and Abney’s openings ran concurrently, mapping historical narratives alongside bold indictments. The exhibitions occupy entire floors or whole museums and present hundreds of works spanning decades. The shows document Black American life, histories, love, resistance, queerness, labor, death, and joy without simplification. The moment reads as a long-overdue reckoning amid weakening American institutional capacity and constitutional protections.

Read at Hyperallergic