Amy Sherald centers Black representation in her portraiture, noting art history rarely depicts people who look like her. She also champions LGBTQ+ rights and creates work that questions who is allowed to embody American identity. Sherald painted Trans Forming Liberty, a portrait of Black trans woman Arewa Basit, as part of American Sublime. The Smithsonian attempted to remove that portrait from the exhibition ahead of its arrival and suggested substituting a video of cisgender people debating trans inclusion. Sherald withdrew the exhibition in response. The episode underscores conflicts over representation and institutional censorship in museums.
This has been very much on Black artist Amy Sherald's mind. When I spoke to her in advance of the debut of her exhibition American Sublime, she told me that Black representation was foundational to her practice: I developed this idea that, when I look at art history, for the most part I don't see portraits of people that look like me. So it started there.
Amy has thought a lot about her role as an artist and the need for representation, and she has long been a champion of LGBTQ+ rights. This work is thinking about who gets depicted as being American. It was no surprise, then, that Sherald would have a very strong reaction when the Smithsonian attempted to censor Trans Forming Liberty, a portrait that she made of the Black trans woman Arewa Basit, out of American Sublime in advance of its arrival there.
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