Amy Sherald
American Sublime
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
April 9 – August 10, 2025
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama, 2018
Oil on linen, 72 1/8 × 60 1/8 × 2 3/4 in. (183.1 × 152.7 × 7 cm)
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
The National Portrait Gallery is grateful to the following lead
donors for their support of the Obama portraits:
Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg;
Judith Kern and Kent Whealy;
Tommie L. Pegues and Donald A. Capoccia.
Courtesy of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery
Breonna Taylor, 2020
Oil on linen, 54 × 43 × 2 1/2 in.
The Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky,
Museum, purchase made possible by a grant from the
Ford Foundation; and the Smithsonian National
Museum of African American History and Culture,
purchase made possible by a gift from Kate Capshaw
© Amy Sherald. Photograph by Joseph Hyde
The Whitney Museum of American Art presents Amy Sherald: American Sublime, the artist’s debut solo exhibition at a New York museum and the most comprehensive showing of her work. American Sublime considers Amy Sherald’s powerful impact on contemporary art and culture, bringing together almost fifty paintings spanning her career from 2007 to the present. This exhibition positions Amy Sherald within the art historical tradition of American realism and figuration. In her paintings, she privileges Black Americans as her subjects, depicting everyday people and foregrounding a population often unseen or underrepresented in art history. The exhibition features early works, never or rarely seen by the public, and new work created specifically for the exhibition, along with iconic portraits of First Lady Michelle Obama and Breonna Taylor—two of the most recognizable and significant paintings made by an American artist in recent years.
Amy Sherald places her work within the lineage of American realism and portraiture, alongside artists like Robert Henri, Edward Hopper, Alice Neel, and Andrew Wyeth—all represented in the Whitney Museum’s collection. The early American realists sought to capture the ethos of American places and people. However, there is an evident absence of Black Americans in theserepresentations. Deeply committed to expanding notions of American identity, Sherald’s compositions center her subjects, inviting viewers to meet them eye to eye and empathetically step into their imagined worlds. Employing props and iconography—a tractor, a beach ball, the American flag, a toy pony, or a teacup—the artist crafts universally relatable narratives, illuminating her subjects’ idiosyncrasies and their unique life experiences. By including symbols that resonate with common ideas of American identity and history, these portraits offer a more complete view of the complexity of twenty-first-century American life. The resulting body of work attests to the multiple facets of American identity, reinforcing Sherald’s profound belief that “images can change the world.”
If You Surrendered to the Air, You Could Ride It, 2019
Oil on linen, 130 × 108 × 2 1/2 in. (330.2 × 274.3 × 6.4 cm)
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2020.148
purchase with funds from the Painting and Sculpture Committee,
Sascha S. Bauer, Jack Cayre, Nancy Carrington Crown,
Nancy Poses, Laura Rapp, and Elizabeth Redleaf
© Amy Sherald. Photograph by Joseph Hyde
Amy Sherald
What's precious inside of him does not care to be known by
the mind in ways that diminish its presence (All American), 2017
Oil on canvas, 54 × 43 × 2 1/2 in. (137.16 × 109.22 × 6.35 cm)
Private collection, courtesy Monique Meloche Gallery
© Amy Sherald. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth
Photograph by Joseph Hyde
Planes, Rockets, and the Spaces in Between, 2018
Oil on canvas, 100 x 67 x 2 1/2 in. (254 x 170.1 x 6.35 cm)
Baltimore Museum of Art, Purchase with exchange funds
from the Pearlstone Family Fund and partial gift of
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.,
BMA 2018.80.
© Amy Sherald. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth
Photograph by Joseph Hyde
“It is a great honor to work with Amy Sherald, one of the most compelling, generous, and impactful artists of our time,” said Rujeko Hockley, Arnhold Associate Curator at the Whitney Museum. “Her unwavering dedication and commitment to what she has called the ‘wonder of what it is to be a Black American’ is deeply felt, and I am thrilled to share her visionary work with our audiences.”“American Sublime is a salve,” said artist Amy Sherald. “A call to remember our shared humanity and an insistence on being seen.”“Few contemporary artists make images as gripping and indelible as Amy Sherald. Each of her paintings distills the essence of an individual while also conveying a broad sense of humanity,” said Scott Rothkopf, the Whitney’s Alice Pratt Brown Director. “Over the years that I’ve been in dialogue with Amy, we’ve visited works in the Whitney’s collection by Paul Cadmus, Barkley Henricks, and Edward Hopper, among so many American painters whose legacy she both inherits and extends. I can think of no better home for this important exhibition, which we’re honored to present.”
They Call Me Redbone,
but I'd Rather Be Strawberry Shortcake, 2009
Oil on canvas, 54 × 43 × 2 1/2 in. (137.16 × 109.22 × 6.35 cm)
National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC,
gift of Steven Scott, Baltimore, in honor of the artist and
the 25th anniversary of National Museum of Women in the Arts
© Amy Sherald. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth.
Photograph by Ryan Stevenson
The Rabbit in the Hat, 2009
Oil on canvas, 54 × 43 × 2 1/2 in. (137.16 × 109.22 × 6.35 cm)
Green Family Art Foundation,
courtesy Adam Green Art Advisory
© Amy Sherald. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth
Photograph by Christina Hussey
Hangman, 2007
Oil on canvas, 100 × 67 × 2 1/2 in. (254 × 170.18 × 6.35 cm)
Collection of Sheryll Cashin and Marque Chambliss
© Amy Sherald. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth
Photograph by Kelvin Bulluck
Amy Sherald: American Sublime – Exhibition Overview
American Sublime explores the work of one of the most preeminent artists of our time. Arranged chronologically, the exhibition begins with Amy Sherald’s poetic early portraits and leads into the distinct and striking figure paintings for which she is best known. In her intentional privileging of Black Americans as her subjects, Amy Sherald tells stories of a population underrepresented in traditional portraiture. Influenced by her childhood fascination with family photographs—a black-and-white portrait of her grandmother in particular—Sherald aims to portray Black people in quiet, authentic moments. She chooses subjects who vary in age, gender, and identity, placing them in scenes from everyday life to share perspectives she wants to see depicted in the world.
Amy Sherald identifies as an American realist. She tells stories of the American experience through her paintings, much like artists Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth. It wasn’t until she saw a painting with a Black person in it at a museum as a child that she realized she hadn’t yet seen herself represented in art history—a pivotal moment that continues to impact her career. Sherald’s portraits contribute new narratives to the collective American story by recasting figures in archetypal American roles, like a cowboy, a beauty queen, or a farmer. While Amy Sherald acknowledges the political dimension of her work, she wants her impact to reach beyond that. Amy Sherald invites viewers to challenge established preconceptions about race and engage with the universal stories told in her portraits, revealing the richness and complexity of humanity. Her signature gray palette for skin tones deemphasizes the focus on race, expanding her subjects’ narratives and demonstrating that there is more to an individual than can be contained in a single image or facet of their identity.
Miss Everything (Unsuppressed Deliverance), 2014
Oil on canvas, 54 × 43 × 2 1/2 in. (137.16 × 109.22 × 6.35 cm)
Private Collection
© Amy Sherald. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth
Photograph by Joseph Hyde
The Bathers, 2015
Oil on canvas, 72 1/8 × 67 × 2 1/2 in. (183.2 × 170.2 cm)
Private Collection
© Amy Sherald. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth
Photograph by Joseph Hyde
A Midsummer Afternoon Dream, 2021
Oil on canvas, 106 × 101 × 2 1/2 in. (269.24 × 256.54 × 6.35 cm)
Private Collection
© Amy Sherald. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth
Photograph by Joseph Hyde
Photography is an important element of Sherald’s creative process, serving as her sketchbook and the foundation for her compositions. With the exception of her two commissioned portraits of First Lady Michelle Obama and Breonna Taylor, the artist selects each sitter based on their inherent qualities, such as poise, style, or wit—what she calls their “ineffable spark.” During photoshoots, Amy Sherald allows her models to pose organically, allowing for the synergy to build between them so that she can authentically capture their essence. She curates each scene and styles the subjects in clothing that speaks to the narrative she wishes to craft, creating a sense of magical realism. In titling her paintings, Amy Sherald often draws inspiration from Black women writers and poets like Toni Morrison and Lucille Clifton, reinterpreting their poetry to develop different contexts around the interior worlds of her subjects. Through her explorations, Amy Sherald redefines common beliefs about American identity, weaving a broader visual story of history and belonging. Ultimately, she portrays everyday Black people as individuals, not in contention or inherently politicized, but simply existing.
In addition to the paintings on view in the galleries, Amy Sherald presents work on the facade of the Horatio Street building across from the Museum. The newly commissioned work, Four Ways of Being, brings together four portraits by the artist—some never before seen in New York—and explores the intersection of past, present, and future with each capturing a distinct way of existing in the world.
The Whitney presentation of this exhibition is organized by Rujeko Hockley, Arnhold Associate Curator, with David Lisbon, curatorial assistant. Amy Sherald: American Sublime is organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) and curated by Sarah Roberts, the former Andrew W. Mellon Curator and Head of Painting and Sculpture at SFMOMA
Amy Sherald: American Sublime is accompanied by a publication—the artist’s first comprehensive monograph—representing the broad sweep of Sherald’s painting practice and her key influences and inspirations. Contributors include exhibition curator Sarah Roberts, Elizabeth Alexander, Dario Calmese, Rhea Combs, and Deborah Willis. Amy Sherald: American Sublime is published by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in association with Yale University Press.
THE WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART
99 Gansevoort Street, New York City
