The Metropolitan Museum of Art revisits a major movement in American history and art in the Blackest exhibition the institution has seen in 55 years when it showed, Harlem on My Mind: Cultural Capital of Black America, 1900—1968, without a lick of art. This time around on Feb. 25, with the help of the Ford Foundation, the Barrie A. and Deedee Wigmore Foundation and Denise Littlefield Sobel, the Met redeems itself with The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism, curated by Denise Murrell, Merryl H. and James S. Tisch Curator at Large.
“This landmark exhibition celebrates the brilliant and talented artists behind the groundbreaking cultural movement we now know as the Harlem Renaissance,” Ford Foundation president Darren Walker said in a press statement.
“I thank the dedicated team at The Met and applaud Denise Murrell for her vision and thoughtful curation of this vibrant collection of paintings, sculptures, film, and photography that gives a powerful glimpse into the Black experience in the early 20th century.”
The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism is both an ode to philosopher Alain Locke and a reconstruction of his rejection of stereotypical Blackness that white America clung to in favor of the amplication of Black art and excellence and complexity—that is—Locke’s concept around The New Negro Renaissance. Akin to Locke, Murrell is interested in reviving “autonomous Black self expression” of the time. The show negotiates this concept with 160 works, including James Van Der Zee, Aaron Douglas, James Weldon Johnson, Charles S. Johnson, Langston Hughes and not-so-well known artist Laura Wheeler Waring to name a few.
