Amy Sherald

American Sublime

“I’m drawn to expressions of humanity. I want [viewers] to think about who these people are, what it’s like to interact with them, what stories they might be telling”—Amy Sherald

“I’m drawn to expressions of humanity. I want [viewers] to think about who these people are, what it’s like to interact with them, what stories they might be telling”—Amy Sherald
 
“The contemporary painter’s defining subjects are everyday Black Americans, the ‘sublime’ buried subtly, but unmistakably, in their everyday gestures.”—New York Times Book Review, “10 Giftworthy Visual Books”

“A landmark publication for one of the most influential American painters working today, this volume brings together nearly all of Sherald’s paintings to date. Her figures—poised, dignified and arrestingly present—are situated within the lineage of American realism while unmistakably her own.”—Megan Fox Kelly, Observer.com, “Art Books Shaping Summer 2025”

“Sublime, indeed.”— Emily Raboteau, Apollo
 
Encompassing the full arc of Amy Sherald’s (b. 1973) career, from her poetic early works to the distinctive figure paintings and portraits that have become her hallmark, this book unfolds the artist’s method of selecting individuals she meets on the street and using facial expression, body language, and clothing choices to create paintings that transcend portraiture and expand the canon of American art. Essays by curators Sarah Roberts and Rhea Combs; poet and writer Elizabeth Alexander; artist Dario Calmese; and renowned scholar Deborah Willis contextualize and illuminate Sherald’s creation of a new form of imaginative portraiture. Often depicting her subjects’ skin in gray monochrome, surrounded by few markers of place, time, or context beyond the clothes they wear, Sherald challenges the assumption that Black life is inextricably bound with struggle, creating images that engage in more expansive thinking about race and representation and the wide-open possibilities and complexities of every individual. Whether a passerby or the former first lady Michelle Obama, Sherald’s subjects represent what America was, is, and could be.

• Accompanied the blockbuster exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Baltimore Museum of Art, and High Museum in Atlanta
• Includes 120 beautifully reproduced color illustrations, including 1 gatefold
• The book’s striking design features decorative, deep blue edge painting

Published in association with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Exhibition Schedule:
 
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
(November 16, 2024–March 9, 2025)
 
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
(April 9–August 10, 2025)
 
Baltimore Museum of Art
(November 2, 2025–April 3, 2026)

High Museum of Art, Atlanta
(May 15–September 27, 2026)

Contributor: Sarah Roberts (Edited by), Elizabeth Alexander (Contributions by), Dario Calmese (Contributions by), Rhea L. Combs (Contributions by), Deborah Willis (Contributions by)

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