Contemporary Blackness
As a major exhibition on a key period in Black American culture is unveiled at the Met, three other shows survey the state of Black British and American art today
The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism 25 February–28 July Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, Aaron Douglas: New York’s Harlem was an incredibly exciting place to be in the 1920s and ’30s, with young Black artists transforming literature, music and visual art. Acknowledging that the ascendant profile of Black figures wasn’t confined to the United States, this exhibition at the Met – which focuses on painting and sculpture, but also includes photographs and moving-image art – features key works by the likes of Charles Henry Alston, Augusta Savage and James Van Der Zee. These are counterposed against depictions of Black figures by European artists including Munch, Matisse and Picasso and the Jamaican-born, London-based sculptor Ronald Moody.
The Time Is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure
22 February–19 May
National Portrait Gallery, London
This Ekow Eshun-curated show explores how Black figures have been foregrounded and erased in Western art. Many of the approaches – ranging from Claudette Johnson’s monumental pastels to Kerry James Marshall’s polished portraits – combine the personal with the probingly political.
Multiplicity: Blackness in Contemporary American Collage 18 February–12 May
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
What better form than collage to explore constructed, overlapping identities? This show brings together work by 52 artists, including Rick Lowe, Jamal Cyrus and Lovie Olivia. Blackness is the core theme, but the way it intersects with queerness and belonging is also addressed.
The Culture: Hip-Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century 29 February–26 May
Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt
After opening in Baltimore last year, this show makes its European debut. The Schirn Kunsthalle offers more than 100 paintings, photos, fashion items, sculptures and videos from the last two decades. Work by Gordon Parks, Virgil Abloh and Lauren Halsey is on the bill.