The Legacy of TWO CENTURIES of BLACK AMERICAN ART
June 21, 2024 - December 20, 2024
This exhibition celebrates the legacy of David Driskell’s groundbreaking 1976 exhibition Two Centuries of Black American Art, which provided audiences with a remarkably comprehensive survey of significant works, broke cultural barriers, and had an enduring impact on generations of artists. Featured artists include Margaret Burroughs, Elizabeth Catlett, Allan Rohan Crite, Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Hale Woodruff, Alma Thomas, William Henry Johnson, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Dox Thrash, and Clementine Hunter, among others. The exhibition will not be a reconstruction of Driskell’s Two Centuries, but rather will celebrate Driskell’s championing of Black art, history, and culture.
This is one in a series of American art exhibitions created through a multi-year, multi-institutional partnership formed by the Philadelphia Museum of Art as part of the Art Bridges Cohort Program.
Romare Bearden, Family Dinner, 1993, serigraph created in association with Mrs. Romare Bearden and the Estate of Romare Bearden, based on the collage painting of 1968, 21.75 x 27. 13 in. Gift of Darlene Morris, The Trout Gallery, 2021.1.2.
Girl In Slacks: Women Artists From The Reading Public Museum
November 1, 2024 - January 25, 2025
The title of this exhibition is borrowed from a small drawing by Isabel Bishop (American, 1902-1988), who is best known for depicting working women in the 1920s and 1930s. Following Bishop's interest in progressive representations of gender and sexuality, this exhibition considers how women artists challenged conventions and faced issues of sexism, racism, and identity in their work. On display are works by artists Käthe Kollwitz (German, 1867-1945), Louise Nevelson (American, 1899-1988), Françoise Gilot (French, 1921-2023), Adrian Piper (American, b. 1960) and Lorna Simpson (American, b. 1960), among others, on loan from the Reading Public Museum.
