Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Wedding Portrait, 2012
© Njideka Akunyili Crosby; photo: Don Ross
Mickalene Thomas, Sista Sista Lady Blue, 2007
© Mickalene Thomas / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; photo: Katherine Du Tiel
Portraits from SFMOMA at Museum of African Diaspora ‘Portraits and Other Likenesses from SFMOMA’ brings together approximately 50 carefully selected artworks that explore the dynamic role of portraiture in modern and contemporary art. Museum of the African Diaspora, May 8 ̶ October 11, 2015.]]>
Source: SFMOMA
Featuring works ranging in date from the 1920s to the present, “Portraits and Other Likenesses” demonstrates how artists interested in issues of identity have negotiated African, European, and American visual-cultural forms to broaden our understanding of what it means to make a portrait. Placing historical artworks in dialogue with pieces created and acquired more recently, the exhibition examines how portraiture has evolved from a form of personal identification to a genre as invested in fiction, subversion, stereotype, and fantasy as it is in the description of physical traits.
The selection of works in “Portraits and Other Likenesses” —more than half of them displayed for the first time as part of SFMOMA’s collection—encompasses paintings, sculptures, photographs, and media art. The exhibition additionally includes a newly commissioned multimedia installation by Mickalene Thomas, “Between Ourselves Together” (2015), which places her large-scale photograph from SFMOMA’s collection —”Sista Sista Lady Blue” (2007)— alongside related photographs and a film in an immersive setting designed to evoke a 1970s living room.
Cocurated by LeFalle-Collins, guest curator for MoAD, and Haskell, assistant curator of painting and sculpture at SFMOMA, the exhibition also will include key pieces by Romare Bearden, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, David Hammons, Mildred Howard, Consuelo Kanaga, Wifredo Lam, Glenn Ligon, Nicole Miller, Chris Ofili, Lorna Simpson, Joaquin Trujillo, Kara Walker, Carrie Mae Weems and Fred Wilson, among others.
The Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), a Smithsonian Institution affiliate, is an arts and cultural organization dedicated to preserving the stories of our common African heritage and sharing those stories with audiences from around the world. Situated in the heart of the Yerba Buena Arts District in San Francisco, MoAD is actively engaged in building a community that inspires, educates, and connects people of all ages and backgrounds.
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