Silver Linings celebrates the legacy of artists of African descent spanning the twentieth century through the contemporary moment. It includes Henry Ossawa Tanner’s Christ and His Disciples Before the Last Supper (1908 – 1909) and the museum’s recent most acquisition of Carrie Mae Weems’s Color Real and Imagined (2014). Silver Linings includes an array of media spanning sculptural works by Elizabeth Catlett and Selma Burke, and photographic works by Lorna Simpson and Renée Cox. It also displays the museum’s holdings of abstract paintings by Sam Gilliam and Betty Blayton, as well as works on paper by Samella Lewis and Herman “Kofi” Bailey. This exhibition is critical to understanding the importance of art collecting within Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and includes work by Black artists across genders who were overlooked by mainstream art museums.

 

Silver Linings was curated by Dr. Liz Andrews, Executive Director and Karen Comer Lowe, Curator-in-Residence at Spelman College Museum of Fine Art.

 

Support for this exhibition at Spelman College Museum of Fine Art is provided by