You may thank me later for steering you to this outstanding show, if you have not been or, if like me, you go again.
Honestly, my second visit to the National Gallery of Art: Afro-Atlantic Histories made more of an impression with the size, scope, and contents covering the 17th to 21st centuries and spanning four continents, than my first time there.
More than 130 works are represented in graphic stories of Blacks and their histories from all sides of the Atlantic. It is astonishing and one of those exhibitions I wish would never end, but it's soon moving to Los Angeles.
The show has something for all and will open eyes wide, no matter how much education you have or think you have.
Description of a slave ship is really too small to see here so you must visit the exhibition and see it firsthand. Each of the 600 prisoners aboard the ship, the Brooks, had a 16-inch space for two months, the time it took to sail the Atlantic, bound for the West Indies from Britain, according to the label copy. Mr. Phillips, a fervent abolitionist, printed more than 8,000 copies of this plan. Britain outlawed slavery in 1807 but it wasn't until 1833 that slavery was abolished in the British colonies. Read more about it here and figure the size of 16 inches.
Johann Moritz Rugendas, Slaves in the Cargo Hold of a Slave Ship (detail), c. 1835, lithograph with watercolor, Instituto Ricardo Brennand, Recife, Pernambuci, Brazil
Kerry James Marshall, Voyager (detail), 1992, acrylic and collage on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Corcoran Collection (Gift of the Women’s Committee of the Corcoran Gallery of
Art)
© Kerry James Marshall
The National Gallery of Art hosted an exhibition of Mr. Marshall's works in 2013 which you may read about here and see him there.
Nona Faustine, From her body sprang their greatest wealth, 2013, photographic print, artist's collection
The photographer, shown above, wants to make a statement, according to label copy, that it wasn't just in the South where slavery was practiced but on this Wall Street spot, the first place in New York City where slaves were bought and sold for more than 50 years in the 18th century. Like many others who were trafficked, purchased and handed down to heirs, Ms. Faustine pictures herself nude as a reminder of life for the enslaved.
John Philip Simpson, The Captive Slave, 1827, oil on canvas, The Art Institute of Chicago, purchased with funds provided by Mary Winton Green, Dan and Sara
Green Cohan, Howard and Lisa Green and Jonathan and Brenda Green, in memory of David Green
Samuel Raven, Celebrating the Emancipation of Slaves in British Dominions, August, 1834, oil on canvas, The Menil Collection, Houston
Ernest Crichlow, Harriet Tubman, 1953, oil on masonite, courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York
Wikipedia says Ms. Tubman (1822–1913) was an American abolitionist and social activist who was born into slavery. After she escaped slavery twice in 1849, Tubman made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 enslaved people using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the "Underground Railroad."
During the Civil War, she was a cook, a nurse, an armed scout and spy for the Union Army and was the first woman to lead an armed expedition in the war.
In her later years, Tubman was an activist in the movement for women's suffrage. She met John Brown in 1858 and helped him plan and recruit supporters for his 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry.
Last year President Joe Biden resumed the effort to have Ms. Tubman’s likeness placed on the $20 bill to replace that of President Andrew Jackson, action the Trump administration had blocked. 
John Adam Houston, The Fugitive Slave (detail), 1853, oil on canvas, The Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, SC. One of my favorites in the exhibition.
This is only a portion of the painting and does not show the star directly above the escaped slave, similar to the Star of Bethlehem on the night the Three Wise Men visited the Baby Jesus. Mr. Houston lived from 1812-1884 primarily in Edinburgh and London and likely never visited the U.S. but the Johnson Collection says he may have been inspired "by the poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1842, The Slave in the Dismal Swamp, and by Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin." You can see the star at the John Adam Houston link above or at the exhibition. Look at these colors!
Lois Mailou Jones, The Green Door (detail), 1981, watercolor over graphite, National Gallery of Art, Corcoran Collection Museum Purchase, William A. Clark Fund
William Walker, Noon Day Pause in the Cotton Field, c.1885 oil on canvas, The Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, SC
Archibald John Motley Jr., Nightlife (detail), 1943, oil on canvas, The Art Institute of Chicago, purchased with funds provided by Mr. and Mrs. Marshall Field, Jack and
Sandra Guthman, Ben W. Heineman, Ruth Horwich, Lewis and Susan Manilow, Beatrice C. Mayer,
Charles A.
Meyer, John D. Nichols, and Mr. and Mrs. E.B. Smith Jr.; James W. Alsdorf Memorial Fund; Goodman
Endowment.
A morning in spring at the National Gallery of Art/Photo by Patricia Leslie, April 5, 2022
I see this and want to get up and dance! They are having so much fun! It makes me happy. A large painting, full of life and vigor which tell me that life's moments pass too quickly, and we must seize opportunities to get up and dance and carpe diem!
Eugène Delacroix, Portrait of a Woman in a Blue Turban, c. 1827, oil on canvas, Dallas Museum of Art, The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., in honor of Patricia McBride
Osmond Watson,
Johnny Cool, 1967, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Jamaica
He's a cool cat, isn't he? You don't need to look at the title of this work to know he's one cool dude, or almost that with that slouched position and arm swung over the chair, but, wait! After a closer look, his eyes seem to lose their confidence and his posture undermines his original cockiness. Even on canvas, the painting changes. Now, how does this artist do this? That's one cool artist!
Daniel Lind-Ramos, Figura de Poder (Power Figure), 2016-2018, mirrors, concrete blocks, cement bag, sledgehammer, construction stones bag, paint bucket, wood
panels, palm tree trunk, burlap, leather, ropes, sequin, awning, plastic ropes, fabric, trumpet, pins, duct
tape, maracas, sneaker, tambourine, working gloves, basketballs, boxing gloves, acrylic
overall, National Gallery of Art, New Century Fund
What's there to say except it's big and full of meaning which is...?
Alma Thomas, March on Washington (detail), 1964, acrylic on canvas, courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York.
The painting above was recently on view at Washington's Phillips Collection which hosted an exhibition of Ms. Thomas's works, Everything is Beautiful. The artist (1892-1978) became a lifelong resident of Washington after moving here with her family from Columbus, Georgia where her father thought the environment was not the best for his family.
This painting was an outlier in Ms. Thomas's portfolio since she usually drew abstracts of non-political suasion, but for the March on Washington, Ms. Thomas put brush to canvas to capture a moment when Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, galvanizing his supporters and the artist, too.
Afro-Atlantic Histories is adopted from a much larger show from 2018 (on which the catalog is based) presented at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo and the Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo. The latter was the 2014 site of the origin of the 2018 show in a presentation called Histories of Slavery.
A Brazilian team curated Afro-Atlantic Histories, which is fitting, the essayists note in the catalog, given that Brazil, for more than 300 years, received about 40 percent of Africans forcibly removed from their homes, and today has the second-highest population of Blacks in the world, after Nigeria.
Included above are the portraits, paintings, photographs, sculptures which I found most intriguing, but there are many, many more to whet appetites for learning and see Black history and culture come to life.
The label copy is in Engish and Spanish.
And the catalog! Oh, my! Published by Museu de Arte de São Paulo, it has 400 pages in color of 400 works by 200 artists ($69.95). Not to miss and see and read time and time again.
And don't forget Artle! It's lots of fun!
In conjunction with the exhibition, movies by international filmmakers will be presented at no charge through July 17 in the West Building Lecture Hall. Registration is required at nga.gov/film. Go here for more information.
From Washington, the exhibition moves to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, December 11, 2022–April 30, 2023, and next to the Dallas Museum of Art with dates to be announced.
Afro-Atlantic Histories was organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Museu de Arte de Sāo Paulo in collaboration with the National Gallery of Art.
What: Afro-Atlantic Histories
When: Now through July 17, 2022, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: Main floor of the West Building, National Gallery of Art, Washington
How much: Admission is always free at the National Gallery of Art.
Metro stations for the National Gallery of Art:
Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Navy Memorial-Archives, or L'Enfant Plaza
For more information: (202) 737-4215
Accessibility information: (202) 842-6905
patricialesli@gmail.com
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