African American Art

In 1944, only nine years after opening its doors, the VMFA acquired its first work by an African American artist. Since that time, the Museum has remained steadfast in building a collection reflective of the African American experience and expression. In 2015, the VMFA redoubled these efforts, launching an initiative to significantly deepen its holdings of African, African American and African Diasporic artists as a means to expand its connection to an ever growing diverse community.

Highlights

The collection features masterpieces from early American to modern and later, contemporary artists. With such a vast arch across time, these works collectively underscore the dramatic shifts in the artistic, social and political landscape and their impact upon the creative expression. Through the work of such remarkable artists who range from Joshua Johnson to Kehinde Wiley, we are able to see the transformations within our society that continue to inform our multivalent culture.

Willem van Heythuysen

Kehinde Wiley, American, born 1977 (Artist)

Willem van Heythuysen

Glass Lantern Slide Pavilion

Theaster Gates, American, born 1973 (Artist)

Glass Lantern Slide Pavilion

Marian Anderson

Beauford Delaney, American, 1901 - 1979 (Artist)

Marian Anderson

Vessel

Radcliffe Bailey, American, born 1968 (Artist)

Vessel

Catfish Row

Jacob Lawrence, American, 1917 - 2000 (Artist)

Catfish Row

Christ and His Disciples on the Sea of G...

Henry Ossawa Tanner, American, 1859 - 1937 (Artist)

Christ and His Disciples on the Sea of Galilee

Recently Aquired

White Police Officer Standing between Tw...

Gordon Parks, American, 1912 - 2006 (Artist)

White Police Officer Standing between Two Black Protestors

Southern Landscape

Eldzier Cortor, American, 1916 - 2015 (Artist)

Southern Landscape

Untitled (Dreamer)

Palmer Hayden, American, 1890 - 1973 (Artist)

Untitled (Dreamer)

Three Folk Musicians

Romare Bearden, American, 1911 - 1988 (Artist)

Three Folk Musicians

Untitled

Louis Draper, American, 1935 - 2002 (Artist)

Untitled

Rumors of War by Kehinde Wiley

Rumors of War takes its inspiration from the statue of Confederate Army General James Ewell Brown “J.E.B.” Stuart created by Frederick Moynihan in 1907. As with the original sculpture, the rider strikes a heroic pose while sitting upon a muscular horse. However, in Wiley’s sculpture, the figure is a young African American dressed in urban streetwear. Proudly mounted on its large stone pedestal, the bronze sculpture commemorates African American youth lost to the social and political battles being waged throughout our nation.

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Works on Paper

Many artists made their greatest masterpieces using paper, such as Romare Bearden’s collage, Three Musicians. Works on paper, however, are much more sensitive to light than paintings or sculptures and require measured presentation. To preserve these objects, VMFA follows the American Alliance of Museum’s protocol of resting works on paper up to four times as long as the work has been on view. When not hanging in the galleries, these works can be found on the Museum’s website.

Untitled

Kara Walker, American, born 1969 (Artist)

Subway - Home From Work (In the Evening ...

Jacob Lawrence, American, 1917 - 2000 (Artist)

Dark Loop

Martin Puryear, American, born 1941 (Artist)

Steeped

Robert Pruitt, American, born 1975 (Artist)

First Anti-Vietname War Rally, Marchers ...

LeRoy Henderson, American, born 1936 (Artist)

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