Black Portraiture: Kehinde Wiley, Amy Sherald, and Kadir Nelson

On October 19, we hosted 276 students for an exhibit on Black Portraiture showcasing works by artists Kehinde Wiley, Amy Sherald, and Kadir Nelson. 

In the introductory comments for the exhibit, my colleague Elizabeth Cali wrote that Wiley, Sherald, and Nelson "are the creators of some of the most vivid, publicly available, and widely circulated artworks representing Black people." 

She went on to explain that:

Kehinde Wiley is a prolific painter, known for re-working paintings by the “Old Masters” in his portraits of Black people amid vivid natural backdrops. 

 Amy Sherald is a remarkable painter, known for her staged portraits of Black people in everyday settings. 

Kadir Nelson is an accomplished painter and illustrator, known for his many illustrations of Black people for the cover art of The New Yorker magazine. 

This exhibit offers a collection of these three artists’ profound works of Black portraiture.

Related: 

• African American literary studies programming, fall 2022