It is the first major museum exhibition of an important American artist: the Whitney Museum of American Art is presenting works by Amy Sherald from 2007 to the present. Amy Sherald: American Sublime opens in New York on April 9.
Amy Sherald (*1973) laid the foundation for her career as an artist with captivating, intimate portraits of Black Americans: the portraits were largely created in Baltimore, where Sherald lived for many years before moving to New York. She captured the life experiences of Black Americans and developed her own pictorial tradition. Sherald portrayed herself as well as strangers she approached on the street. It was only in her late 30s, after having to give up painting for a few years to care for family members, that she was able to quit her job as a waitress and make a living from her artistic work. Within a short space of time, she became one of the best-known painters in the USA. She eventually became the first Black artist to be commissioned to paint the official portrait of the First Lady: Her painting of Michelle Obama was unveiled in 2018 and praised by critics. Sherald's first major museum exhibition can now be seen from April 9: Amy Sherald: American Sublime brings together works from 2007 to the present day. The older works in particular have rarely been shown before, and some have never been shown in public. The show runs until August 10 at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
The painter from Columbus, Georgia, experiments with the traditions of photography and portraiture in order to find a new, more representative form of expression for American art. Sherald studied painting at Clark-Atlanta University and the Maryland Institute College of Art. She then studied privately with the controversial Norwegian painter Odd Nerdrum in Larvik. Since 2012, she has been depicting the skin tones of her figures in a more grayish tone. In doing so, she challenges pigeonholing and directs the interpretation of her pictures to the inner life of her figures. Sherald's work can be found in numerous public collections, including the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, both in Washington, D.C., and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Missouri.
The Whitney Museum exhibition includes a large billboard designed by Sherald, which is located outside the museum opposite the entrance.
On the 500th anniversary of Jakob Fugger's death on December 30, the Schaezlerpalais is commemorating him as a patron of the arts: the wealthy merchant family commissioned numerous artists of their time. The exhibition Art’s Rich Heritage: Jakob Fugger and his Legacy runs until April 12, 2026, in Augsburg.
The Käthe Kollwitz Museum presents the sensitive side of the artist through rarely seen drawings and trial prints: Käthe Kollwitz – Silent Strength runs until January 18, 2026, in Berlin.
