AMY SHERALD

Sherald humanises the Black experience by depicting her subjects in both historically recognisable andeveryday settings, at once immortalising them and reinserting them into the art historical canon. In this newbody of work, she continues this practice while confronting the Western canon through allusions to significanthistoric works or images. This includes the painting ‘For love, and for country’ (2022), a recreation of the iconicphotograph ‘V-J Day in Times Square’ (1945) by Alfred Eisenstaedt showing a US Navy sailor kissing a woman

in Times Square, New York City as Imperial Japan surrendered in the Second World War. The work deals withthe rejection of queer rights to equal participation in public space, as Sherald replaces the white heterosexualcouple with a Black male couple in sailor-esque clothing, reminding us of the discrimination against non-heterosexual people within the US military in recent history. The photograph prompted Sherald to think of theBlack soldiers who returned from the war, still facing persistent inequities, and what it would mean to broachthe iconic pose through another understanding of masculinity. Sherald hopes to offer the viewer a reflectionof themselves and the complexities of their interior lives, void of the constructs of race, gender, religion andpreconceived notions.

In this exhibition, Sherald plays with traditional American symbology through the portrayal of vehicles suchas motorbikes and tractors and the peaceful juxtaposition of man and machine to engage with the currentsof masculinity that underlie the work. As Sherald says, ‘The tractor and motorbike paintings explore differentexpressions of self-sovereignty in our communities, and how these expressions might carry into the future.Vehicles become a literal metaphor here for forward momentum, for movement and potential movement’. Inline with this sentiment, Sherald is interested in the idea articulated by artist Alice Neel that ‘art is two things:a search for a road and a search for freedom’. In a large-scale diptych over 3-metres tall entitled ‘Deliverance’(2022), inspired by the bike culture that is local to Baltimore in Maryland, United States, where Sherald has lived,the artist reflects on the sense of freedom that is part of riding. This work shows two bikers in mid-air, as ifsuspended in time, in a space free from oppression. The composition in this work is reminiscent of equestrianportraiture, alluding to a reappropriation of this historically Western style of painting. A monumental work entitled’A God Blessed Land (Empire of Dirt)’ (2022) depicts a man proudly atop his tractor and references traditionalfarm paintings from the 19th Century which reinforced notions of American identity. Here, Sherald reflectson the history of agriculture in art as well as ideas around land ownership and systematic land loss. With thispainting, Sherald also seeks to honour the legacy of farming in a world where new technologies are favoured.

Sherald’s portraits are large in scale but intimate in effect, capturing the ordinary likeness and extraordinaryessence of all her subjects while simultaneously detaching them from everyday reality with their bold blockcolour backgrounds. Despite varying contexts, clothing, expression and positions, the individuals portrayedmaintain a persistent sense of privacy and mystery reflecting Sherald’s desire to draw the viewers’ attention to

the interior lives, hopes and dreams of her subjects. Sherald foregrounds the idea that Black life and identity arenot solely tethered to grappling publicly with social issues and that resistance also lies in an expressive vision ofself-sovereignty in the world. While her subjects are always African-American, Sherald continues to render theirskin-tone exclusively in grisaille – an absence of colour that directly challenges perceptions of Black identity.

As Sherald says, ‘the works reflect a desire to record life as I see it and as I feel it. My eyes search for people whoare and who have the kind of light that provides the present and the future with hope.’ The painting ‘Kingdom’(2022), showing a young child at the top of a slide, both asks us to look positively at future generations whilstreminding us of the transient nature of childhood and the vulnerabilities inherent to it. The title of the exhibition,‘The World We Make’, is a meditation on, as Sherald says, the fact that ‘as we walk beyond what we have beenliving through, we have a world to remake’, a message that at once contains hope, while suggesting there iswork to be done.

The first widely available monograph on Amy Sherald accompanies this travelling exhibition, published byHauser & Wirth Publishers. Newly commissioned texts include an art historical analysis of Sherald’s workby Jenni Sorkin, a meditation on the poetics of the Black ordinary by cultural scholar Kevin Quashie and aconversation between Sherald and author Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Amy Sherald has recently invested $1 million to the University of Louisville to fund the Brandeis Law School’sBreonna Taylor Legacy Fellowship and the Breonna Taylor Legacy Scholarship for undergraduates, a gift madepossible by the sale of Sherald’s portrait of Breonna Taylor made in 2020 to the Ford Foundation and theHearthland Foundation. This donation will allow the trust to run this scholarship programme indefinitely.