Amy Sherald: American Sublime at the Whitney Museum of American Art

The Amy Sherald exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art is organized by Rujeko Hockley, Arnhold Associate Curator, with David Lisbon, Curatorial Assistant. The exhibition, titled "Amy Sherald: American Sublime," was originally organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) and curated by Sarah Roberts, former Andrew W. Mellon Curator and Head of Painting and Sculpture at SFMOMA.

Photos and text by RUBEN NATAL-SAN MIGUEL April 29, 2025

Last Friday, I was very fortunate to attend a special event and tour of "Amy Sherald: American Sublime".

Amy Sherald is an American painter portraying and telling everyday American stories following the tradition of Edward Hopper, Andrew Wyeth and Norman Rockwell. The difference is that Amy is portraying and focusing exclusively on that everyday slice of life of Black Americans. Sherald paints with a very delicate and soft color palette, with that boy, girl and the family next door quality to her figures. These paintings show something that most of us have not seen before. Sherald's paintings break stereotypes that are present in a heavily saturated Black art market at the moment, when most artists try to emulate Basquiat or are influenced by other contemporaries.

Most of the subjects in her paintings are extremely relatable and deal emotions like caring and pride. To me being a long term resident of Harlem, NYC, Sherald's work felt like when I see my own neighbors - Black Americans who are proud home owners with families who had attended college by two or three generations.

The Black American dream of Amy Sherald paintings is very attainable, extremely dignified, and utterly sublime. The gray scale used as Amy portrays her subjects breaks away from the stereotypical dark or black color palette often used to portray Black skin. This color treatment gives Sherald's subjects a universal quality. She is not erasing Blackness, she is just giving them a subtle nuance. This palette relates to the colors of black and white vintage Black photography portraiture which traditionally uses a cornucopia of gray shades to define it’s skin imagery.

In most of these paintings, you can find a familiarity, a dignified representation and trace of what the photographs of the great Black American photographer Gordon Parks achieved.

Sherald's portrait of Michelle Obama is just spectacular but is very relatable and portrays the former FLOTUS with a very pensive and quiet demeanor.

The portrait of Breonna Taylor (see below) was a challenging process. Sherald had to go back to the Taylor family and recreate an image of her from photos of Breonna. The portrait is quite arresting, ethereal, just beautiful. Makes you wonder what her life would have been today if her life wasn’t taken so unfairly and tragically.

RUN to see this exhibition. It will clear your mind of all the polluted stereotypes that the media, politics and American history (as told by those in power) have fed us. These accurate portrayals of Black Americans are a real quintessential part of the American Landscape.

Coincidentally, The Whitney Museum of American Art started a program under the new steering of Scott Rothkopf that Friday nights everyone 25 and under has free admission!

"I believe that images can share the World" - Amy Sherald

The Rabbit in the Hat 2009 Courtesy of The Whitney Museum of American Art ©️Amy Sherald

Try on dreams until I find the one that fits me , They all fit me 2017 Courtesy of The Whitney Museum of American Art ©️Amy Sherald 

Mama Has Made the Bread (How Things Are Measured), 2018, Courtesy of The Whitney Museum of American Art ©️Amy Sherald 

What's precious inside of him does not care to be known by the mind in ways that diminish its presence (All American), 2017, Courtesy of The Whitney Museum of American Art ©️Amy Sherald 

She had an inside and an outside now, and suddenly she knew how not to mix them, 2018. Courtesy of The Whitney Museum of American Art ©️Amy Sherald 

Guide No More, 2011. Courtesy of The Whitney Museum of American Art ©️Amy Sherald 

What's different about Alice is that she has the most incisive way of telling the truth, 2017. Courtesy of The Whitney Museum of American Art ©️Amy Sherald 

A Golden Afternoon 2016, Courtesy of The Whitney Museum of American Art ©️Amy Sherald 

Handsome, 2019, Courtesy of The Whitney Museum of American Art ©️Amy Sherald 

Breonna Taylor, 2020, Courtesy of The Whitney Museum of American Art ©️Amy Sherald 

As American as Apple Pie, 2021, Courtesy of The Whitney Museum of American Art ©️Amy Sherald 

Trans Forming Liberty, 2024, Courtesy of The Whitney Museum of American Art ©️Amy Sherald 

For Love and for Country, 2022. Courtesy of The Whitney Museum of American Art ©️Amy Sherald

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama, 2018 . Courtesy of The Whitney Museum of American Art ©️Amy Sherald 

Obligatory photo in front of Michelle Obama portrait by Amy Sherald

And lastly this wonderful Art21 video clip from which you can learn of how Amy Sherald comes about her paintings and her process: