{"id":500553,"date":"2026-05-24T14:49:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T14:49:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/500553\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T14:49:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T14:49:37","slug":"amy-sherald-finds-her-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/500553\/","title":{"rendered":"Amy Sherald finds her people"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        <strong class=\"ai-article-summary__title\"><\/p>\n<p>            Summary<br \/>\n        <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"ai-article-summary__items\" data-editable=\"settings\">\n<li class=\"ai-article-summary__item\">The artist behind Michelle Obama&#8217;s official portrait explores everyday Black life in a retrospective now in Atlanta.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ai-article-summary__item\">The show became the Baltimore Museum of Art&#8217;s most popular exhibit of the 21st century after she pulled it from the federally funded Smithsonian.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ai-article-summary__item\">The exhibit features a restaging of an iconic World War II photograph reimagined with two Black sailors kissing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\n            AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmph6seni000x27nz9ed3es1o@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            Diana Beasley knew she wanted to spend her 12th birthday at Atlanta\u2019s High Museum of Art, surrounded by the paintings of Amy Sherald.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmph7zjvn00053b6rs3kf25wy@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            She dressed up for the occasion, wearing a sparkly pink crown reading \u201cBIRTHDAY GIRL\u201d over her neat braids. Diana learned about Sherald in school, she said, and she likes how her art is \u201crealistic, but also a bit cartoony at the same time.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmph7zjvn00063b6rtoj84b9r@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            Her favorite piece by Sherald, she said, was the official portrait of former first lady Michelle Obama. In it, as in most of Sherald\u2019s portraits, the subject looks straight ahead at the viewer. Her skin is not a naturalistic brown but rendered in grays, in the artist\u2019s signature style, draped in a vivid black and white dress with multicolored geometric details and a soft baby blue background. Obama looks determined, Diana said, like \u201cshe\u2019s serious about her job.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>       <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/sfmoma-amy-sherald-1048a.jpg\" alt=\"The Michelle Obama portrait is part of \u201cAmy Sherald: American Sublime,\" which=\"\" is=\"\" now=\"\" in=\"\" atlanta.=\"\" class=\"image_large__dam-img image_large__dam-img--loading\" onload=\"this.classList.remove('image_large__dam-img--loading')\" onerror=\"imageLoadError(this)\" height=\"3000\" width=\"2250\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmph7zjvn00073b6rer6cj6cg@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            That Michelle Obama portrait, presented in front of two benches for attendees to sit and take in her gaze, is one of the main draws of the \u201cAmy Sherald: American Sublime\u201d exhibit, which arrived in Atlanta this month for the final stage of a 17-month national tour. When the painting was unveiled at the Smithsonian\u2019s National Portrait Gallery in 2018 \u2014 in tandem with Kehinde Wiley\u2019s presidential portrait of Barack Obama \u2014 it seemed to mark Sherald\u2019s enshrinement in a new official establishment, one in which Black figures and Black perspectives were uncontroversially part of the canon.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmph7zjvn00083b6r6705nkmz@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            Eight years later, Sherald\u2019s work is traveling through a different cultural landscape. \u201cAmerican Sublime\u201d was supposed to have brought Sherald back to the National Portrait Gallery last year, after the tour spent a few months at the Whitney in New York. Then Sherald learned that the federally funded institution wanted to accompany her painting \u201cTrans Forming Liberty,\u201d which shows a Black transgender woman in the stance of the Statue of Liberty, with a video of people reacting to the work \u2014 \u201cto contextualize the piece,\u201d as the Smithsonian put it.\n    <\/p>\n<p>       <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/sfmoma-amy-sherald-0772a.jpg\" alt=\"When the Smithsonian made plans to accompany Sherald's \u201cTrans Forming Liberty\u201d with a video of people reacting to the work, Sherald canceled the show's engagement there.\" class=\"image_large__dam-img image_large__dam-img--loading\" onload=\"this.classList.remove('image_large__dam-img--loading')\" onerror=\"imageLoadError(this)\" height=\"3000\" width=\"2250\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmph7zjvn00093b6rkeh3514a@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            Instead, Sherald <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2025\/07\/24\/style\/artist-amy-sherald-cancels-smithsonian-exhibition\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">withdrew the entire show<\/a>, sending it to the Baltimore Museum of Art instead, and the Trump administration declared that \u201cTrans Forming Liberty\u201d had \u201cfundamentally strayed from the mission and spirit of our national museums.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmph7zjvn000a3b6rfvkrxhjx@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            Unavoidably, then, Sherald\u2019s mid-career retrospective doubles as a look at the crisis of artistic expression in the country.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmph7zjvn000b3b6ra5albjwz@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            Two years ago, her works, with their ordinary subjects, felt celebratory, said Sarah Roberts, who curated \u201cAmerican Sublime\u201d for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Shortly before the exhibit\u2019s premiere, SFMOMA purchased Sherald\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/style\/article\/amy-sherald-vj-day-kiss-alfred-eisenstaedt-snap\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cFor love, and for country\u201d<\/a> painting of two Black men kissing while holding sailor hats, a restaging of Alfred Eisenstaedt\u2019s \u201cV-J Day in Times Square\u201d photograph of a sailor kissing a nurse, as a nod toward the LGBTQ community\u2019s impact in San Francisco.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmph7zjvn000c3b6ryfz8tdhx@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            But as federal and state governments restrict LGBTQ rights, the act of representation becomes one of defiance.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmph7zjvn000d3b6rymora9q7@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            \u201cIt feels like more of a commitment,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cLike a reassertion of no, actually this is the America that exists in this museum, in this city, and we are not letting that go.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>       <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/shutterstock-editorial-11989636a.jpg\" alt=\"An American sailor passionately kisses an unknown woman in Times Square to celebrate victory over Japan in 1945. This is an outtake of the widely known Alfred Eisenstaedt photo.\" class=\"image_expandable__dam-img image_expandable__dam-img--loading\" onload=\"this.classList.remove('image_expandable__dam-img--loading')\" onerror=\"imageLoadError(this)\" height=\"3000\" width=\"2287\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>       <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/for-love-and-for-country-o2.jpg\" alt=\"\" for=\"\" love=\"\" and=\"\" country=\"\" reimagines=\"\" eisenstaedt=\"\" famous=\"\" photo=\"\" with=\"\" two=\"\" black=\"\" men.=\"\" class=\"image_expandable__dam-img image_expandable__dam-img--loading\" onload=\"this.classList.remove('image_expandable__dam-img--loading')\" onerror=\"imageLoadError(this)\" height=\"3000\" width=\"2287\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmph7zjvn000e3b6rlnbz6c76@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            The show was a hit in Baltimore, becoming the BMA\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/artbma.org\/press-release\/amy-sherald-american-sublime-becomes-highest-attended-bma-exhibition-since-2000\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">most popular exhibit<\/a> of the 21st century and drawing more than 80,000 people to the museum. (The museum\u2019s second most popular exhibit since 2000 was its 2016-2017 \u201cMatisse\/Diebenkorn\u201d exhibition, which drew 46,000 visitors.)\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmph7zjvn000f3b6rd87jxfg5@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            Sherald\u2019s popularity is in part due to her ability to capture an alternative vision of the US to the one the federal government is promoting. In his second term, President Donald Trump has posted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/02\/07\/politics\/trump-racist-video-social-media-posts\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">racist social media imagery<\/a>, squashed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2025\/05\/08\/politics\/universities-medical-research-funding-frozen-trump-diversity-purge\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">research<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2025\/11\/20\/politics\/state-department-freedom-speech-human-rights\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">initiatives<\/a> that helped minorities, welcomed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/05\/18\/politics\/trump-additional-white-south-african-refugees\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">white South African refugees<\/a> while banning other African refugees and those from Central and South America, and attacked <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2025\/11\/20\/us\/transgender-ideology-gender-cec\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">health care and policies<\/a> helping trans people.\n    <\/p>\n<p>       <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/sfmoma-amy-sherald-0799.jpg\" alt=\"Sherald's \" american=\"\" grit=\"\" class=\"image__dam-img image__dam-img--loading\" onload=\"this.classList.remove('image__dam-img--loading')\" onerror=\"imageLoadError(this)\" height=\"2250\" width=\"3000\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>       <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/sfmoma-amy-sherald-0609.jpg\" alt=\"Taken together, the works feel like peeks into the lives of Sherald's various subjects.\" class=\"image__dam-img image__dam-img--loading\" onload=\"this.classList.remove('image__dam-img--loading')\" onerror=\"imageLoadError(this)\" height=\"2250\" width=\"3000\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmph7zjvn000g3b6ryjjkyomj@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            Sherald\u2019s work, meanwhile, uplifts the lives of everyday Black people. The viewpoint at trial, both politically and in Sherald\u2019s art, is whose history and whose lives get to be considered American.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmph7zjvn000h3b6rujizyved@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            Robyn Palmore-Amos, who visited the High on the opening day of Sherald\u2019s exhibit, said it felt as if the subjects could be her aunt, her uncle or her kids. Sherald\u2019s restaging of \u201cV-J Day in Times Square,\u201d especially stood out to her. It was a reminder that Black men and women were just as much a part of the post-war period as white people were, she said.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmph7zjvn000i3b6rsks7afsw@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            \u201cShe\u2019s portraying that we\u2019re just as American as any other person who feels they\u2019re American,\u201d Palmore-Amos said. \u201cWe are American history. We have shaped the fabric of this country. There\u2019s no part of America that doesn\u2019t include Black people.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>       <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/breonna-taylor-o2.jpg\" alt=\"Sherald's portrait of Breonna Taylor features a wedding ring to represent the love she shared with her partner, who had planned to propose before her death. The cross on Taylor's neck shows her faith.\" class=\"image_large__dam-img image_large__dam-img--loading\" onload=\"this.classList.remove('image_large__dam-img--loading')\" onerror=\"imageLoadError(this)\" height=\"3000\" width=\"2390\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmph7zjvo000j3b6r9is6xu34@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            The New Yorker and Vanity Fair have used Sherald\u2019s portraits for their covers; the show includes a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/culture\/2020\/08\/amy-sherald-on-making-breonna-taylors-cover-portrait\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">painting of Breonna Taylor<\/a> that was specifically commissioned by Vanity Fair for its September 2020 cover. Days before the High\u2019s opening, Sherald was at the Met Gala, where she was on the gala board, in an outfit referencing her own \u201cMiss Everything (Unsuppressed Deliverance),\u201d of a young woman sipping from an outsized teacup. She has also been photographed for the cover of Harper\u2019s Bazaar and was named one of Time\u2019s 2026 Women of the Year.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmph7zjvo000k3b6rmioimyzm@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            But that mass popularity means that her work is often seen in reproduction, either through a screen or on a cover of a magazine, rather than in its physical, painted form.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmph7zjvo000l3b6rz73w9htf@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            Her style can seem simple and understated on paper or on a screen, but in person, the portraits are colossal, sometimes up to 10 feet tall. The grays of the skin are richer than they appear in print, with subtle shifts in tone and lightness. While her work brings out each subject\u2019s interiority in their stance or setting, her mastery is especially seen in the details: the etching on a bamboo earring, the fold of a jeans cuff, the sheen of fresh lip gloss. And there is the feeling of each character\u2019s eyes taking in the viewer, creating a question of who is perceiving who. That doesn\u2019t mean the works feel sad, or haunting; instead, taken together, they feel like peeks into life.\n    <\/p>\n<p>       <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/gettyimages-515612650.jpg\" alt=\"\" lunch=\"\" atop=\"\" a=\"\" skyscraper=\"\" is=\"\" photograph=\"\" depicting=\"\" ironworkers=\"\" in=\"\" new=\"\" york=\"\" pausing=\"\" for=\"\" break=\"\" during=\"\" construction=\"\" of=\"\" what=\"\" now=\"\" known=\"\" as=\"\" rockefeller=\"\" plaza.=\"\" class=\"image_expandable__dam-img image_expandable__dam-img--loading\" onload=\"this.classList.remove('image_expandable__dam-img--loading')\" onerror=\"imageLoadError(this)\" height=\"2250\" width=\"3000\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>       <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/sfmoma-amy-sherald-0491-20260522191850275.jpg\" alt=\"\u201cIf You Surrendered to the Air, You Could Ride It\u201d references \u201cLunch atop a Skyscraper.\" class=\"image_expandable__dam-img image_expandable__dam-img--loading\" onload=\"this.classList.remove('image_expandable__dam-img--loading')\" onerror=\"imageLoadError(this)\" height=\"2250\" width=\"3000\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmph7zjvo000m3b6ry9s1c5mc@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            That these figures and their lives stand within American history is a key part of the exhibit.   Sherald\u2019s \u201cIf You Surrendered to the Air, You Could Ride It,\u201d featuring a lone man in a red beanie, nods to another famous photograph \u2014 \u201cLunch atop a Skyscraper\u201d \u2014 of laborers eating lunch atop a steel beam. The titles, too: \u201cAmerican Grit,\u201d of a boxer with no legs; the play on words of \u201cTrans Forming Liberty\u201d; even the exhibit title \u201cAmerican Sublime.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmph7zjvo000n3b6r2boo4y4m@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            That title had been bouncing around in Sherald\u2019s head for years before the exhibition was even a thought, Roberts said. When she and the team were first putting the show together, they knew there would be an election in the fall of 2024, and the way the show would be perceived could change depending on the outcome. But the title, and the entire exhibition, highlights the beauty of being a Black American, Roberts said, and points to the possibility of a sublime future.\n    <\/p>\n<p>       <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/a-midsummer-afternoon-dream-o2.jpg\" alt=\"\" a=\"\" midsummer=\"\" afternoon=\"\" dream=\"\" class=\"image_large__dam-img image_large__dam-img--loading\" onload=\"this.classList.remove('image_large__dam-img--loading')\" onerror=\"imageLoadError(this)\" height=\"3000\" width=\"2855\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmph7zjvo000o3b6rlvc01muw@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            When the show opened in San Francisco the week following Donald Trump\u2019s win, some visitors wept at the sight of Sherald\u2019s towering portraits. As Trump\u2019s first months back in office unfolded, encountering Sherald\u2019s paintings began to feel \u201clike a balm,\u201d Roberts said.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmph7zjvo000p3b6r3d31ujkn@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            Revisiting the works now, Roberts said they feel like \u201ca bulwark against a difficult time.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmph7zjvo000q3b6rah4r6456@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            The Atlanta stop brings Sherald\u2019s work back to the state where she was born and the city where she went to college. Jennifer Freeman Marshall visited the High\u2019s exhibit on opening day with her daughter, a student at Spelman College a few miles away, her brother and their 82-year-old mother, who was rolled along in a wheelchair. As they moved through the works, Freeman Marshall admired Sherald\u2019s \u201ccommitment to telling a story about the Black experience here in the United States.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>       <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/sfmoma-amy-sherald-1009.jpg\" alt=\"\" ecclesia=\"\" meeting=\"\" of=\"\" inheritance=\"\" and=\"\" horizons=\"\" class=\"image__dam-img image__dam-img--loading\" onload=\"this.classList.remove('image__dam-img--loading')\" onerror=\"imageLoadError(this)\" height=\"2143\" width=\"3000\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmph7zjvo000r3b6rq61qvh11@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            \u201cIt\u2019s a narrative that\u2019s as diverse as we are,\u201d she said. She and her family could point to certain images and name the side of the family the subjects remind them of, she said, making the entire collection feel \u201cvery intimate.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmph7zjvo000s3b6r4uw70txs@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            There is a tension between what Sherald imagines and what happens outside the walls of the exhibit. Her portrait of Taylor is situated between two other portraits of Black women, making the trio appear almost like a friend group. Nearby, Obama gazes on, and across from them is \u201cMiss Everything (Unsuppressed Deliverance).\u201d In this room, these women are peers. Outside of it, one of them is dead.\n    <\/p>\n<p>       <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/the-rabbit-in-the-hat-o2.jpg\" alt=\"\" the=\"\" rabbit=\"\" in=\"\" hat=\"\" class=\"image_expandable__dam-img image_expandable__dam-img--loading\" onload=\"this.classList.remove('image_expandable__dam-img--loading')\" onerror=\"imageLoadError(this)\" height=\"3000\" width=\"2400\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>       <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/they-call-me-redbone-o2.jpg\" alt=\"\" they=\"\" call=\"\" me=\"\" redbone=\"\" but=\"\" i=\"\" rather=\"\" be=\"\" strawberry=\"\" shortcake=\"\" class=\"image_expandable__dam-img image_expandable__dam-img--loading\" onload=\"this.classList.remove('image_expandable__dam-img--loading')\" onerror=\"imageLoadError(this)\" height=\"3000\" width=\"2400\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmph7zjvo000t3b6r8z7ic0sk@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            One painting, an earlier piece from 2009, cuts to this question. Titled \u201cThey Call Me Redbone, but I\u2019d Rather Be Strawberry Shortcake,\u201d a young girl in a yellow sundress printed with strawberries cocks her head to the viewer. How we are perceived is often not up to us, the painting declares.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmph7zjvo000u3b6r150xc4j1@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            Can artists paint a way to a different future? Part of Sherald\u2019s goal is to create \u201cimages that she wants to see in the world,\u201d said Angelica Arbelaez, who curated the show for the High.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmph7zjvo000v3b6rjai10886@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            \u201cThe images that she has seen in her life have changed the world, whether they\u2019ve affirmed or distorted a certain kind of idea,\u201d Arbelaez said. \u201cShe understands that images have the power to do that, and in her body of work, she is actually enacting that change.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summary The artist behind Michelle Obama&#8217;s official portrait explores everyday Black life in a retrospective now in Atlanta.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500554,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[267],"tags":[365,362,363,364,15901,366,18,117,19,17],"class_list":["post-500553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-ctt","tag-design","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116630112354447736","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}