In 1971, the Birmingham Museum of Art acquired a painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner. It was the first work by a Black artist to enter the Museum’s collection.
More than five decades later, that single acquisition has grown into something much larger. Today, the Birmingham Museum of Art holds more than 1,000 works by more than 250 Black American artists, spanning two centuries of artistic production and including works by some of the most influential artists in American art.
Beginning September 26, visitors will be able to see that history brought together in Roll Call: Two Hundred Years of Black American Art, a major exhibition drawn entirely from the Museum’s permanent collection. The exhibition features 99 works, while an accompanying fully illustrated publication expands the story to include more than 250 artworks by every Black American artist represented in the Museum’s collection…