Stars and Stripes

Installation view of Edges of Ailey (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 25, 2024-February 9, 2025). From left to right: Romare Bearden, “The Father Comes Home” from the Bayou Fever series, 1979; Romare Bearden, “Wife and Child in Cabin” from the Bayou Feverseries, 1979; Romare Bearden, “The Herb Woman” from the Bayou Fever series, 1979; Romare Bearden, “The Mother Hears the Train” from the Bayou Fever series, 1979; Robert Duncanson, View of Cincinnati, Ohio from Covington, Kentucky, c. 1851; Mary Lovelace O’Neal, Race Woman Series #7, c. 1990s; Jean-Michel Basquiat, Hollywood Africans, 1983; Emma Amos, Judith Jamison as Josephine Baker, 1985; Kerry James Marshall, Souvenir IV, 1998; Ellsworth Ausby, Untitled, 1970; Lorna Simpson, Momentum, 2011; Kandis Williams, Black Box, 4 points: Horton, Ailey, McKayle contractions and expansions of drama from vernacular –– arms outstretched and entangle, 2021; Jacob Lawrence, Figure Study, c. 1970; Terry Adkins, Other Bloods (from The Principalities), 2012; James Little, Stars and Stripes, 2021; Rashid Johnson, Untitled Anxious Men, 2016; Glenn Ligon, Stranger in the Village #12, 1998. Photograph by Ron Amstutz

From the exhibition Edges of Ailey