Jazz at Lincoln Center Presents: Jazz as Portraiture

Floor 3, Theater

Open for all ages

Visitors of all ages are invited to a kid-friendly concert at the Whitney. Our friends at Jazz at Lincoln Center designed the program inspired by the Whitney’s current exhibition Amy Sherald: American Sublime.

Just as Amy Sherald’s paintings highlight her subjects’ identities, emotions, and lived experiences, jazz can create a musical portrait, bringing to life the stories of people, places, histories, and cultures through melody and rhythm.

In this concert, an ensemble of acclaimed musicians from NYC’s jazz scene gather to explore the idea of jazz as portraiture, using music to tell stories about emotion and expression.

Amy Sherald’s work is part of a long tradition of American portrait painting, but she focuses on Black Americans, a group that has often been left out of art history. She paints everyday people in a way that highlights their inner lives and unique identities. Through her portraits, Sherald explores what it means to be American today. She believes that imagination shapes how we see the world, and her art invites us to see new possibilities.