The Studio Museum in Harlem

Edgar Arceneaux, 1968, 1997, The Studio Museum in Harlem, Courtesy the artist

Nearly forty years ago, shortly after opening its doors to the public, The Studio Museum in Harlem established its permanent collection through the generosity of both artists and donors. Currently made up of nearly two thousand objects, the collection continues to grow annually thanks to acquisitions and gifts from individual donors, public collections and artists. With works ranging from portraits by eighteenth-century painter Joshua Johnson to multimedia installations from recent artist-in-residence exhibitions, the collection demonstrates an expansive set of priorities within the history of black cultural production and American art.

As part of the our ongoing series of exhibitions of selected works from the collection, Collection in Context: Four Decades presents work spanning forty years of the Museum’s collecting practices. It reflects upon key moments in black cultural history including the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement, highlighting lesser-shown work and work by non-black artists inspired by black culture. Organized in several thematic clusters, Four Decades loosely chronicles the formation and continuous development of our permanent collection with attention to the variety of ways the collection has expanded. This exhibition showcases the critical role the permanent collection has played in the Museum’s commitment to the presentation of works by black artists at different points in their careers.