by Fern Gillespie
In an period the place federal arts establishments are cautious in exhibiting political Black tradition that the Trump administration may deem “Anti-American DEI,” the National Gallery of Art has boldly organized an exhibition that explores the affect of the Black Arts Movement. “Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955–1985” by January 11, 2026 on the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, is co-curated by famend Black pictures historian, Dr. Deborah Willis and Philip Brookman, a consulting curator for pictures on the National Gallery of Art.
During the Black Arts Movement, Black artists embraced Black Power by self-determination and redefined and revolutionized Black tradition by visible arts, poetry, theatre, music, pictures, vogue, journalism and movie. Although the Black Arts Movement was launched by Amiri Baraka and Larry Neal from 1965 to 1975, this exhibit explores Black political and cultural pictures pre-dating in 1955, the Civil Rights period, to 1985, the Black progressive interval.
“When we think about the Black Arts Movement, it’s mainly painting or literature. Not having an opportunity to see to see photography as not just documenting the movement, but being a part of it and being an integral connection to what excited the image makers to make images,” Willis, a New Yorker, advised Our Time Press.
“So, when we thought about some of the artists that made a difference during that time period, they were practitioners. They were not only developing the movement from the literary experience of Larry Neal and Amiri Baraka, but they were also creating their own legacy by making images and responding to their communal experiences.”
The exhibition has 150 examples tracing the Black Arts Movement from its roots to its lingering impacts from 1955 to 1985. It reveals the daring visions formed by generations of photographers together with Billy Abernathy, Kwame Brathwaite, Roy DeCarava, Gordon Parks, Doris Derby, Ademola Olugebefola, Emory Douglas, Barkley Hendricks, Barbara McCullough, David Driskell, and Ming Smith. There is artwork by legends Romare Bearden and Betye Saar, who collected pictures and utilized Black photographer’s photographs of their art work.
“The project was intended to look at a lot of work by photographers and artists who weren’t as really well-known as they could be,” Brookman advised Our Time Press.
We actually wished to have a look at the connections between pictures and the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Arts Movement. That’s why the exhibit begins in 1955 and ends in 1985 as a result of the connections are broader than I believe we initially thought.”
“Phillip and I have co-curated a couple of shows together over time. We’re both photography curators and photographers, always looking at activism in our work,” mentioned Willis. “We were thinking about this five years ago during post COVID. We just we lost a number of people we love and care for during that time period like artist David Driskoll, and many of them were actively in the Black Arts Movement writing and creating work.
So, we thought it was time to consider ways to preserve their memories and also preserve the collections and the collective experiences of what artists were doing.”
Vintage pictures spanning neighborhood activism from Harlem to Chicago to Los Angeles to Atlanta are on view. The exhibit reveals the affect of the Black Arts Movement on the African Diaspora encompassing Black Latino, European and African photographers. There are landmark pictures of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Fannie Lou Hamer, Bobby Seale and others.
Work by Gordon Parks is spotlighted. “Gordon Parks’ work does have a major impact on the Black Arts Movement,” mentioned Brookman, who has curated main exhibitions on Gordon Parks’ pictures. “Going back to 1955 and 1956, he went to Alabama on assignment for Life magazine and photographed the story about segregation in the South.
It’s a time, when Parks becomes more of an activist in his work as he as much as he could for Life magazine. He began making photographs that were about the idea of segregation and desegregation in the aftermath of Brown versus Board of Education.”
There are photographs within the exhibition by famous New York photographers like Eli Reed, Alex Harsley, Darryl Ellis, Adger Cowans, Dwight Carter, Anthony Barboza, and Coreen Simpson. In addition, Kwame Brathwaite, who’s now getting the popularity he deserved. “I just think it’s fantastic. I first met Kwame when I moved to New York in 1969.
He was such a giving, generous photographer who was part of the movement with his Grandassa Models and the ‘Black is Beautiful’ movement,” Willis mentioned. “During the later years of his life, he traveled and talked to people about his photography collection. A number of collectors and curators would see the importance of his work.”
Willis has gained the fame because the main scholar and writer on African American pictures. She is chair of the NYU Department of Photography & Imaging and director of the NYU Center for Black Visual Culture. A prolific writer of over 15 books on Black historic pictures, she holds a bachelors in artwork from Philadelphia College of Art, artwork grasp’s levels from Pratt Institute and CUNY and a doctorate in cultural research from George Mason University.
She’s held key arts positions on the Schomburg, Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Willis has earned quite a few honors together with a MacArthur Fellowship “genius grant,” a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Harvard University fellowship and an honorary doctorate from Yale University.
In addition to “Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955–1985,” the National Gallery of Art additionally has an exhibit by a significant Black artist. “In the Tower: Chakaia Booker: Treading New Ground,” by August 2, 2026, options the Newark-born artist famend for repurposing discarded rubber tires into sculptures.
This exhibition spotlights three large rubber sculptures, which span 20 to 21 toes huge, that embody lots of curled tire rubber, spiky shards, coiled strips, and loops created from inside tubes.
Recently, the National Gallery of Art was within the information stating the Trump administration requested that the famed {photograph} of an enslaved man, “Scourged Back,” be eliminated. A spokesperson from the National Gallery of Art advised Our Time Press this isn’t right. “It is not accurate that the work is set to be removed from the National Gallery of Art. A copy of this photograph is part of our collection of over 160,000 works but has not been displayed since 2022,” mentioned the assertion.
A listing is out there on “Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955–1985.” For extra info on the National Gallery of Art, go to www.nga.gov