The artist Amy Sherald, who canceled her solo show at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, has a new venue for it.
The exhibition, “American Sublime,” will open on Nov. 2 and run through April 5 at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the museum said on Wednesday.
Sherald pulled the exhibition from the Smithsonian in July, after she was told that officials were considering removing her work “Trans Forming Liberty,” which depicts a transgender Statue of Liberty, to avoid angering President Trump.
In a statement, the Baltimore museum’s director, Asma Naeem, praised the painter as “capturing the public imagination through works that are powerful and resonant in their profound humanity.”
Sherald said in a statement that “Baltimore has always been part of my DNA as an artist.” She spent much of her early career in the city and will be honored by the museum at a fund-raiser in November, alongside the artist Wangechi Mutu.
“Every brushstroke carries a little of its history, its energy, its people and my time there,” Sherald said. “To bring this exhibition here is to return that love.”
The exhibition is the largest showcase of the artist’s work to date. It originated last year at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art before a second showing at the Whitney Museum in New York through the spring and summer. The show’s third edition, at the Portrait Gallery, had been scheduled to open on Sept. 19.
Sherald became one of the country’s most prominent artists in 2018 with the unveiling of her portrait of Michelle Obama. She has remained politically active, drawing attention in 2020 for a painting of Breonna Taylor on the cover of Vanity Fair.
When she canceled the Portrait Gallery exhibition, the artist said that Lonnie G. Bunch III, the Smithsonian secretary, had proposed replacing “Trans Forming Liberty” with a video of people reacting to the work and discussing transgender issues, an idea she rejected because she said it would have included anti-trans views.
“When I understood a video would replace the painting, I decided to cancel,” Sherald said. “The video would have opened up for debate the value of trans visibility, and I was opposed to that being a part of the ‘American Sublime’ narrative.”
A Smithsonian spokesman later said in a statement that the video was intended to accompany the painting as a way to contextualize the piece, not to replace it.
Since the exhibition’s cancellation, Sherald has become an outspoken critic of the White House’s efforts to overhaul the Smithsonian, which includes 21 museums, libraries, research centers and the National Zoo.
In March, Trump signed an executive order claiming the Smithsonian had “come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology.” He has also challenged the Smithsonian’s independence, demanding a content review of its exhibitions and programming. In June, the Portrait Gallery’s director, Kim Sajet, resigned after the president said he was firing her.
This week, Bunch told the Smithsonian staff in a letter that the institution had agreed to set up a team to review turning over materials to the White House, but to do so while keeping its independence.
Sherald wrote in an opinion essay published last month on MSNBC’s website that “constraining museums does not protect the public,” adding, “It impoverishes us.”
She went on: “It became clear during my exchanges with the gallery how quickly curatorial independence collapses when politics enters the room.”
Zachary Small is a Times reporter writing about the art world’s relationship to money, politics and technology.
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