Harlem Renaissance Exhibit To Open At Metropolitan Museum Of Art

HARLEM, NEW YORK — The Harlem Renaissance will experience yet another rebirth at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, curators announced this week.

"The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism" will run at the Fifth Avenue museum from Feb. 25 through July 28, according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“This landmark exhibition reframes the Harlem Renaissance, cementing its place as the first African American–led movement of international modern art,” said Max Hollein, The Met’s Marina Kellen French Director and CEO.

“Through compelling portraits, vibrant city scenes, and dynamic portrayals of night life created by leading artists of the time, the exhibition boldly underscores the movement’s pivotal role in shaping the portrayal of the modern Black subject—and indeed the very fabric of early 20th-century modern art."

Gallery 999 will host about 160 works from Black artists who captured life in Harlem and Chicago's South Side during the Great Migration in the 1920s, 30s and 40s.

It's New York City's first survey of the subject in more than thirty years, Met curators note.

Harlem artists featured include Charles Alston, Aaron Douglas, Augusta Savage and James Van Der Zee.

“The exhibition underscores the essential role of the Harlem Renaissance and its radically new modes of portraying the modern Black subject as central to the development of transatlantic modern art," said curator Denise Murrell.

"We are very pleased to present this wide-ranging exhibition that establishes the New Negro cohort of African American artists and their allies—now known as the Harlem Renaissance—at the vanguard of the portrayal of modern Black life and culture in Harlem.”

More information can be found on The Met’s website.