Revelation: The Journey Into Abstraction

Celebrates the expansive creativity of Black artists who have contributed to the rich fabric of abstraction through artworks in the collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

This beautifully illustrated volume reveals the profound range and depth of abstract art created by African American artists, from the twentieth century to present day. Through the artworks in the Museum’s permanent collection, Revelation interrogates the stakes of Black artists working in abstraction. It features works that span from subtly suggestive forms to entirely nonrepresentational expressions, including those by artists working in the 1960s and ’70s like Ed Clark, Sam Gilliam, Alma Thomas, and Jack Whitten and by contemporary voices such as Theaster Gates, Rashid Johnson, Jennie C. Jones, Simone Leigh, and Julie Mehretu.


After an introduction by Michelle D. Commander, Tuliza Fleming establishes the significance of abstraction to the building of the Museum’s visual art collection and Sarah Gordon demonstrates the powerful connection of artists’ materials to the human body. Following the essays are five thematic plate sections—Natural World Refracted, The Shape of Sound, Colored Surfaces, Dreams Deferred, and Transcendent Visions—each introduced by conversations that Janet Dees shares with a dynamic group of artists, curators, and scholars. Through this, Revelation highlights the many ways abstraction has not only been used as a formalist vehicle to explore shape, color, and form but also as a language of cultural memory, identity, and transformation.

Michelle D. Commander is deputy director at NMAAHC.

Tuliza Fleming is supervisory curator of American art at NMAAHC and curator of the Revelation exhibition. 

Sarah Gordon is museum specialist for visual art at NMAAHC.

Janet Dees is assistant director of arts at NMAAHC. 

Adebunmi Gbadebo is an artist living in Philadelphia.

Rashid Johnson is an artist living in New York City.

Thelma Golden is director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem.

Hallie Ringle is interim director and Daniel and Brett Sundheim chief curator at ICA Philadelphia.

Shinique Smith is an artist living in New York City.

Lauren Haynes is head curator of Governors Island Arts and vice president at the Trust for Governors Island.