A plaster cast of a manhole cover from the streets of Manhattan is a testament to this artist's experimental use of materials
Location: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Summer, autumn, a saw mill all provide metaphors about American republicanism in this pre-Civil War landscape
Jasper Francis Cropsey, Mount Jefferson, Pinkham Notch, ...
Stripes of industrial spray paint on this canvas recall the industrial city and undersides of highways
Hedda Sterne, Number 3—1957
Sam Gilliam trespasses the distinction between painting and sculpture
Sam Gilliam, Purpled (Chasers Series)
A dream-like flooded landscape—does is suggest bleakness or hope?
Eldzier Cortor, Southern Landscape
Gee's Bend quilts challenge notions of what is — and what is not — modern art.
Gee’s Bend, quilting over generations
An abstract painting, a collage, three musicians, two guitars and a banjo.
Romare Bearden, Three Folk Musicians
What does this marble sculpture of Cleopatra tell us about race and the Civil War in the U.S.?
William Wetmore Story, Cleopatra
A monumental solution, rethinking the sculpture of Richmond
Kehinde Wiley, Rumors of War
Delaney celebrates the famous opera singer Marian Anderson as a modern icon of Black excellence and civil rights
Beauford Delaney, Marian Anderson
Enslaved artist David Drake inscribed a poem onto this jug at a time when literacy among enslaved people was outlawed
David Drake, Double-handled jug
Is this painting of five men, possibly formerly enslaved, working for the Union Army during the Civil War a product of racist stereotypes, or does it humanize its subjects?
Winslow Homer, Army Teamsters
Woodruff reimagines racist tropes of Black banjo players with a figure who is confident and joyful
Hale Woodruff, The Banjo Player
This Swiss-born artist painted Roman stories with moralizing messages. Here, Cornelia provides a model of virtue.
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