From the studio to her bedroom in childhood in Columbus, Georgia to the museum, a new film from Art21 presents a wide portrait of Amy Sherald. The artist is perhaps best known for her representation of former First Lady Michelle Obama and her characteristic images of black Americans shown in Grayscale.
In “Singular Moments”, the Art21 teammates in Sherald’s process and records the intricacies of creating a work. Reference photos that are stuck to a wall and paint that sprayed on white paper plates, accompany the artist while she is working on her always large -scale canvases.
Sherald often paints people she knows, starting with their faces and eyes before they continue to the rest of their figures. As the title of the film suggests, her focus is at a single moment of beauty. “I think beautiful paintings are important,” she says in the film. “I say that figuration is like making art soul food. It is what you bring at home and what you eat if you need comfort, and we all need that at some point.”
The film is found on Sherald’s first Solo exhibition in a New York Museum, American sublimepresent around 50 works from 2007 to today next month Whitney Museum of American Art. In addition to a visit to the house of the parents of the artist, filled with photos of the learning school and projects for teenagers, viewers are also witnessed by the creation of some of her more recent works, in particular those who investigate what it means to be an American.
View “Singular Moments” above and read our conversation with the artist in which she discusses fear and finds respite in her work.
