BRIAN LANKER, “Leontyne Price,” 1988. | National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; partial gift of Lynda Lanker and a museum purchase made possible with generous support from Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker, Agnes Gund, Kate Kelly and George Schweitzer, Lyndon J. Barrois Sr. and Janine Sherman Barrois, and Mark and Cindy Aron

 
THE SMITHSONIAN’S NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY in Washington, D.C., presents ‘I Dream a World: Selections from Brian Lanker’s Portraits of Remarkable Black Women,’ opening July 8, 2022.

Featuring portraits by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Brian Lanker, from his 1989 book “I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America,” and installed in two parts, the exhibition presents more than 25 photographs of remarkable Black women who have helped define the disciplines of art, activism, literature, and politics. Sitters in the first installation will include Maya Angelou, Septima Poinsette Clark, Lena Horne, Barbara Jordan, Rosa Parks, Leontyne Price, Wilma Rudolph, and Alice Walker. Sitters featured in the second part will include Althea Gibson, Odetta, Cicely Tyson, and Oprah Winfrey.

Part I of the exhibition will be on view July 8, 2022 through January 29, 2023, and Part II will be on view February 10, 2023 through September 10, 2023.

“I Dream a World: Selections from Brian Lanker’s Portraits of Remarkable Black Women” is part of a slate of exhibitions spanning identity, transformation and connection at the National Portrait Gallery this fall. Currently on view through February 26, 2023 is “The Outwin 2022: American Portraiture Today” featuring 42 portraits by finalists of the museum’s national Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Upcoming exhibitions include “One Life: Maya Lin”—the first biographical exhibition of the architect, sculptor and environmentalist—to be on view September 30 through April 16, 2023.

Also opening this fall will be “Kinship” featuring nearly 40 artworks by eight contemporary artists exploring the complex and deeply moving ways in which interpersonal relationships endure and change. On view October 28 through January 7, 2024, Kinship will present portraits by artists Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Ruth Leonela Buentello, Jess T. Dugan, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Jessica Todd Harper, Thomas Holton, Sedrick Huckaby, and Anna Tsouhlarakis.

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This post is sponsored by the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery