\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tby Mary Spiller <\/p>\n
September 7, 2025<\/p>\n
Artist Amy Sherald, renowned for her portrait of Michelle Obama, has relocated her major solo exhibition ‘American Sublime’ after pulling it from the Smithsonian over censorship concerns.<\/p>\n
Artist Amy Sherald, best known for her portrait of former First Lady Michelle Obama, has found a new home for her solo exhibition \u201cAmerican Sublime.\u201d The show will now open at the Baltimore Museum of Art on Nov. 2 and run through April 5, museum officials announced.<\/p>\n
The exhibition was originally slated for the Smithsonian\u2019s National Portrait Gallery this fall, but Sherald canceled in July after learning that officials were considering removing her painting \u201cTrans Forming Liberty\u201d \u2014 a reimagined Statue of Liberty as a transgender figure \u2014 to avoid sparking controversy with President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I understood a video would replace the painting, I decided to cancel,\u201d Sherald said at the time. \u201cThe video would have opened up for debate the value of trans visibility, and I was opposed to that being a part of the \u2018American Sublime\u2019 narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n
In her new statement, according <\/a>to The New York Times<\/em>, Sherald expressed excitement to bring the show to Baltimore, a city where she built much of her career. \u201cBaltimore has always been part of my DNA as an artist,\u201d she said. \u201cEvery brushstroke carries a little of its history, its energy, its people and my time there. To bring this exhibition here is to return that love.\u201d<\/p>\n The Baltimore Museum of Art\u2019s director, Asma Naeem, praised Sherald\u2019s voice and vision, calling her work \u201cpowerful and resonant in their profound humanity.\u201d Sherald will also be honored alongside artist Wangechi Mutu at the museum\u2019s annual fundraiser in November.<\/p>\n \u201cAmerican Sublime\u201d marks the largest presentation of Sherald\u2019s work to date. It debuted last year at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, later moving to the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, before the Smithsonian controversy derailed its third showing.<\/p>\n The dispute over \u201cTrans Forming Liberty\u201d unfolded as Trump ramped up efforts to reshape the Smithsonian. In March, he signed an executive order accusing the institution of embracing \u201ca divisive, race-centered ideology\u201d and later demanded a review of its exhibitions. Portrait Gallery director Kim Sajet resigned in June after Trump said he was firing her.<\/p>\n Sherald has since become vocal about the broader implications. Writing on MSNBC<\/em>\u2018s website, she argued: \u201cConstraining museums does not protect the public. It impoverishes us.\u201d <\/p>\n She added, \u201cIt became clear during my exchanges with the gallery how quickly curatorial independence collapses when politics enters the room.\u201d<\/p>\n RELATED CONTENT<\/strong>: Amy Sherald Pulls Upcoming Exhibit from Smithsonian, Says Censorship Is To Blame<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Mary Spiller September 7, 2025 Artist Amy Sherald, renowned for her portrait of Michelle Obama, has relocated her major solo exhibition ‘American Sublime’ after pulling it from the Smithsonian over censorship concerns. Artist Amy Sherald, best known for her portrait of former First Lady Michelle Obama, has found a new home for her solo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/07\/pexels-prismattco-2372979-e1722540249438.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10666],"tags":[1194,18877,2511,18876,10360,18878,2024,12651,18880,18879,4354,1610],"class_list":["post-28628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reparations","tag-american","tag-american-subline","tag-amy","tag-amy-sherald","tag-baltimore","tag-baltimore-museum-of-art","tag-museum","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-sherald","tag-smithsonian-museum","tag-sublime","tag-takes"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/07\/pexels-prismattco-2372979-e1722540249438.jpg",0,0,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/07\/pexels-prismattco-2372979-e1722540249438.jpg",0,0,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/07\/pexels-prismattco-2372979-e1722540249438.jpg",0,0,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/07\/pexels-prismattco-2372979-e1722540249438.jpg",150,150,false],"medium":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/07\/pexels-prismattco-2372979-e1722540249438.jpg",300,300,false],"large":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/07\/pexels-prismattco-2372979-e1722540249438.jpg",1024,1024,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/07\/pexels-prismattco-2372979-e1722540249438.jpg",1536,1536,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/07\/pexels-prismattco-2372979-e1722540249438.jpg",2048,2048,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/07\/pexels-prismattco-2372979-e1722540249438.jpg",370,265,false],"kava-thumb-s":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/07\/pexels-prismattco-2372979-e1722540249438.jpg",150,85,false],"kava-thumb-s-2":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/07\/pexels-prismattco-2372979-e1722540249438.jpg",230,230,false],"kava-thumb-m":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/07\/pexels-prismattco-2372979-e1722540249438.jpg",400,400,false],"kava-thumb-m-vertical":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/07\/pexels-prismattco-2372979-e1722540249438.jpg",370,500,false],"kava-thumb-m-2":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/07\/pexels-prismattco-2372979-e1722540249438.jpg",570,450,false],"kava-thumb-l":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/07\/pexels-prismattco-2372979-e1722540249438.jpg",1170,650,false],"kava-thumb-xl":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/07\/pexels-prismattco-2372979-e1722540249438.jpg",1920,1080,false],"kava-thumb-masonry":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/07\/pexels-prismattco-2372979-e1722540249438.jpg",600,999,false],"kava-thumb-justify":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/07\/pexels-prismattco-2372979-e1722540249438.jpg",640,640,false],"kava-thumb-justify-2":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/07\/pexels-prismattco-2372979-e1722540249438.jpg",1280,640,false]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"#RiseCelestialStudios","author_link":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/author\/ralph-c\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"REPARATIONS NEWS<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"by Mary Spiller September 7, 2025 Artist Amy Sherald, renowned for her portrait of Michelle Obama, has relocated her major solo exhibition ‘American Sublime’ after pulling it from the Smithsonian over censorship concerns. Artist Amy Sherald, best known for her portrait of former First Lady Michelle Obama, has found a new home for her solo…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28628"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28630,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28628\/revisions\/28630"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}