Exhibition

This original exhibition commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation through artist responses to the powerful issues of slavery, middle passage, the abolition movement, emancipation and American freedom. Artists of the past and present are featured, including Vinnie Bagwell, Willie Cole, Daniel Chester French, Richard Hunt, William H. Johnson, Glenn Ligon, Howardena Pindell, Betye Saar and Kara Walker.

View interactive PDF of Exhibition Catalog

Press Release: We Hold These Truths, celebrates 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation

Image

William H. Johnson, Underground Railroad, ca. 1945, Oil on paperboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Harmon Foundation