The first substantial monograph on Amy Sherald, one of America’s defining contemporary portraitists, ‘The World We Make’ provides unique insight into the artist’s work and practice. To be released on 11 October 2022 accompanying the artist’s first solo show in Europe at Hauser & Wirth, London.
This major publication—the first widely-available monograph on Amy Sherald—accompanies the artist’s exhibition at Hauser & Wirth London in fall 2022, marking Sherald’s first solo show in Europe and her largest to date with Hauser & Wirth. Significant, newly commissioned texts include an art historical analysis by Jenni Sorkin, a mediation on the aesthetics and politics of Sherald’s portraiture by Kevin Quashie, and a conversation between the artist and Ta-Nehisi Coates.
Beautifully reproducing Sherald’s recent paintings with an attention to their poignant details, this publication also illustrates a wide selection of earlier work alongside the essays and includes a series of in-the-studio photographs by Adam Kremer that provide an intimate glimpse into Sherald’s process and practice.
Acclaimed for her paintings of Black Americans that have become landmarks in the grand tradition of portraiture, Sherald renders her subjects in a realist style in everyday settings. In her new body of work, she continues this practice while confronting the Western—and specifically American—canon through allusions to significant historic images and themes.
In their varying contexts, clothing, expression and positions, the individuals portrayed all maintain a captivating sense of mystery that draws viewers’ attention to the sitters’ interior life. It is precisely this interiority that Sherald seeks to portray with the grisaille skin-tones in which she renders her subjects.
The monumental work ‘For love, and for country’ (2022), which graces the book’s cover, exemplifies Sherald’s critical approach to Western traditions of portraiture. Recreating Alfred Eisenstaedt’s iconic photograph, ‘V-J Day in Times Square’ (1945), which shows an American sailor kissing a woman in Times Square, New York City, Sherald replaces the white heterosexual couple with a Black male couple. Subverting the iconic pose, the artist addresses the fight for queer representation and participation in public space, prompting reflection on the enduring inequalities and discrimination in the U.S. government and society, more widely.
Extensively illustrated, the book begins with a presentation of new portraits that span nearly 100 pages of luminous details. Homing in on her subjects’ specific features and exemplifying Sherald’s mastery of vibrant color, this publication honors her devotion to the particular. Jenni Sorkin’s essay, ‘Stopped in Time,’ situates Sherald’s oeuvre in art history, addressing the artist’s typical use of grisaille and her investigation of concepts of representation. Cultural scholar Kevin Quashie’s ‘In Praise of Mere Beauty’ astutely describes modes of identification at play in Sherald’s extraordinary ability to portray Black bodies.
Adam Kremer’s photographic documentation of Sherald’s studio accompanies the exhibition preparations offering an intimate glimpse into Sheralds’s daily studio life. Finally, Sherald’s conversation with acclaimed author Ta-Nehisi Coates provides personal insight into the painter’s creative process, drives, and way of thinking.
Amy Sherald: The World We Make
Release date: 11 October 2022
With contributions by Jenni Sorkin, Kevin Quashie and Ta-Nehisi Coates
Book design by Damien Saatdjian
Published by Hauser & Wirth Publishers
English, Hardcover
192 pages, 250 x 300 mm
978-3-906915-72-2
£52 / $55 / €52 / CHF 54 / 450 HKD
©2022 Amy Sherald, Hauser & Wirth Publishers
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