"Roll Call: Two Hundred Years of Black American Art" Opens in September at the Birmingham Museum of Art

Together, the works in Roll Call tell a dual narrative: one of Black American art and
one of the Birmingham Museum of Art itself. The exhibition invites visitors to consider how a collection is shaped—not only by artists, but also by communities and shared responsibility—and why stewarding this history matters in Birmingham, across the South, and within the larger national narrative. “The exhibition reflects the cumulative impact of artists, curators, and community members whose decisions and advocacy have expanded what is represented here. It is, in many ways, a measure of how far the Museum has come, and a reminder that this work is ongoing,” said Graham C. Boettcher, R. Hugh Daniel Director of the Birmingham Museum of Art.  The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated publication that expands on the artists and histories presented in Roll Call, offering deeper context and scholarship. This new publication offers a comprehensive exploration of every Black American artist represented in the Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama’s preeminent collection of art, spanning the early nineteenth century to the present day. The publication, Roll Call: Two Hundred years of Black American Art is now available for presale.  Additional details, including opening programs and related events, will be announced in the coming months.

Credits: The exhibition Roll Call: Two Hundred Years of Black American Art is curated by Jade Powers, The Hugh Kaul Curator of Contemporary Art, Birmingham Museum of Art.
Image caption: Jeff Donaldson (1932–2004), Eminence, 1976, acrylic and mixed media on corrugated paper board, 32 3/4 × 34 3/4 in. (83.2 × 88.3 cm); Collection of the Birmingham Museum of Art; Museum purchase in memory of Lillie Mae Harris Fincher with funds provided by the Sankofa Society, 2009.11, © Courtesy of Jameela K. Donaldson

In 1971, the Birmingham Museum of Art acquired a work by Henry Ossawa Tanner, the first by a Black artist to enter its collection. In the decades since, the Museum has worked to build a collection that now spans two hundred years and includes more than 1,000 works by over 250 Black artists — today, one of the most significant collections of Black American art in the country.  Opening in September 2026, Roll Call: Two Hundred Years of Black American Art offers a focused examination of this legacy, presenting ninety-nine works that trace the presence, impact, and contributions of Black artists across two centuries.  Drawn entirely from the Museum’s permanent collection, the exhibition brings together a wide range of works that illuminate both artistic excellence and the institutional histories that have shaped their inclusion.

“Roll Call reflects both the artistic brilliance of Black artists and the ways a museum collection evolves through intentional choices and community engagement,” said Jade Powers, Hugh Kaul Curator of Contemporary Art. “The exhibition highlights moments when artists, curators, and advocates came together to expand the stories our collection tells.”

As the Birmingham Museum of Art marks its 75th anniversary, this presentation provides an opportunity to reconsider key works in the collection alongside more recent acquisitions, offering a vantage point from which to understand how the Museum’s holdings have taken shape over time.  Spanning artists of the African diaspora —including Romare Bearden, Dawoud Bey, Chakaia Booker, Elizabeth Catlett, Nick Cave, Jeff Donaldson, Robert S. Duncanson, Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, Sam Gilliam, Joshua Johnson, Jacob Lawrence, Edmonia Lewis, Glenn Ligon, Lorna Simpson, and Carrie Mae Weems — the exhibition situates these works within a broader narrative of artistic production and cultural history that is both national and deeply rooted in Birmingham. 

Organized in four thematic sections, the installation traces this development across time. The Ground We Stand On centers foundational moments in the Museum’s history, including early and consequential acquisitions of work by Black artists. Subsequent sections expand this inquiry. Ujima: Collective Work and Responsibility foregrounds the role of community advocacy in shaping the collection.  In What Freedom Feels Like, artists explore lived experience through a range of visual languages, from figuration to abstraction, offering reflections on daily life, self-expression, and political
consciousness.  The final section, In the Heart of It All, considers the significance of place, with works inspired by Alabama and Birmingham that connect local histories to broader cultural and national contexts.

David Driskell (1931–2020), Ghetto Wall #1, 1971, oil and collage on canvas, 40 1/4 × 36 in. (102.2 × 91.4 cm); Collection of the Birmingham Museum of Art; Gift of the 1972 Festivalof the Arts and A. G. Gaston Purchase Award, 1972.8, © The Estate of David C. Driskell.Courtesy of DC Moore Gallery, New York

Yvonne Wells (born 1939), Proverbs Quilt, 1988, cotton, polyester, and mixed-blend plain and printed fabrics with buttons and rickrack trim, 75 × 64 in. (190.5 × 162.6 cm); Collection of the Birmingham Museum of Art; Museum purchase, 1989.63, © Yvonne Wells. Courtesy of the artist and Fort Gansevoort, New York

Jeff Donaldson (1932–2004), Eminence, 1976, acrylic and mixed media on corrugated paper board, 32 3/4 × 34 3/4 in. (83.2 × 88.3 cm); Collection of the Birmingham Museum of Art; Museum purchase in memory of Lillie Mae Harris Fincher with funds provided by the Sankofa Society, 2009.11, © Jeff Donaldson. Courtesy of Jameela K. Donaldson

 

Nick Cave (born 1959), Soundsuit, 2009, fabric, with appliquéd crochet and buttons, knitted yarn, and mannequin, 96 × 27 x 14 in. (243.8 × 68.6 × 35.6 cm); Collection of the Birmingham Museum of Art; Museum purchase with funds provided by the Collectors Circle for Contemporary Art, 2010.80, © Nick Cave, image credit: Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York 

 

 

Edmonia Lewis (1844–1907), Minnehaha and Hiawatha, 1868, marble, 11 5/8 × 7 1/4 × 5 in. (29.5 × 18.4 × 12.7 cm) and 13 3/4 × 7 3/4 × 5 1/2 in. (34.9 × 19.7 × 14 cm); Collection of the Birmingham Museum of Art; Museum purchase with funds provided by the Harold and Regina Simon Fund, 2013.2.1, 2013.2.2

 

Joe Minter (born 1943), ’63 Foot Soldiers, 1999, found objects, including old Alabama license plates, shoes and boots, toys such as plastic dogs and guns, chains, clothing, an American flag, a metal grate and miscellaneous metal parts, paint, plastic hats, and tires,49 1/2 × 82 × 32 in. (125.7 × 208.3 × 81.3 cm); Collection of the Birmingham Museum of Art; Museum purchase with funds provided by James and Elizabeth Outland, 2019.1, © 2026 Joe Minter / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

 

 

 Debra Riffe (born 1952), st. clair, 2019, woodcut, 27 1/2 × 20 in. (69.9 × 50.8 cm); Collection of the Birmingham Museum of Art; Museum purchase, 2021.8, © Debra Riffe

 

 

 

 

Noah Jemisin (born 1943), Holland Tunnel, 1981, encaustic on canvas, 66 × 66 × 2 in. (167.6 × 167.6 × 5.1 cm); Collection of the Birmingham Museum of Art; Museum purchase, 2025.5, © Noah Jemisin

 

 

Robert S. Duncanson (1821–1872), A Dream of Italy, 1865, oil on canvas, 20 5/8 × 35 in. (52.4 × 88.9 cm); Collection of the Art Fund, Inc. at the Birmingham Museum of Art, AFI.10.2009

 

David Shrobe (born 1974), Vision Unbounded, 2017, acrylic and ink on paper, 33 1/2 × 27 1/4 × 1 1/2 in. (85.1 × 69.2 × 3.8 cm);  Collection of the Art Fund, Inc. at the Birmingham Museum of Art; Gift of the Jack and Rebecca Drake Collection, AFI.34.2021, © Courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery