Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955–1985 Offers Deep Look at Visual Activism at the Getty
The intersection of art, history, and political mobilization is currently under the spotlight at the Getty in Los Angeles, which is hosting the landmark exhibition Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955–1985. Comprising roughly 150 meticulously curated works, the exhibition maps out a transformative three-decade period that redefined visual culture and fortified the African diaspora’s global liberation struggles. Organized by esteemed photography curator Philip Brookman of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and renowned historian, curator, and professor Deborah Willis of New York University, the exhibition offers a comprehensive look at how the camera served not merely as a passive recording device, but as an active agent of social and political transformation.
Following its run in Los Angeles through mid-June, the exhibition is scheduled to travel to the Mississippi Museum of Art, where it will be on display from July 25 through November 8, 2026. As contemporary institutions grapple with ongoing civil rights challenges and debates over representation, this multi-city retrospective arrives as a timely reminder of the profound impact that lens-based media has historically wielded in shaping public consciousness.
Main Facts and Curatorial Vision
At its core, Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955–1985 challenges traditional art-historical hierarchies that often relegate photography to the periphery of major sociopolitical movements. Rather than viewing photographs as secondary illustrations of history, the exhibition argues that visual artists and photojournalists were central architects of the Black Arts Movement.
The collection features an expansive range of material, bringing together iconic imagery alongside lesser-known archival artifacts. Some works were originally produced to serve grassroots political campaigns, voter registration drives, and community organizing efforts, while others were conceived purely as fine art or intimate portraits of Black beauty and dignity. By weaving together works from African, British, Nuyorican, and Caribbean artists, the curators have constructed a heterogeneous mosaic that mirrors the global scope of the mid-century diaspora.
Prominent pieces in the exhibition include Harry Adams’s 1962 inkjet print Protest Car, Ray Francis’s 1971 gelatin silver print Genie, and Ernest C. Withers’s iconic 1968 documentation of the Memphis sanitation workers’ strike, famously bearing the slogan "I Am a Man." Also featured prominently is Ming Smith’s 1978 gelatin silver print Sun Ra Space II, New York, New York. Utilizing an extended exposure, Smith captured the avant-garde jazz pioneer radiating light amid a swirling cosmic backdrop, embodying the insistent, liberatory futurism central to the era’s imaginative cosmology.
Chronology and Historical Context
The temporal boundaries of the exhibition—1955 to 1985—capture a turbulent and vital era in modern history. The year 1955 marks pivotal catalysts in the American civil rights movement, including the murder of Emmett Till and the Montgomery bus boycott, which galvanized organized resistance against systemic racial segregation. The timeline extends through the intensification of the Black Power and Black Arts movements in the late 1960s and 1970s, concluding in the mid-1980s as artists began navigating post-civil rights realities and institutional shifts.
During this thirty-year span, photography underwent a significant democratization and expansion of its cultural footprint. In the 1960s and 1970s, mass-circulation magazines, newspapers, and community-based independent publications provided a critical infrastructure for reaching wide audiences. Images from the front lines of the civil rights struggle—from the marches in Selma to sanitation strikes in Memphis—infiltrated living rooms across the globe, exerting immense pressure on lawmakers and shifting public opinion.
Concurrently, cultural producers began shifting their lenses inward, prioritizing self-fashioning, community resilience, and everyday dignity over external narratives dictated by mainstream media. The exhibition captures this dual trajectory, balancing documentation of racial violence and political protest with celebrations of community life, jazz culture, and domestic spaces.
Insights from Museum Leadership
In an interview regarding the genesis and resonance of the exhibition, Mazie Harris, assistant curator at the Getty, emphasized the deliberate choices made by the curatorial team. Addressing the contemporary relevance of the works, Harris highlighted a piece by Darryl Cowherd titled The Time is Now. Created in the 1960s, the photograph captures the phrase graffitied onto a door, serving as a conceptual anchor for the entire exhibition.
"The time is now to appreciate these generations of artists," Harris noted, drawing a direct line between the historical struggles depicted in the galleries and the contemporary sociopolitical climate. "The time is now to acknowledge the impact of their important work and to recognize its ongoing relevance in our fraught times."
Harris also reflected on the evolving role of photography in the digital age. While mid-century photographers relied on print media to scale their reach, contemporary image-makers operate in an environment saturated by digital platforms. However, Harris observed that cutting through modern media noise still requires the same foundational elements: powerful vision, strong voices, and an unwavering commitment to truth.
Broader Impact and Implications
The implications of Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955–1985 extend far beyond art history, offering valuable lessons for contemporary activists, educators, and visual storytellers. By presenting photography as a catalyst for solidarity and political mobilization, the exhibition encourages viewers to reconsider the agency of the image in modern democracy.
The inclusion of diverse artistic mediums—ranging from traditional gelatin silver prints and oil-and-collage canvases to early video works like Barbara McCullough’s 1980 Shopping Bag Spirits and Freeway Fetishes: Reflections on Ritual Space—demonstrates the interdisciplinary nature of the Black Arts Movement. Poets, musicians, visual artists, and filmmakers frequently collaborated, creating a unified cultural front that challenged institutional exclusion and carved out autonomous spaces for Black creativity.
As the exhibition prepares for its transition to the Mississippi Museum of Art later this year, museum officials and scholars anticipate sustained engagement from academic and public audiences alike. By illuminating the foundational contributions of Black photographers and artists who documented their communities with nuance and power, the Getty’s exhibition secures their rightful place in the canon of modern art history while challenging viewers to recognize the ongoing work required to uphold human dignity and civil rights.
