Sherald, Amy
1973-present · Contribution: 2000s-present
Visual Arts
Portrait painting; monumental portraits of everyday Black Americans rendered with skin tones in grisaille (grayscale) against flat, vibrant color fields, shifting focus from racial categorization to individual presence

Portraits are AI-generated interpretations, not photographs.
Quick facts
- Category
- Visual Arts
Impact on the world
Sherald's portrait of Michelle Obama placed a contemporary Black woman artist at the center of national iconography, reaching audiences far beyond the art world.
Sources
- Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery
1 more sources and references are available to members.
More in Visual Arts
Alston, Charles Henry
1907-1977
First African American supervisor for the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project; created the first image of an African American displayed at the White House
Basquiat, Jean-Michel
1960-1988
Neo-expressionist painting and drawing; raw, gestural works mixing graffiti-style imagery, scrawled text, and symbols, referencing African American historical figures, anatomy, jazz, and street culture
Bearden, Romare Howard
1911-1988
Pioneering collage artist whose layered, photomontage-based works became some of the most acclaimed depictions of African American life in 20th-century American art
Catlett, Elizabeth
1915-2012
Sculpture and printmaking (linocuts, lithographs, woodcuts) centered on the Black-American and Mexican working-class experience, especially the strength of Black women; works include 'Sharecropper,' the 'Negro Woman' series, and 'Homage to My Young Black Sisters'