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Revelation: A Journey Into Abstraction

Edited by Michelle D. Commander, Contributions by Tuliza Fleming and Sarah Gordon and Janet Dees and Lauren Haynes and Thelma Golden and Hallie Ringle and Rashid Johnson and Shinique Smith and Adebunmi Gbadebo

Celebrates the expansive creativity of Black artists who have contributed to the rich fabric of abstraction through artworks in the collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

This beautifully illustrated volume reveals the profound range and depth of abstract art created by African American artists, from the twentieth century to present day. Through the artworks in the Museum’s permanent collection, Revelation interrogates the stakes of Black artists working in abstraction. It features works that span from subtly suggestive forms to entirely nonrepresentational expressions, including those by artists working in the 1960s and ’70s like Ed Clark, Sam Gilliam, Alma Thomas, and Jack Whitten and by contemporary voices such as Theaster Gates, Rashid Johnson, Jennie C. Jones, Simone Leigh, and Julie Mehretu.

After an introduction by Michelle D. Commander, Tuliza Fleming establishes the significance of abstraction to the building of the Museum’s visual art collection and Sarah Gordon demonstrates the powerful connection of artists’ materials to the human body. Following the essays are five thematic plate sections—Natural World Refracted, The Shape of Sound, Colored Surfaces, Dreams Deferred, and Transcendent Visions—each introduced by conversations that Janet Dees shares with a dynamic group of artists, curators, and scholars. Through this, Revelation highlights the many ways abstraction has not only been used as a formalist vehicle to explore shape, color, and form but also as a language of cultural memory, identity, and transformation.

About The Author

Michelle D. Commander is deputy director at NMAAHC.

Tuliza Fleming is supervisory curator of American art at NMAAHC and curator of the Revelation exhibition.

Sarah Gordon is museum specialist for visual art at NMAAHC.

Janet Dees is assistant director of arts at NMAAHC.

Adebunmi Gbadebo is an artist living in Philadelphia.

Rashid Johnson is an artist living in New York City.

Thelma Golden is director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem.

Hallie Ringle is interim director and Daniel and Brett Sundheim chief curator at ICA Philadelphia.

Shinique Smith is an artist living in New York City.

Lauren Haynes is head curator of Governors Island Arts and vice president at the Trust for Governors Island.

Publish Date: March 24, 2026
Format: Hardcover
Category: Art - African American & Black
Publisher: Rizzoli Electa
Trim Size: 9-1/4 x 11-3/4
Pages: 256
US Price: $60.00
CDN Price: $80.00
ISBN: 978-0-8478-7620-4

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Reviews

"Revelation celebrates the expansive creativity of Black artists who have contributed to the rich fabric of abstraction through artworks in the collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture." — ASPIRE METRO

"Drawn from the collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, this richly illustrated volume repositions abstraction as a vital language of Black artistic expression rather than a departure from cultural identity." — INDULGE MAGAZINE

"In Revelation: A Journey into Abstraction, the National Museum of African American History and Culture takes us on a wonderful voyage through its spectacular and multifaceted collection of fine art. This volume delves deeply into ideas of perception and spatial knowledge to think expansively about the broad spectrum of vantage points on Black life. Every abstract work collected here issues from materials of or for the body, the built environment, or the natural world. Such things are well known but become revelatory in this gathering. What a marvelous and enriching way to celebrate a tenth anniversary!"
—KELLIE E. JONES, Hans Hofmann Professor of Modern Art and Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies, Columbia University

"African American artists who have pioneered or embraced abstraction occupy an uneasy, unsteady place within art history. On the one hand these practitioners have had to resist the often-harsh judgement of other African Americans skeptical of the worth of abstraction. And on the other hand, these artists have had to contend with steadfast indifference from an art world that tends to equate abstraction with white artists. Revelation: A Journey into Abstraction is an invaluable and timely publication accompanying an exhibition of the same name, that presents us with a wide-ranging, nuanced, and highly informative history of African American artists and abstraction. Embracing painting, sculpture, and other art forms, Revelation reminds us of wonderful, wider histories of abstraction, as pioneered by an astonishing range of African American and Diasporic practitioners, some of whom are familiar names, some of whom are less well-known. The publication’s texts are a joy to read, and its range of image reproductions is exceptional. This is a wonderful and substantial book that will be of immense value and interest to a great many people."
—EDDIE CHAMBERS, Goldabelle McComb Finn Distinguished Professor in Art History, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Author Bookshelf: Michelle D. Commander

Author Bookshelf: Tuliza Fleming

Author Bookshelf: Lauren Haynes

Author Bookshelf: Thelma Golden

$Black Refractions$

Author Bookshelf: Rashid Johnson