NEW YORK CITY – On view from September 9 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MMA) and traveling thereafter, “Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina” has long been anticipated by Americana enthusiasts. Though in some respects narrowly focused and physically not large – it numbers 65 objects, including five fragments and seven works by contemporary artists – the show and its accompanying catalog are monumental, representing a fundamental shift in approach to a complicated group of African American-made objects and a milestone acknowledgment of the soft bigotry of past oversight by the nation’s foremost art museum.
September 6, 2022