The first ever career retrospective of renowned artist Willie Birch (American, born 1942), this exhibition brings together groundbreaking works from the late 1960s to the present that chronicle Birch’s unique vision of the Black American experience and explore the interconnected nature of global art forms. Birch, raised in New Orleans and trained in Europe, Baltimore, and New York, often speaks about “retentions,” a term he uses to describe cultural evidence of another culture’s traditions in Black American life.
Willie Birch: Stories To Tell
Willie Birch, Two Faces of a Nation, 1968. Wood, paint, and found materials, 35 1/2 × 60 ¾ × 7 1/2 in. framed. Photo by Sesthasak Boonchai.
Willie Birch, Man with Horn (Ancestor Calling), 1980. Carved wood. 12 1/2×47 3/4×5 5/8 in. Photo by Sesthasak Boonchai.
Willie Birch, The Builders (for Jacob Lawrence), 2019. Acrylic and charcoal on paper, diptych; sheet: 47 1/2×71 1/2 in. Photo by Minneapolis Institute of Art.
Willie Birch, Uptown Memories (A Day in the Life of the Magnolia Project), 1995. Painted papier-mâché and mixed media. 82×62×60 in. Photo by Roman Alokhin.
Willie Birch, Street Musician with Guitar, 1999. Acrylic and charcoal on paper. 60×48 in.
See Also
2007
The Andy Warhol Photographic Legacy Program was launched in 2007 in celebration of the Foundation’s 20th Anniversary. This unprecedented program donated over 28,500 photographs by Andy Warhol to educational institutions across the United States. More than 180 college and university museums, galleries and art collections throughout the nation participated in the program, each receiving a curated selection of original Polaroid photographs and gelatin silver prints.