Seeing Us

This ground-breaking volume increases our understanding of the dynamism and richness of American art, drawing on the work of artists who have often created from the artistic margins.

Out of Many: Reframing an American Collection offers a re-examination of select works from The Phillips Collection, the Howard University Gallery of Art and the David C. Driskell Center. This volume, and its accompanying exhibition features 75 works of art in various media-paintings, prints, photographs, sculpture, and mixed-media-by a diverse array of artists, including William H Johnson, Doris Lee, Elisabeth Poe, David Driskell, Ralston Crawford, William Christenberry, Jacob Lawrence, and Romare Bearden to name a few. Each of the selected works offers a unique perspective on how these diverse artists living and working across the United States view (or have viewed) America while presenting an inclusive narrative of American art based on The Phillips’ unique history, collection, relationships with artists and collaborations with other institutions. Arranged into five thematic sections—People, Places, Spaces, Things, and Chronicles—the authors consider why artists have certain been omitted from our current narratives; and how do we properly contextualize the work of marginalized artists.