NEW YORK — A new art history exhibit is getting us uplifted because it focuses on the people of color portrayed in early American paintings.
There are 125 pieces that make up the "Unnamed Figures" display at the American Folk Art Museum in New York. They depict life in New England before the civil war.
Scholars have painstakingly researched the works — combing through letters and journals to try to learn more about the Black subjects who are often relegated to the background.
"Stories of folks that may have been pictured. Their perspective, their experience, their history, their life story, never really part of the conversation," co-curator RL Watson said.
While a few of these early paintings do feature people of color, curators say a real turning point was the invention of photography. They say cameras allowed Black Americans to make their own decisions about self-representation.
In a month this exhibit will go on tour around New England.
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