The Philadelphia Museum of Art presents The Time Is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure

But that is the remarkable thing about art: it takes you out of yourself. Arthur Schopenhauer wrote about the “will,” which he defined as the source of our suffering. Because of will, we always need and want something—and the only authentic diversion is art. As he explained it, contemplating art provides an opportunity to escape our ubiquitous longings; art alone offers a momentary avoidance of suffering. The PMA presented that opportunity when I needed it most with The Time Is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure, on view through February 9, 2025.

Curated by British writer and curator Ekow Eshun, this expansive exhibition focuses on 28 contemporary Black artists, mostly figurative painters. For the Philly iteration of this show, Eshun is joined by curator Erica F. Battle (John Alchin and Hal Marryatt Curator of Contemporary Art) and exhibition assistant Yocari De Los Santos (Constance E. Clayton fellow). There are famous names here, along with less familiar artists who compose the Black and African diaspora from the US and UK. The 60-plus works concern Blackness as lived experience rather than the social construct of race.

Double Consciousness

The exhibition has three sections. The first two galleries are titled Double Consciousness, a reference to W.E.B. Dubois’s late 19th-century social research around the lived experiences of Black people in Philadelphia as a psychological double identity. This phenomenon concerns the tension manifesting in one’s autonomous selfhood with the alienating effects of the ever-present “white gaze.”

We see a joyful approach to this idea in Kerry James Marshall’s portraits depicting hyper-black skin tones, whereas Nathaniel Mary Quinn deploys a Dadaistic slant to render monstrous collaged faces of men that simultaneously horrify and fascinate. A nine-foot bronze gilded sculpture by Thomas Price features the figure of a young woman standing in classical contrapposto, hands on hips with cascading braids. Eyes closed to anyone’s surveillance, she is centered within herself. Using traditional and digital methodologies, Price creates amalgams of Black bodies to offer psychological portraits that emphasize subjectivity.

Past and Presence

The second two-gallery grouping is titled Past and Presence. For most of Western art history, representations of people of color are either absent or pushed to the margins of compositions, trivializing their importance. Eshun chose artists whose works cite the past but reframe it to make it inclusive. Examples include two ceramic wall works by Roberto Lugo that directly reference the Renaissance sculptor Luca della Robbia, who specialized in ecclesiastical images in glazed terracotta. A Kensington native of Puerto Rican nationality, Lugo replaces white saints with large hand-built reliefs of his family members recentering ideas of love and devotion.

The painter Titus Kaphar’s artworks are visually complicated but compelling. He composes Black figures within disorienting layers, rendered in a classically beautiful painterly style reminiscent of 18th-century royal portraiture. Both of his paintings focus on a woman’s face staring back at us; the effect is calculatedly disruptive. Kaphar has visually rearranged time and space, raising questions about the egregious sins of art history.

Our Aliveness

The final two galleries are titled Our Aliveness. This idea embraces the freedom to be found in life’s moments of connection: Black kinship, friendship, and socialization. Njideka Akunyili Crosby offers a stunning outsized mixed media on paper. It is a self-portrait holding her child on a porch surrounded by verdant trees and plants. In a doorway, her own mother’s image is pinned to a wall among other papers. The work expresses Crosby’s love for her Black familial experiences. Jordan Casteel paints portraits of individuals in her Harlem neighborhood, such as the subject of James, who sold vinyl records outside of a soul food restaurant. Chris Ofili’s nine-foot canvas features lovers tenderly dancing under a starry sky.

Meeting the moment

The walls in the exhibition are rich tones of greens, purples, blues, and gray that enliven the canvases. Works are spaced to offer generous viewpoints. Room lighting is subdued, and benches provide for pauses of contemplation. Be sure to bring earbuds, as a free smartphone audio tour is available whereby the curator and artists discuss their works.

The exhibition title, The Time Is Always Now, derives from a quote by James Baldwin in which he reminds us that future solutions are not certain, so we must meet our challenges in the moment. Taking Baldwin’s advice, we must not let fear of our imperiled American future paralyze us. We need to stay in the moment. This historic and absorbing exhibition is worthy of your time. More than ever, the solace of art seems important and necessary.

At top: Jordan Casteel’s 2017 Yvonne and James, oil on canvas, 7’6” x 6’6”; the Joyner/Giuffrida Collection. (Image courtesy of the PMA.)