REVIEW: Amy Sherald Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles

By Bianca Collins

Amy Sherald, An Ocean Away, 2020, ©Amy Sherald, courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth, photo by Joseph Hyde.

Painter Amy Sherald became a household name in 2018 when her portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama was unveiled at the National Gallery of Art. Sherald’s unique approach to studio portraiture and practice of universally rendering Black skin in grisaille (an underpainting technique in which a painter uses a monochromatic palette in gray), often foregrounded before an opaque color field, distinguished her from her peers, while her mastery of form and precision with line earned her a seat at the table of contemporary blue-chip American artists. Sherald reaffirms that Black people are “The Great American Fact” (the title of this show taken from an 1892 book by educator Anna Julia Cooper) in her first West Coast solo exhibition. Five figurative paintings offer images of the spectacular banal, linking Blackness with the quotidian through Americana icons such as the surfboard, white picket fence and a beach cruiser bicycle, removing Black bodies from the scenes of violence and oppression they too often inhabit. In A Midsummer Afternoon Dream (2020), a serene young woman leans on a bicycle, its basket overflowing with flowers and a fluffy white puppy. The woman’s Grecian contrapposto and the Renaissance-esque fabric draping her body link her to powerful, monumental figures that precede her in the art historical narrative. Crisp blades of perfectly lush green grass add texture to the painting, while subtle shading in the dog’s soft white hair and on our heroine’s dress suggest the movement of wind.

The largest and central painting of the show is titled An Ocean Away (2020). It was amusing to learn Sherald found her sitters for this scene with a quick search on Instagram, which led her to Lou, a surf instructor for youths at Rockaway Beach. Idyllic sand dunes with beach grass undulate before a cloudless, flat blue sky. The sun creates harsh shadows on the sand, where a man sits on his surfboard, surveying the ocean intently. A boy with a solemn look on his face stands nearby holding a large yellow surfboard. Is the man simply doing his job by keeping an eye on his students, or has something occurred in the ocean? A young couple from Brooklyn seen in As American as apple pie (2020) stand before a classic American car and a proud two-story home with a white picket fence. The man’s khakis, Converse sneakers and jean jacket, paired with the woman’s Barbie T-shirt—all pink attire and gold accessories—offer a more realistic alternative to Mattel’s iconic personifications of Americana, Barbie and Ken. Sherald’s show is like a much needed cold drink of water on a hot day, long overdue and refreshing.