Celebration

A celebration can be as private as a wish, as monumental as a graduation, or as commonplace as a meal prepared at home. Celebrations are acts of hope and gestures of gratitude: hope for an abundant future and gratitude for a shared human experience. Poet, writer, and educator Lucille Clifton’s “won’t you celebrate with me” is an homage to Black resilience and a meditation on what it means to celebrate.  

This small, focused exhibition brings together works by five African American artists: Calvin Burnett, Darrel Ellis, Jonathan Green, Wadsworth Jarrell, and Lorna Simpson, highlighting the ways these artists honor history, culture, and heritage through various media including painting, photography, sculpture, and printmaking. Celebration is the result of a collaboration between Curators and Educators exploring The Fralin’s permanent collection. It is a reflection of collective efforts and a chorus of voices, and perhaps more importantly, it is an invitation.  

Image: Jonathan Green, American, b. 1955. Venus, 1997. Oil on canvas, 16 x 20 in. (40.6 x 50.8 cm). Collection of The Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia. Gift of Ellen A. Hennessy, 2010.14.11. © Jonathan Green