Figments: New Acquisitions to the Permanent Collection
The Mississippi Museum of Art鈥檚 (MMA) permanent collection has grown to more than 6,000 works, reflecting a wide range of periods, cultures, and media.
From a rare portrait of Frederick, a formerly enslaved man (ca. 1840), to a radical self-portrait by contemporary queer artist D鈥橝ngelo Lovell Williams, Structural Dishonesty (2016), this exhibition juxtaposes recent acquisitions by Black artists, and non-Black artists depicting Black subjects across time.
The title Figments alludes to the uneasy place Black people have historically occupied in the visual imagination and American consciousness 鈥 often misrepresented, flatted, or idealized. the artworks on view invite us to reflect on these visual legacies and the stories they tell 鈥 or omit.
Spanning abstraction, classical portraiture, photography, and sculpture, the works in the exhibition reflect the breadth of MMA鈥檚 growing collection-and its commitment to more inclusive and expansive representations.
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The Mississippi Museum of Art鈥檚 (MMA) permanent collection has grown to more than 6,000 works, reflecting a wide range of periods, cultures, and media.
From a rare portrait of Frederick, a formerly enslaved man (ca. 1840), to a radical self-portrait by contemporary queer artist D鈥橝ngelo Lovell Williams, Structural Dishonesty (2016), this exhibition juxtaposes recent acquisitions by Black artists, and non-Black artists depicting Black subjects across time.
The title Figments alludes to the uneasy place Black people have historically occupied in the visual imagination and American consciousness 鈥 often misrepresented, flatted, or idealized. the artworks on view invite us to reflect on these visual legacies and the stories they tell 鈥 or omit.
Spanning abstraction, classical portraiture, photography, and sculpture, the works in the exhibition reflect the breadth of MMA鈥檚 growing collection-and its commitment to more inclusive and expansive representations.
Artists on show
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