20/20: The Studio Museum and
Carnegie Museum of Art

In a unique institutional collaboration, Carnegie Museum of Art and the Studio Museum presented a group exhibition with works by 40 artists, 20 from each of the collections. The Studio Museum in Harlem has played a catalytic role in championing the work of artists of African descent since 1968, while CMOA has collected and presented the art of its time for over 120 years. In bringing these very different collections into conversation, 20/20 promoted a timely exchange of ideas about art and life and to offer a look at notions of identity and social inequality that continue to challenge us as Americans today.

Conceived at a tumultuous and deeply divided moment in our nation’s history, 20/20 offers a metaphoric picture of America by mapping the many ways in which artists respond to the social and political conditions that shape our lives. Featuring a diverse array of makers, including many artists of color, the exhibition’s thematic sections consider our democratic ideals, histories of labor and economy, the social and physical landscapes of our country, spiritual introspection, and forms of resistance.

Spanning nearly 100 years—from 1920s photographs by iconic Harlem-based James VanDerZee to a 2016 CMOA acquisition by acclaimed contemporary painter Kerry James Marshall—20/20 prompts conversations across generations about the necessity of art during times of change. While the exhibition’s title evokes a simple premise—twenty artists from each institution—it also proposes a test of our collective vision as a nation. How might museum collections, which often seem suspended in the past, help us better see the present?