4. Toni Morrison’s Black Book at the David Zwirner Gallery
Through February 26, 2022, the David Zwirner Gallery will host the group exhibition Toni Morrison’s Black Book, curated by Pulitzer Prize-winning author and critic Hilton Als. Toni Morrison’s Black Book focuses on the output and cultural significance of famed American novelist Toni Morrison, whose work sought to dissect the visual, linguistic, and political reality of Blackness while also bringing more women writers and authors of color to the fore.
Included in the exhibition are several archival materials and additional work by artists such as Garrett Bradley, Gwen Knight, Irving Penn, and Amy Sillman, who have looked to Morrison’s seminal novel The Black Book for inspiration. Published in 1974, The Black Book grew out of Morrison’s concern that the complexity of Black American life was being misrepresented and her dissatisfaction with academic treatises that failed to get at the heart and spirit of Black culture. To capture these frustrations, the novel was largely visual, serving as a scrapbook of Black American life free from the constraints of language. Given the enormous legacy of the novel, Toni Morrison’s Black Book seeks to highlight the beauty and audacity of Morrison’s writing — presenting her work in a new light for the next generation to learn from.
