Hard Art at MoMA PS1: Black Abstract Painting from 1969 to Today

MoMA PS1 opened Hard Art on November 5, 2026, a major exhibition examining abstract painting by Black artists in the United States from 1969 to the present. More than forty artists take part, and the show runs through March 15, 2027.

The curators pair historical canvases by painters who came to prominence in the 1970s with recent, conceptually driven work that moves among sculpture, video, sound, and painting. Rather than following a timeline, the show is organized by theme and follows three generations of artists. The roster includes Frank Bowling, Mark Bradford, Peter Bradley, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Ed Clark, Melvin Edwards, Jennie C. Jones, Joe Overstreet, and Raymond Saunders. New and recent works come from Aria Dean, Torkwase Dyson, Nikita Gale, Suzanne Jackson, Rindon Johnson, Caroline Kent, Carolyn Lazard, Eric N. Mack, Charisse Pearlina Weston, and SoiL Thornton. Maren Hassinger, Hannah Black, James Little, and Mildred Thompson are also on view.

The title comes from Bradley's description of The DeLuxe Show, which treated abstraction's reputed opacity and complexity as an invitation to look harder and engage more deeply. The exhibition builds on that idea, proposing that conversations across generations show how relevant, and how urgent, abstraction has become in shaping the present political imagination.

Works include Bradley's Circle of Fifths (1973, acrylic on canvas), Thompson's oil triptych Magnetic Fields (1991), Little's Challenge of the Will (1979, oil on canvas and linen), and Hassinger's The Veil Between Us (2007/2018), made from twisted and knotted New York Times newspapers, twine, wire, rope, and steel.

Connie Butler, The Agnes Gund Director, organized the show with Sheldon Gooch, Curatorial Assistant; June Kitahara provided research support. A fully illustrated publication includes essays by Butler, Jessica Bell Brown, Aria Dean, Torkwase Dyson, Rindon Johnson, and Erich Kessel, among others, plus an illustrated chronology of significant museum exhibitions. On November 7, an Open House and a talk revisiting PS1's 1980 Afro-American Abstraction exhibition are scheduled. The museum is at 22-25 Jackson Avenue in Long Island City, and admission is free.