THE POWERFUL PORTRAITS of Barkley L. Hendricks (1945-2017) are in a category of their own. Key elements characterize the late artist’s paintings, including his masterful use of color. “Miss Brown To You” (1970) by Hendricks, pictures his subject wearing a red top against a red background. When he employed this stylized approach, Hendricks described the portraits as “limited palette” paintings. The title of the work references his subject, Suzanne Brown, and a song Billie Holiday first recorded in 1935.
In 2023, “Miss Brown To You” entered the collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) in Washington, D.C. The striking portrait is on view in “Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience,” the museum’s current visual art exhibition, and featured in the recently published exhibition catalog that documents the show. The painting also graces the cover of the museum’s 2025 calendar highlighting works from its collection.
Several 2025 wall calendars celebrate African American art throughout the year, exploring the work of an array of Black artists represented in major museum collections. In addition to NMAAHC’s calendar showcasing a dozen artists, Hendricks among them, others are dedicated to individual artists. New calendars highlight the radiant landscapes of Richard Mayhew (1924-2024), who died yesterday at age 100; abstract paintings by Alma Thomas (1891-1978); story quilts and political paintings by Faith Ringgold (1930-2024); and collage paintings by Romare Bearden (1911-1988).
A selection of 2025 calendars featuring African American art follows:
BARKLEY HENDRICKS (American, 1945-2017), “Miss Brown To You,” 1970 (oil and acrylic on linen canvas, 48 × 48 × 1 1/4 inches / 121.9 × 121.9 × 3.2 cm, unframed). | © Barkley L. Hendricks. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of the National Endowment for the Arts, 2023.3
NMAAHC African American Art 2025 Wall Calendar
“Miss Brown To You” (1970), a vibrant red, “limited-palette” portrait painting by Barkley L. Hendricks (1945-2017) is featured on the cover of the calendar, which offers a diverse survey of African American art from the collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Each month showcases the work of a different artist. Emma Amos, Alvin Loving, Clementine Hunter, Samella Lewis, Peter L. Robinson Jr., Alma Thomas, and Hendricks are among those included.
RICHARD MAYHEW, Elkhorn Slough, 2009 (oil on canvas 36 x 36 inches / 91.5 x 91.5 cm). | © Richard Mayhew, Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York
Richard Mayhew 2025 Wall Calendar
The abstract landscapes of Richard Mayhew (1924-2024) evoke a sense of spiritual transcendence. He primarily pictured imagined places and referred to his luminous paintings as “mindscapes.” Santa Cruz, Calif.-based Mayhew died on Sept. 26 at age 100. He was the last living member of Spiral (1963-65), the short-lived artist collective co-founded by Romare Bearden in New York. The calendar documents Mayhew’s legacy with a dozen works produced between 1999 and 2014.
FAITH RINGGOLD, “Jazz Stories: Mama Can Sing, Papa Can Blow #7. Love Me Baby,” 2004/2020 (13-color silk screen print on Coventry Rag 335gsm, 76 × 63 cm, Edition of 100 + 15 APs). | © Estate of Faith Ringgold, Artists Rights Society (ARS) New York, Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York
Faith Ringgold 2025 Wall Calendar
Faith Ringgold (1930-2024), the artist and activist who died earlier this year, expressed herself in a variety of mediums, from painting and printmaking to soft sculpture and story quilts. Born in Harlem, she lived and worked in New Jersey. Ringgold’s subjects included Black history, American racism, the experiences of women, her own biography, and jazz. She recently revisited a print in the latter category (“Jazz Stories: Mama Can Sing, Papa Can Blow #7. Love Me Baby,” 2004/2022), a project that coincided with her exhibition at Serpentine Galleries in London and illustrates the cover of the calendar.
ROMARE BEARDEN (1911-1988), Three Folk Musicians, 1967 (collage of various papers with paint and graphite on canvas, Unframed: 50 × 60 × 1 1/2 inches / 127 × 152.4 × 3.81 cm; Framed: 57 × 67 × 3 1/2 inches / 144.78 × 170.18 × 8.89 cm). | ©artist or artist’s estate. Collection of Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2016.336
Romare Bearden 2025 Wall Calendar
When the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Va., acquired “Three Folk Musicians” (1967) by Romare Bearden (1911-1988) in 2017, the collage painting had been in private hands for two generations. A major Bearden painting featured in key exhibitions dedicated to the artist over the decades, “Three Folk Musicians” now illustrates the cover of a calendar surveying his work. Featuring works produced from 1967 to 1986, each month explores Bearden’s many subjects from music and Caribbean landscapes to rural scenes, urban moments, and domestic interiors.
ALMA THOMAS, “Tiptoe Through the Tulips,” 1969 (acrylic on canvas). | National Gallery of Art, Corcoran Collection (Gift of Vincent Melzac) 2015.19.145. © Estate of Alma Thomas, Artists Rights Society (ARS) New York
Alma Thomas 2025 Wall Calendar
Defined by rhythmic pattern and exuberant color, the abstract paintings of Alma Thomas (1891-1978) are inspired by nature, space, and music. “Composing Color: Paintings by Alma Thomas from the Smithsonian American Art Museum,” a solo exhibition of the artist, is currently on view at the Denver Art Museum. Born in Columbus, Ga., Thomas spent nearly her entire adult life in Washington, D.C. The calendar features works dating from the early 1960s to 1972, from the collections of major museums. Five of the works are among the holdings of The Columbus Museum, her hometown museum. The cover work (“Tiptoe Through the Tulips,” 1969) was acquired by the National Gallery of Art in 2015.
LOIS MAILOU JONES (American, 1905-1998), “Symboles d’Afrique,” 1980 (acrylic, 29 ¼ x 35 ½ inches). | Courtesy Loïs Mailou Jones Pierre-Noël Trust
African American Art 2025 Wall Calendar
A survey of African American art, the calendar highlights historic, modern, and contemporary works. The selection spans more than 130 years, from 1888 to 2022. Works by Romare Bearden, Laura James, Lois Mailou Jones, Whitfield Lovell, Charles E. Porter, and Charles White, among others, are drawn from a variety of sources, including the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery (Laura Wheeler Waring’s “George E. Haynes,” circa 1948) and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (Aaron Douglas’s, “Aspiration,” 1936). CT
FIND MORE Simone Leigh’s work covers a 2025 engagement calendar from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), which is illustrated throughout with works by a variety of artists from the museum’s collection. “Simone Leigh,” a survey of the artist, is currently on view across two Los Angeles institutions, LACMA and the California African American Museum, through Jan. 20, 2025
BOOKSHELF
The new exhibition catalog “Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience” is the first volume published by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture that is dedicated to visual art. A new monograph (“Barkley L. Hendricks: Solid!”) and recent exhibition catalog (“Barkley L. Hendricks: Portraits at The Frick”) explore the work of the late portrait artist. “Alma W. Thomas: Everything Is Beautiful” documents a recent traveling retrospective of the artist that considered her painting, as well as other areas of creativity, including fashion, gardening, and marionettes. Recent volumes dedicated to Faith Ringgold include the exhibition catalog “Faith Ringgold: American People” and “Faith Ringgold: Politics / Power.” Published in 2023, “Romare Bearden: Patchwork Quilt (One on One),” focuses on a single work by the artist, a monumental collage painting in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art that also appears in the African American art calendar featured above. “Richard Mayhew: Transcendence” is a career-spanning monograph of the late artist published in 2020.
