Rashid Johnson talks about his Soul Paintings and participation in the Now issue of Harper’s Bazaar. He begins by stating the following: “I’ve always been interested in the idea of now or nowness… the idea of timelessness, I think is also really essential. So when you get to marry the two spaces, when you marry the now and the timeless, I think is where you find the most interesting innovations and the most interesting kind of ambitious moments in an artist’s practice.” | Video by Harper’s Bazaar
Contributors to the special issue include artists Rashid Johnson, Lorna Simpson, Simone Leigh, Martine Syms, and choreographer Kyle Abraham
A SILVERY GRAY PAINTING by Lorna Simpson graces the cover of the April edition of Harper’s Bazaar. The dimensional composition featuring the faces of two women is part of a new body of work called Personas in Silver. Another cover is illustrated with a Soul Painting by Rashid Johnson. Developed with numerous meandering and overlapping lines, the mask-like portrait is from a new series that expands upon Johnson’s Anxious Men paintings.
In a special issue, Bazaar is exploring the Now by seeking insights from an array of cultural figures about being alive and creating work in the contemporary moment, given the challenging state of the world right now. The fashion magazine published multiple covers—by Simpson and Johnson; one picturing choreographer Kyle Abraham with dancers from A.I.M., the dance company he founded; and others showcasing a trio of stand-out models, the “Faces of Now” expanding representation in the industry in terms of body type, race, and gender identification (Paloma Elsesser, Anok Yai, and Alex Consani).
Inside, Bazaar asked 16 artists and thinkers to contribute their perspectives through new and recent works and works in progress: writings, paintings, photography, music, and more. Abraham choreographed an original work about support and connection called “2×4” that features two musicians and four dancers.
Artist Simone Leigh offered “Sharifa” (2022), the first portrait the artist ever made. The bronze sculpture depicts Leigh’s close collaborator, author and scholar Sharifa Rhodes-Pitt. “Sharifa” was acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago in 2024 and permanently installed in the North Garden of the artist’s hometown museum.
Leigh contributed a brief background summary about the work. “This portrait marks one of the most important relationships in my life; the life that Sharifa and I cultivate has given us a tool belt for these times.… I wish for everyone to have a friendship like this and, in this moment, to take time for self-reflection and care—especially Black women, who are my primary audience,” Leigh wrote for Bazaar. (Leigh’s contribution is published in the print magazine, but does not appear online.)
Artist Martine Syms wrote a prose poem. Writer Danez Smith also shared a poem, voicing a “new elegy for an uncertain age,” titled simply “2025, Unfortunately.” Smith said in part, “My naive belief: love will win. & my hope: by any means necessary. & my warning: any.” Author Leila Mottley described making edits to her novel about a woman seeking an abortion in Florida and deciding her fictional account couldn’t keep up with the now, as the laws surrounding the procedure changed multiple times as she finalized the book. Chef José Andrés, author and cultural critic Fran Lebowitz, and journalist Vauhini Vara are also among the contributors.
LORNA SIMPSON, “Personas in Silver (Detail #6), 2024. © Lorna Simpson, Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth, Photo by James Wang | Harper’s Bazaar, April 2025
LORNA SIMPSON
Bazaar published profiles of Simpson and Johnson, in which each discussed their outlook and experiences. The New York artists are both represented by Hauser & Wirth gallery and the subjects of major, forthcoming museum exhibitions in New York.
“Lorna Simpson: Source Notes” opens May 19 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Known for her longstanding conceptual photography practice exploring representation, identity, gender, race and history, Simpson turned to painting a decade ago. The Met presentation is the first to showcase this new direction in its entirety. Simpson makes large-scale paintings centered around source imagery from vintage Jet and Ebony magazines and the archives of the Library of Congress and the Associated Press. More than 30 paintings will be in view in the exhibition.
In an as-told-to profile, Simpson discussed how she arrived at her Personas in Silver series. The new paintings relate to previous works produced in deep saturated hues including blue, red, violet, and yellow, but introduce a palette of silvery gray. The new body of work will be included in her exhibition at The Met. Simpson has been spending time in Los Angeles. She has a home there and her daughter lives in the city. The artist reflected on the recent wildfires and how she is coping and creating during this chaotic moment:
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I know of so many people who have lost their homes and their places of business, artists who have lost their studios and their work.… I’d just left L.A. when the fires started. I was back in New York when I saw that the neighborhood next to ours in L.A. was under an evacuation order. To watch from a distance was terrifying.…
There is so much going on in the world right now that I think it’s impossible to keep things at bay. Sometimes it’s important to just let yourself unravel and feel completely unmoored by what’s going on. I can’t always privilege productivity over sanity.… I do take solace in being able to make art. But I can’t say that I am so disciplined or have an exact formula for what to do when things seem out of control.…
RASHID JOHNSON, Soul Painting, “Self Portrait, 2025. © Rashid Johnson. Courtesy the artist, Photo by Stephanie Powell. | Harper’s Bazaar, April 2025
RASHID JOHNSON
Johnson’s practice is informed by history, philosophy, literature, and music. “Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers” opens April 18 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. The career-spanning exhibition features nearly 90 works, across multiple mediums, produced over 30 years.
In a Bazaar video and as-told-to profile, Johnson discussed how his personal history has influenced his work, the privilege of experiencing life with his father and son, and trepidation about seeing art made in his 20s alongside more recent works. He also shared the meaning behind his new Soul Paintings and how his time in the studio has, over the years, served as both a creative escape and opportunity for direct reflection and engagement with the world:
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The making of these “Soul Paintings” happens to coincide with a moment when I think that soul-searching is really at the heart of what a lot of us are doing as we think about this political moment, this spiritual moment, and how we imagine or conceive of our essence. Something I often try to do with my work is answer unanswerable questions or participate in the illustration of things we sometimes struggle to illustrate. What does a soul look like? And how do you bring that to life?…
I’ve been sober now for 10 years, and one of the things I’ve learned from that experience is the importance of being present. The filmmaker Akira Kurosawa used to say artists have one job: to never avert their eyes. I’ve taken that on to some degree. It doesn’t mean that I’m always making work that is a direct reflection on the moment we live in. But I always try to be very present and aware, so I’m not escaping. I’m living in the world with everyone else.
In April 1964, photographer Richard Avedon guest-edited an issue of Bazaar “dedicated to ‘the off-beat side of Now.’ Borne of a moment of upheaval not unlike the one we’re currently living in, the issue explored the people and ideas that were shaping the era.” Six decades later, the Avedon project inspired the current edition. CT
FIND MORE about Rashid Johnson, Lorna Simpson, and Kyle Abraham on Instagram
Choreographer Kyle Abraham said “2 x 4,” the work he created for the Now issue Harper’s Bazaar featuring two baritone saxophonists and four dancers, grew out of an earlier duet commissioned by Gagosian gallery. In the video, Abraham says: “Antwaun Sergeant had reached out to me to be a part of a show that he was doing, called “Social Abstraction.” When I looked at some of the artwork that was going to be included, I started getting ideas around movement vocabulary, but more than that a certain kind of sound. I was looking at a painting by visual artist Devon B. Johnson (“Congealed & Stuck,” 2024) and it really made me think about baritone saxophone. The brown in his painting and just some of the textures that I was seeing, it made me think about that kind of guttural sound.” | Video by Harper’s Bazaar
BOOKSHELF
The forthcoming volume “Lorna Simpson: Source Notes” is published on the occasion of the artist’s exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Lorna Simpson,” a major monograph from Phaidon, and “Lorna Simpson Collages” also explore her work. Coming soon, “Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers” documents the artist’s three-decade survey co-organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. Published by Phaidon in 2023, “Rashid Johnson” is a comprehensive monograph of the artist. “Rashid Johnson: Anxious Men” was published by The Drawing Center. Also consider, “Cheryl Johnson-Odim & Rashid Johnson: Heart-Turned-Inside-Out Poems,” which was published last year. Kyle Abraham’s choreography created for Harper’s Bazaar showcases the intersection of dance and visual art. The exhibition catalog “Edges of Ailey” also documents a prominent recent example, exploring the life and legacy of choreographer Alvin Ailey (1931-1989) at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
