Revisiting PS1’s Afro-American Abstraction (1980)

Hard Art

November 7, 2026
3:30–5 p.m.

  • Upcoming
  • Talk
Installation view of Homage to the Poet Leon Gontran Damas (1978) and Nine Lynch Fragments (1979-80) by Melvin Edwards and Space Odyssey (1980) by Ellsworth Ausby in the P.S. 1 exhibition Afro-American Abstraction (February 17 - April 6, 1980)
Photo credit:
John Wronn

Connie Butler, The Agnes Gund Director, moderates a panel with Hard Art artists Howardena Pindell and James Little, who all took part in PS1’s Afro-American Abstraction (1980). The exhibition underscored a shared aesthetic among the artists, characterized by “a bold physicality, rhythmical vitality, and textural richness, as well as a tendency to use linear, geometrical imagery, and high-energy color.” Revisit this landmark exhibition through a conversation that explores these artists’ legacies on the occasion of PS1’s 50th Anniversary.

Dates

November 7, 2026
3:30–5 p.m.

2026-11-07 15:30:00 -0500
2026-11-07 17:00:00 -0500

Location

MoMA PS1

22-25 Jackson Avenue Queens, NY 11101