{"id":185105,"date":"2025-08-05T21:55:45","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T21:55:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/05\/the-room-where-it-happens-amy-sherald-brings-broadway-to-the-whitney\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T21:55:45","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T21:55:45","slug":"the-room-where-it-happens-amy-sherald-brings-broadway-to-the-whitney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/05\/the-room-where-it-happens-amy-sherald-brings-broadway-to-the-whitney\/","title":{"rendered":"The Room Where It Happens: Amy Sherald Brings Broadway to the Whitney"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Sherald\u2019s work similarly inspired other directors. Tony nominee <strong>Lileana Blain-Cruz<\/strong> was most awestruck by Sherald\u2019s rendering of her subjects\u2019 eyes\u2014how they seem to be watching the viewer as much, if not more, than the viewer is watching them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">For actor <strong>Gabby Beans,<\/strong> who earned a Tony nomination after starring in Blain-Cruz\u2019s 2022 revival of <em>The Skin of Our Teeth,<\/em> it\u2019s Sherald\u2019s use of color\u2014vibrant, bold backgrounds juxtaposed against the grayscale skin tones she gives her subjects\u2014that strikes an emotional chord. \u201cThe gray\u2026you kind of sit with them longer, because you can\u2019t assume that you know them in a particular way,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">In her remarks to the crowd, Sherald, 51, revealed that she only landed on this signature artistic practice in her late 30s. \u201cI started using grayscale because I had a fear of the work being marginalized,\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t want the work to be pushed in a corner. I wanted it to exist in a universal way. I wanted it to be able to connect to all people.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"GenericCalloutWrapper-IJXIe fHhfKG\" data-testid=\"GenericCallout\">\n<figure class=\"AssetEmbedWrapper-fkZDUs kHRAYC asset-embed\">\n<div class=\"AssetEmbedAssetContainer-eEeytc eRSvCP asset-embed__asset-container\"><span class=\"SpanWrapper-zEXFr hdztbW responsive-asset AssetEmbedResponsiveAsset-cIfZLr fHIkTW asset-embed__responsive-asset\"><picture class=\"ResponsiveImagePicture-cGZhnX jwYQWO AssetEmbedResponsiveAsset-cIfZLr fHIkTW asset-embed__responsive-asset responsive-image\"><noscript><\/noscript><\/picture><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"CaptionWrapper-jYrTxZ hvludv caption AssetEmbedCaption-fyuOdR iTyhpv asset-embed__caption\" data-testid=\"caption-wrapper\"><span class=\"BaseWrap-sc-gzmcOU BaseText-eqOrNE CaptionText-brNLzD deqABF ijcmYY ixLsrW caption__text\"><\/p>\n<p><em>Mama Has Made the Bread (How Things Are Measured)<\/em>, 2018 at the Whitney Museum.<\/p>\n<p><\/span><span class=\"BaseWrap-sc-gzmcOU BaseText-eqOrNE CaptionCredit-eowWKH deqABF PwCDR kpuElq caption__credit\">Matthew Carasella.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paywall\">The technique also had personal resonance for Sherald. \u201cI just wanted to make something that looked like where I came from,\u201d she said. \u201cSomething that was extraordinary and ordinary at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">From Stephen Sondheim\u2019s <em>Sunday in the Park With George<\/em>\u2014based on Georges Seurat\u2019s <em>A Sunday on La Grande Jatte<\/em>\u2014to August Wilson\u2019s <em>The Piano Lesson,<\/em> which drew inspiration from a Romare Bearden print, art and theater have long been intertwined. \u201cLeonardo da Vinci used to design sets,\u201d said Kail to the audience he helped gather. \u201cThere was overlap. There was cross-pollination. We\u2019re better in this institution, in this city, to maybe see if something could grow from that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Especially at this particular moment. Last month, according to <em>The New York Times,<\/em> Sherald <a data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/07\/24\/arts\/design\/amy-sherald-smithsonian-censorship.html\" class=\"external-link\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/07\/24\/arts\/design\/amy-sherald-smithsonian-censorship.html&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/07\/24\/arts\/design\/amy-sherald-smithsonian-censorship.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">withdrew<\/a> her solo show from its planned transfer to the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, after she was told that the museum had considered removing one painting\u2014<em>Trans Forming Liberty,<\/em> which depicts Black transgender artist <strong>Arew\u00e0 Basit<\/strong> as the Statue of Liberty\u2014in order to avoid provoking President <strong>Donald Trump.<\/strong> (\u201cThe <em>Trans Forming Liberty<\/em> painting, which sought to reinterpret one of our nation\u2019s most sacred symbols through a divisive and ideological lens, fundamentally strayed from the mission and spirit of our national museums,\u201d <strong>Lindsey Halligan,<\/strong> a special assistant to the president, said in a statement at the time. \u201cThe Statue of Liberty is not an abstract canvas for political expression\u2014it is a revered and solemn symbol of freedom, inspiration, and national unity that defines the American spirit.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\"><em>Trans Forming Liberty<\/em> hangs on its own wall at The Whitney, and will remain there until Sherald\u2019s solo show concludes on Sunday, August 10. \u201cWhile institutions erase, we archive,\u201d said Sherald. \u201cWhile laws restrict, we insist on being seen. While history is rewritten, I try to write it back with my brushstrokes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">As the sun set on The Whitney, many guests opted to stick around and process what they had just witnessed. And while it\u2019s impossible to know where the next great piece of American theater might come from, perhaps its spark began tonight. \u201cIt could be right in this room,\u201d said Davis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/culture\/story\/amy-sherald-whitney-american-sublime-broadway\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sherald\u2019s work similarly inspired other directors. Tony nominee Lileana Blain-Cruz was most awestruck by Sherald\u2019s rendering of her subjects\u2019 eyes\u2014how they seem to be watching the viewer as much, if not more, than the viewer is watching them. For actor Gabby Beans, who earned a Tony nomination after starring in Blain-Cruz\u2019s 2022 revival of The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":185106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[12046,225,2170,790],"class_list":{"0":"post-185105","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrity","8":"tag-amy-sherald","9":"tag-art","10":"tag-broadway","11":"tag-theater"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}