Warmth of Other Suns: Stories of Global Displacement
Warmth of Other Suns: Stories of Global Displacement
Exhibitions
Warmth of Other Suns: Stories of Global Displacement
June 22 – September 22 2019
In June 2019, The Phillips Collection, in partnership with the New Museum, presented “The Warmth of Other Suns: Stories of Global Displacement,” an exhibition featuring over seventy artists whose work posed urgent questions around the representations and perceptions of migration. “The Warmth of Other Suns” brought together works by both historical and contemporary artists from the United States and Mexico, as well as Algeria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Egypt, Ghana, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Turkey, UK, Vietnam, and more.
Through installations, videos, paintings, and photography—as well as documentary works and fragments from material culture—the exhibition explored both personal and collective tales of human movement and the ways in which artists bear witness to both historical events and more subtle shifts in the cultural landscapes. “The Warmth of Other Suns” brought together a multitude of voices spanning five continents, which overlaid historical experiences of migration to and within the United States with the plight of refuges around the world¬, and offered an image of migration as an experience shared by many across vastly different contexts.
The exhibition followed loosely geographic and thematic lines of inquiry, it also considered the consequences of violence and war, the humanitarian crises in the Mediterranean and at the US-Mexico border, the experience of exile and displacement under various political circumstances, and the process of integrating into a new community. Within the show, these subjects intersected with themes of memory, loss, identity, and hope for more promising futures. The works on view underscored the way art and images could present a range of experiences and stories, which also attested to the civic and social imperative of art, and the responsibility of artists and viewers alike.
“The Warmth of Other Suns” shared its title with Isabel Wilkerson’s award-winning book on the Great Migration—itself borrowed from a line by author Richard Wright (1908–60)—and was anchored by its reference to the decades-long exodus of over six million African Americans from the brutality and discrimination that ruled the American South in the era of Jim Crow. Works of art that spoke to the persistence of refugees and migrants around the globe, “The Warmth of Other Suns” expanded Wright’s metaphor to address a sentiment that is shared globally by those who take up perilous or unknown journeys in pursuit of better conditions.
The exhibition was co-curated by Massimiliano Gioni, Edlis Neeson Artistic Director, New Museum, and Natalie Bell, Associate Curator, New Museum.
Through installations, videos, paintings, and photography—as well as documentary works and fragments from material culture—the exhibition explored both personal and collective tales of human movement and the ways in which artists bear witness to both historical events and more subtle shifts in the cultural landscapes. “The Warmth of Other Suns” brought together a multitude of voices spanning five continents, which overlaid historical experiences of migration to and within the United States with the plight of refuges around the world¬, and offered an image of migration as an experience shared by many across vastly different contexts.
The exhibition followed loosely geographic and thematic lines of inquiry, it also considered the consequences of violence and war, the humanitarian crises in the Mediterranean and at the US-Mexico border, the experience of exile and displacement under various political circumstances, and the process of integrating into a new community. Within the show, these subjects intersected with themes of memory, loss, identity, and hope for more promising futures. The works on view underscored the way art and images could present a range of experiences and stories, which also attested to the civic and social imperative of art, and the responsibility of artists and viewers alike.
“The Warmth of Other Suns” shared its title with Isabel Wilkerson’s award-winning book on the Great Migration—itself borrowed from a line by author Richard Wright (1908–60)—and was anchored by its reference to the decades-long exodus of over six million African Americans from the brutality and discrimination that ruled the American South in the era of Jim Crow. Works of art that spoke to the persistence of refugees and migrants around the globe, “The Warmth of Other Suns” expanded Wright’s metaphor to address a sentiment that is shared globally by those who take up perilous or unknown journeys in pursuit of better conditions.
The exhibition was co-curated by Massimiliano Gioni, Edlis Neeson Artistic Director, New Museum, and Natalie Bell, Associate Curator, New Museum.
June 22 – September 22 2019
Thematic exhibitions
Off-site
The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
Artists
- Adel Abdessemed
- Chantal Akerman
- John Akomfrah
- Paweł Althamer
- Francis Alys
- El Anatsui
- Benny Andrews
- Guillermo Arias
- Siah Armajani
- Kader Attia
- Yto Barrada
- Hannelore Baron
- John Berger
- Jean Mohr
- Alighiero e Boetti
- Anna Boghiguian
- Andrea Bowers
- Frank Bowling
- Tania Bruguera
- Beverly Buchanan
- Vija Celmins
- Phil Collins
- Honoré Daumier
- Jack Delano
- La Domenica del Corriere
- Dorothea Lange
- Meschac Gaba
- Guillermo Galindo
- Yun Gee
- Arshile Gorky
- Rokni Haerizadeh
- Ramin Haerizadeh
- Hesam Rahmanian
- Zarina Hashmi
- Mona Hatoum
- Lewis Wickes Hine
- Khaled Jarrar
- Hiwa K
- Yasmine Kabir
- Šejla Kamerić
- Yasuo Kuniyoshi
- Runo Lagomarsino
- Jacob Lawrence
- Zoe Leonard
- Glenn Ligon
- Liu Xiaodong
- John Moore
- Paulo Nazareth
- Giusi Nicolini
- Aliza Nisenbaum
- Lydia Ourahmane
- Erkan Özgen
- Adrian Paci
- Marwan Rechmaoui
- Diego Rivera
- Mark Rothko
- Cameron Rowland
- Griselda San Martin
- Hrair Sarkissian
- William Edouard Scott
- Augustus Sherman
- Xaviera Simmons
- Mounira Al Solh
- John Sonsini
- Hamid Sulaiman
- Alfred Stieglitz
- Mario Tama
- Pascale Marthine Tayou
- Wolfgang Tillmans
- Hương Ngô
- Hồng-Ân Trương
- Andra Ursuţa
- Rodrigo Valenzuela
- Danh Võ
- Nari Ward
- Henk Wildschut
New Museum Curators
Partner Organization
