Group show
J. P. Ball and Robert S. Duncanson: An African American Artistic Collaboration
15 Sep 2023 — 24 Mar 2024 at Smithsonian American Art Museum
· Washington, D.C.
This exhibition brings together the work of J. P. Ball and Robert S. Duncanson, two groundbreaking African American artists whose collaboration stands as a landmark in 19th-century American art history. Through their combined talents — Ball as a celebrated daguerreotypist and photographer, and Duncanson as a renowned landscape painter — the show illuminates a unique creative alliance forged against the backdrop of a turbulent era in American history.
On view from 2023 to 2024, the exhibition invites visitors to explore how these two visionaries influenced each other and shaped a distinctive artistic legacy that continues to resonate today.
On view from 2023 to 2024, the exhibition invites visitors to explore how these two visionaries influenced each other and shaped a distinctive artistic legacy that continues to resonate today.
About the artist
J. P. Ball
1825–1904
James Presley Ball Sr. was an African-American photographer, abolitionist, and businessman.
About the artist →
Robert S. Duncanson
1821–1872 · Hudson River school
Robert Seldon Duncanson was a 19th-century American landscapist of European and African ancestry. Inspired by famous American landscape artists like Thomas Cole, Duncanson created renowned landscape paintings and is considered a second generation Hudson River School artist. Duncanson spent the…
About the artist →About the venue
Smithsonian American Art Museum
· Washington, D.C.
The Smithsonian American Art Museum is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds one of the world's largest and most inclusive collections of art made in the United States from the colonial period to the…