“For many years, I, too, struggled single-mindedly to express social conflict through my painting.  However, gradually I came to realize that certain things are true: The development of one’s aesthetic abilities suffers from such emphasis; the content of truly creative work must be inherently aesthetic or the work becomes merely another form of illustration; therefore, the goal of the artist must be aesthetic development, and in a universal sense, to make in his own way some contribution to culture."[i]

Known for his calligraphic abstract compositions, Norman Lewis (1909–1979) was a vital member of the first generation of abstract expressionists. He was the sole Black American artist of his generation who became committed to issues of abstraction in an early phase of his career and continued to explore them throughout his lifetime. Lewis’ art was deeply inspired by his musical interests—especially jazz, blues, and classical—as well as nature, ancient ceremonial rituals, and the causes of social justice and equality central to the Civil Rights Movement.

A native of New York City, Norman Wilfred Lewis was born to St. Kitts immigrants Diana and Wilfred Lewis. The family lived in Harlem and Lewis held various jobs throughout his schooling but showed an interest in becoming an artist by the age of ten. In 1929, Lewis found work as a seaman on a freighter and spent several years traveling throughout South America and the Caribbean, meeting local people and witnessing firsthand the poverty of Bolivia, Uruguay, Jamaica, and elsewhere. Upon his return to the United States, Lewis settled back in Harlem.

In the early 1930s, Lewis met artist and educator Augusta Savage, who ran an art school in Harlem and was involved with lobbying the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to hire more Black artists. From 1933 to 1935, he took classes at the Savage School of Arts and Crafts and attended Columbia University Teachers College. In 1935, Lewis visited the exhibition African Negro Art at The Museum of Modern Art, which resulted in a watershed moment for his artistic practice. The exhibition was the first instance in which he observed Black art celebrated by an institutional venue, and he returned several times to sketch the objects on display, producing a body of works on paper that would set him on a path to abstraction.

Lewis’s deep commitment to social and economic equality led him to join the Artists Union, which was organized to protect the rights of artists and workers. Lewis was a regular at 306, a cultural center in Harlem on West 141st Street started by Charles Alston that attracted musicians, writers, and young artists; he was also a co-founder of the Harlem Artists Guild (HAG) in 1935. In 1936, he began teaching art classes under the WPA’s Federal Arts Project. Lewis’ art at the time was grounded in social realism and focused on the experiences of Black Americans. By the 1940s, however, he began to explore abstraction. While he remained active in the struggle for civil rights throughout his life, Lewis was skeptical about the power of art to effect change, explaining in a 1968 interview, “one of the things in my own self education, was the discouraging fact that painting pictures of protest didn't bring about any change.”[ii]

In 1945, Alain Locke included Lewis’ work in the exhibition The Negro Artist Comes of Age:  A National Survey of Contemporary American Artists. The following year, Lewis joined the growing number of New York abstract artists represented by Willard Gallery. From his first solo show at Willard in 1949 to the mid-1950s, Lewis’ reputation steadily grew, and he developed his signature style of calligraphic, fluid forms sometimes suggestive of groups of figures in movement. Traveling in the same circles as prominent abstractionists, Lewis befriended Ad Reinhardt, Jackson Pollock, Charles Seliger, Franz Kline, and Willem de Kooning. In 1950, he was the only Black artist to participate in the famous closed-door sessions held at Studio 35 organized by de Kooning and Kline and moderated by Museum of Modern Art Director, Alfred J. Barr, which set out to establish a working definition of abstract expressionism. A year later, MoMA included his work in the exhibition Abstract Painting and Sculpture in America.

Throughout his career, Lewis pursued his unique artistic vision while also remaining committed to his political beliefs. He was a founding member of the Spiral Group and, from 1965 to 1971, he taught for HARYOU-ACT, Inc. (Harlem Youth in Action), an antipoverty program designed to encourage young men and women to stay in school. In 1969, Lewis joined Benny Andrews, Romare Bearden, Clifford Joseph, Roy DeCarava, Alice Neel, and others in picketing the infamous Harlem on My Mind show at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. That same year, he, Bearden, and Ernest Crichlow co-founded Cinqué Gallery, dedicated to fostering the careers of emerging artists of color. Lewis was also a talented and generous educator and taught at the Greenwich Village Jefferson School and the Art Students League through the 1970s; his admiring pupils included Beverly Buchanan, Mary-Joan Bono, and Francis Snyder. A recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Grant (1972), a Mark Rothko Foundation Individual Artists Grant (1972), and a Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship (1975), Lewis had his first retrospective exhibition in 1976 at the CUNY Graduate Center, New York, NY.

Selected Museum Collections

Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA

Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, TX

Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR

Art Bridges, Fort Worth, TX

Art Galleries at Black Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX

The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD

Bermuda National Gallery, Hamilton, Bermuda

Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL

Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX

Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME

Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY

Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, NY

The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH

California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA

Clark Atlanta University Art Museum, Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

The Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC

Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH

Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA

Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH

The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora, University of Maryland, College Park, MD

Davis Museum, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA

The Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH

Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE

The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY

Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, GA

Hampton University Museum, Hampton University, Hampton, VA

Harlem Art Collection, New York State Office of General Services, Albany, NY and New York, NY

Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA

Howard University Gallery of Art, Howard University, Washington, DC

James E. Lewis Museum of Art, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD

John L. Warfield Center of African and African American Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX

Library of Congress, Washington, DC

Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, CA

Menil Drawing Institute, The Menil Collection, Houston, TX

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN

Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ

Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Utica, NY

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL

The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ

The Newark Museum of Art, Newark, NJ

North Carolina Central University Art Museum, North Carolina Central University, Durham, NC

Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

Pérez Art Museum Miami, Miami, FL

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA

Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

RISD Museum, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI

Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA

SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library, New York, NY

Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE

Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC

The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY

Tate Modern, London, England

Telfair Museums, Savannah, GA

UCLA Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, Hammer Museum, University of California, Los Angeles, CA

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA

Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

The William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT

Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA

Yale University Art Gallery, Yale University, New Haven, CT

1936             
[Title unknown], Harlem Artists Guild, New York, NY

1937     
[Title unknown], Harlem Artists Guild, New York, NY  

1938     
[Title unknown], Harlem Community Art Center, New York, NY  

1939     
[Title unknown], Harlem Community Art Center, New York, NY

1949      
Norman Lewis, Willard Gallery, New York, NY

1950      
Norman Lewis, Willard Gallery, New York, NY

1951      
Norman Lewis: Paintings 1951, Willard Gallery, New York, NY

1952      
Norman Lewis, Willard Gallery, New York, NY
Locust Valley Music Festival, Music Shed, Estate of Alma Morgenthau, Lattingtown Harbor, Lattingtown, NY

1954      
Norman Lewis, Willard Gallery, New York, NY

1957      
Norman Lewis: Recent Oil Paintings, Willard Gallery, New York, NY

1958      
Norman Lewis Paintings, Barnett Aden Gallery, Washington, DC

1961      
Norman Lewis: Recent Paintings, Willard Gallery, New York, NY

1976      
Norman Lewis: A Retrospective, The Mall and 18th Floor Lounge, The Graduate School and University Center (now The Graduate Center), The City University of New York, New York, NY
Norman Lewis: An Exhibition of Paintings, Baruch College, The City University of New York, New York, NY

1980      
Norman Lewis: Paintings and Works on Paper, 1934-1979, Jorgensen Gallery, The University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT

1985      
Norman Lewis, 1909-1979, Robeson Center Gallery (now Paul Robeson Galleries), Rutgers University, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ
Norman Lewis: Abstract Paintings 1945-1965, Luise Ross Gallery, New York, NY

1988
Inaugural Exhibition: Selected Works of Norman Lewis, Cinque Gallery, New York, NY

1989      
Norman Lewis: From the Harlem Renaissance to Abstraction, Kenkeleba Gallery, New York, NY

1993      
Norman Lewis Returns, Paintings from the Harlem Renaissance, Cotton Exchange Gallery, Augusta, GA
Norman Lewis, Works on Paper: 1945-1960, Berman/Daferner Gallery, New York, NY

1994      
Norman W. Lewis (1909-1979): The Second Transition, 1947-1951, Abstractions, A.F.T.U. Bill Hodges Gallery, New York, NY
Norman Lewis: The Estate, A Rotational Exhibition, A.F.T.U. Bill Hodges Gallery, New York, NY

1995      
Norman Lewis: “the little people,” 10 works on paper, Bill Hodges Gallery, New York, NY

1997      
Norman Lewis, Ben Shahn Galleries, William Paterson College, Wayne, NJ
Norman Lewis: Social Realism to Abstraction 1933-48, Bill Hodges Gallery, New York, NY

1998      
Norman Lewis: Black Paintings, 1946-1977, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT; The Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH
1960’s: Paintings and Works on Paper, June Kelly Gallery, New York, NY
Norman Lewis (1909-1979): 25 Highly Important Paintings, Bill Hodges Gallery, New York, NY
Norman W. Lewis (1909-1979): Works on Paper 1935-1979, Bill Hodges Gallery, New York, NY

1999      
Norman Lewis: Intuitive Markings: Works on Paper, 1945-1975, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Norman Lewis: Harlem Abstract Expressionist, Clark Atlanta University Art Galleries (now Clark Atlanta University Art Museum), Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA
Norman Lewis, G.R. N’Namdi Gallery, Birmingham, MI

2001      
Norman Lewis, UFA Gallery, New York, NY

2002      
Norman Lewis (1909-1979): Linear Abstractions, Bill Hodges Gallery, New York, NY

2004      
Norman Lewis: Master Paintings from 1944-1975, Bill Hodges Gallery, New York, NY

2008      
Norman Lewis, Twilight Sounds, Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO

2009      
Norman Lewis: Abstract Expressionist Drawings, 1945-1978, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Norman Lewis: Pulse, A Centennial Exhibition, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Norman Lewis: A Painter’s Odyssey, 1935-1979, Bill Hodges Gallery, New York, NY

2015      
Procession: The Art of Norman Lewis, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA; Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, TX; Chicago Cultural Center; Chicago, IL

2016      
Norman Lewis: A Selection of Paintings and Drawings, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

2018      
Norman Lewis: Looking East, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

2023     
Norman Lewis: Give Me Wings To Fly, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

1933     
Student Exhibition, Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts (later Savage Uptown Art Laboratory), New York, NY
Hunger, Fascism and War, John Reed Club-Gallery, New York, NY

1934      
Exhibition of Fine and Applied Arts, Work of the Pupils in the New York City Free Adult Art Schools, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

1935      
Artists & Models of the Savage Studio, under auspices of New York Urban League, YWCA, 144 West 138th Street, New York, NY
Negro Art, YWCA, 144 West 138th Street, New York, NY
Miss Augusta Savage and her Pupils, YWCA, 221 Ashland Place, Brooklyn, NY

1936      
Harlem Indoor and Outdoor Exhibition, Savage Uptown Art Library, New York, NY
Harlem Festival and Exhibit, sponsored by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), St. Mark’s United Methodist Church, New York, NY

1937      
An Exhibition of the Harlem Artist Guild, presented by Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, New York Public Library, 201 West 115th Street, New York, NY
Inaugural Exhibition, Harlem Community Art Center, New York, NY

1938      
Paintings and Sculpture by 21 New York City Negro Artists, Harlem Community Art Center, New York, NY
Exhibit of Art by Negro Artists, Ninth Annual Festival of Music and Fine Arts, Library, Fisk University, Nashville, TN
Exhibition of Work by Art Teachers on the Federal Art Project, Federal Art Gallery, New York, NY

1939      
Contemporary Negro Art, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
First Annual Exhibition, Salon of Contemporary Negro Art, New York, NY
Exhibition of Sculpture and Painting Presented by the Art Committee of the Labor Club, Labor Club, New York, NY
Exhibition of Harlem Artists Guild (HAG) Artists, Harlem Community Art Center, New York, NY

1940      
21 New York Negro Painters, Harlem Community Art Center, New York, NY
Exhibition of the Art of the American Negro (1851-1940), Tanner Art Galleries, Chicago, IL 
Seventy-Five Years of Freedom: Commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of the Proclamation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, Library of Congress, Washington, DC
Five Paintings by Contemporary Negro Painters, Odd Study, Barnard College, Columbia    University, New York, NY

1941      
Negro Art: Contemporary, McMillen, Inc. Interior Decoration/Antique Furniture, New York, NY
United American Artists Membership Exhibition, American Contemporary Art (ACA) Gallery, New York, NY
American Negro Art, 19th and 20th Centuries, Downtown Gallery, New York, NY; Faunce House Gallery, Brown University, Providence, RI

1942      
Artists in the War, sponsored by the Artists League of America, ACA Gallery, New York, NY

1944      
Art for the People, George Washington Carver School, New York, NY
American Negro Art: Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
Opening Exhibition, Roko Gallery, New York, NY
New Names in American Art, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD; G Place Gallery, Washington, DC; Hampton Institute (now Hampton University), Hampton, VA
Paintings by Lena Gurr, Herb Kruckman, Norman Lewis, Howard Mitcham, Elizabeth Olds and Abram Tromka, Roko Gallery, New York, NY
Silk screen prints and oils, Roko Gallery, New York, NY
Oils, watercolors, and silk screen prints, Roko Gallery, New York, NY
Small oils, gouaches, watercolors and silkscreen prints, Roko Gallery, New York, NY
Opening Exhibition of Interracial Art, International Print Society, New York, NY

1945      
The Negro Artist Comes of Age: A National Survey of Contemporary American Artists, Albany Institute of History & Art, Albany, NY; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; Museum of Art (now RISD Museum), Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
Chicago Collectors Exhibit of Negro Art, South Side Community Art Center, Chicago, IL
The Third National Exhibition of Prints Made during the Current Year, Library of Congress, Washington, DC
Painting in the United States, 1945, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA
Second Anniversary “Art for the People” Exhibit, George Washington Carver School, New York, NY

1946      
Directions in Abstraction, Bertha Schaefer Gallery, New York, NY

1947      
Contemporary Art of the American Negro, sponsored by International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), 17 West 125th Street, New York, NY
Painting and Sculpture Exhibit to Benefit Northside Center for Child Development, ACA Gallery, New York, NY

1948      
Exhibition of Graphic Arts and Drawings by Negro Artists, Howard University Gallery of Art, Founders Library, Howard University, Washington, DC

1949      
Negro History Week Exhibition of Portraits, LaGuardia Hall, School of Education, New York University, New York, NY               
American Abstract Artists 13th Annual Exhibition, Riverside Museum, New York, NY; Boise Art Association, Boise, ID; State College of Washington (now Washington State University), Pullman, WA; Fine Arts Gallery (now Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada; Mills College Art Gallery (now Mills College Art Museum), Mills College, Oakland, CA

1950      
The One Hundred and Forty-Fifth Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, Architecture Building, College of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Illinois, Urbana, Urbana, IL (now University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL)

1951      
Abstract Painting and Sculpture in America, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Drawings, Willard Gallery, New York, NY
Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, Architecture Building, College of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Illinois, Urbana, Urbana, IL (now University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL)
1951 Annual Exhibition: Contemporary Painting in the United States, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA

1952      
Contemporary Drawings from 12 Countries, 1945-1952, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT; San Francisco Museum of Art (now San Francisco Museum of Modern Art), San Francisco, CA; Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO; J.B. Speed Art Museum (now Speed Art Museum), Louisville, KY
1952 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Sculpture, Watercolors and Drawings, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
10th American Drawing Annual, Norfolk Museum of Arts and Science (now Chrysler Museum of Art), Norfolk, VA
Recent work by Three American Artists from the Willard Gallery, Art House, Rutgers University, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ

1953      
The One Hundred and Forty-Eighth Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
The Edward Root Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
The Twenty-Third Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Oil Paintings, organized by the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC and circulated by the American Federation of Arts (AFA); Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; J.B. Speed Art Museum (now Speed Art Museum), Louisville, KY; Louisiana State Exhibit Museum, Shreveport, LA; University of Delaware Memorial Library, University of Delaware, Newark, DE; Fine Arts Gallery, Indiana State Teachers College (now University Art Gallery, Indiana State University), Terre Haute, IN; Miami Beach Art Center (now The Bass Museum of Art), Miami Beach, FL; Brooks Memorial Art Gallery (now Memphis Brooks Museum of Art), Memphis, TN; Arnot Art Gallery (now Arnot Art Museum), Elmira, NY; University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA; Chattanooga Art Association (now Hunter Museum of American Art), Chattanooga, TN; Columbus Museum of Arts and Crafts (now The Columbus Museum), Columbus, GA; City of Little Rock Museum, Little Rock, AR
13th Annual Exhibition of the Society for Contemporary American Art (now Society for Contemporary Art), Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
“The Sea Around Us”, Guild Hall, East Hampton, NY

1954     
American Painting 1954, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA; Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA
Le Dessin Contemporain Aux États-Unis, Pavillon Vendôme, Aix-en-Provence, France; Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, France
L’Aquarelle Contemporaine Aux États-Unis, Salle Franklin, Bordeaux, France; Musée Paul-Dupuy, Toulouse, France; Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon, Dijon, France; Musée Ingres, Montauban, France; Salle Arago, Perpignan, France; Musée des Beaux-Arts (now Musée d’art et d’histoire de Narbonne), Narbonne, France

1955      
Rent a Painting, Willard Gallery, New York, NY
Contemporary American and European Paintings, organized by Indianapolis Art Association, Indianapolis, IN; John Herron Art Museum, Indianapolis, IN           
1955 Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA

1956      
A Group of Exceptional Drawings, Willard Gallery, New York, NY
American Artists Paint the City, organized by the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; American Pavilion at the XXVIII Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Eight New York Painters, organized by Hale Woodruff in conjunction with the special program “Patterns of American Culture: Contributions of the Negro”, University of Michigan Museum of Art, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Scope in Collecting, Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA
41 Aquarellistes Americains d’Aujourd’Hui, Musée Municipal, Laon, France
16th Annual Exhibition of the Society for Contemporary American Art (now Society for      Contemporary Art), Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

1958      
Nature in Abstraction, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
The One Hundred and Fifty-Third Annual Exhibition of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts: American Painting and Sculpture, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA; Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
Feininger, Graves, Inokuma, Lewis, Mullican, Sato, Seliger, Tobey, Dehner, Lippold, O’Hanlon, Martinelli, McCracken, Willard Gallery, New York, NY
Pittsburgh Bicentennial International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA

1959  
The American Line: 100 Years of American Drawing, circulated by the American Federation of Arts, New York, NY; Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI; Newcomb College, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA; J. B. Speed Art Museum (now Speed Art Museum), Louisville, KY; Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA; Oglebay Institute, Wheeling, WV; Kansas State Teacher’s College (now Emporia State University), Emporia, KS; Charles and Emma Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA; Fine Arts Association (now Tucson Museum of Art), Tucson, AZ; Madison Art Association (now Madison Museum of Contemporary Art), Madison, WI; Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ; Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, PA; Root Art Center (now Anderson-Connell Alumni Center), Hamilton College, Clinton, NY 
Second Annual Conference, American Society of African Culture Art Exhibition, Waldorf Astoria Hotel, New York, NY
4th Exhibition of Modern Art, Mary Washington College Gallery, Mary Washington College of the University of Virginia (now University of Mary Washington Galleries, University of Mary Washington), Fredericksburg, VA
Survey Number One: Visual Metamorphosis in Painting, Howard University Gallery of Art, Howard University, Washington, DC
1959 North Carolina Artists’ Exhibition with Fifteen Invited Works, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC

1961      
New Vistas in American Art, Howard University Gallery of Art, Howard University, Washington, DC
Group Show: Paintings, Drawings, Prints, Sculpture, Kasha Heman Gallery, Chicago, IL
Edward Wales Root Bequest 1884-1956: An American Collector, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY
Auction by Gallery Mayer and Willard Gallery, Exhibition to benefit Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Belmont Plaza Hotel, New York, NY

1962      
Dynamics of Black & White, Willard Gallery, New York, NY

1963      
The One Hundred and Fifty-Eighth Annual Exhibition: Watercolors, Prints, and Drawings, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Exhibition of Longview Foundation Gifts of Modern American Paintings and Sculpture to Dillard and Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Will W. Alexander Library, Dillard University, New Orleans, LA
A Tribute to Negro Artists, Albany Institute of History & Art, Albany, NY
Contemporary Americans, Willard Gallery, New York, NY
17th Annual Art Exhibition and Sale of Contemporary Art, Downtown Community School, New York, NY

1964      
…Some Negro Artists, Art Gallery, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, NJ
Artists for CORE: Third Annual Art Exhibition and Sale, Gallery of American Federation of Arts, American Federation of Arts, New York, NY
Exhibition of Gallery Artists at Modest Prices, Willard Gallery, New York, NY

1965      
Contemporary Negro Art, Festival of the Arts: Creativity and the Negro, Rockford College (now Rockford University), Rockford, IL
First Group Showing (works in black & white), Spiral, 147 Christopher Street, New York, NY
Sixth Annual Arts Festival, Temple Emanu-El, Yonkers, NY

1966
Art of the American Negro: Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture, 144 West 125th Street (lower level of Kenwood Reter’s Furniture Inc.), New York, NY
The Negro in American Art, Dickson Art Center (now Eli and Edythe Broad Art Center), UCLA Art Galleries, University of California, Los Angeles, CA; University of California, Davis, CA; Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA; Oakland Museum (now Oakland Museum of California), Oakland, CA
The Weatherspoon Annual Exhibition, Weatherspoon Art Gallery, Greensboro, NC
Ten Negro Artists from the United States, The First World Festival of Negro Arts, Dakar, Senegal

1967      
The Evolution of Afro-American Artists, 1800-1950, Great Hall, The City College of New York, The City University of New York, NY

1968      
New Voices: Fifteen Black Artists, organized by The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; American Greetings Gallery, New York, NY
30 Contemporary Black Artists, Minneapolis Institute of Arts (now Minneapolis Institute of Art), Minneapolis, MN; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI; Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY; IBM Gallery of Science and Art, New York, NY; Roberson Center for the Arts and Sciences (now Roberson Museum and Science Center), Binghamton, NY; Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY; San Francisco Museum of Art (now San Francisco Museum of Modern Art), San Francisco, CA; Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Houston, TX; New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ; Museum of Art (now RISD Museum), Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI; Art Galleries (now Art, Design, & Architecture Museum), University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
In Honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
6 Painters, Metropolitan Applied Research Center (MARC), New York, NY
Invisible Americans: Black Artists of the 30’s, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY

1969      
1969: Twelve Afro-American Artists, Lee Nordness Gallery, New York, NY
Contemporary Afro-American Artists, Teaneck Public Library, Teaneck, NJ
Contemporary American Black Artists, organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES); Gallery of Art, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA; Nevada Art Gallery (now Nevada Museum of Art), Reno, NV; Saginaw Art Museum, Saginaw, MI; Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY; Eastern Connecticut State College, Willimantic, CT; Carroll Reece Museum (now Reece Museum), East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN; Davenport Municipal Art Gallery (now Figge Art Museum), Davenport, IA; Paul Sargent Gallery (now Tarble Arts Center), Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL; University of Delaware, Newark, DE; Cheekwood Museum of Art, Cheekwood Estate & Gardens, Nashville, TN; Sweet Briar College, Sweet Briar, VA; Canton Art Institute (now Canton Museum of Art), Canton, OH; Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME; Arnot Art Gallery (now Arnot Art Museum), Elmira, NY
Ten Afro-American Artists, Dwight Art Memorial, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA
Afro-American Artists, 1800-1969, Museum of the Philadelphia Civic Center, Philadelphia, PA

1970      
Exhibition of Contemporary Artists Eligible for Awards, American Academy of Arts and Letters, National Institute of Arts and Letters, New York, NY
Coalition 70, Staten Island Museum, Staten Island, NY
Afro-American Artists: New York and Boston, Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, National Center for Afro-American Artists, Roxbury, MA; School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, Boston, MA; The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Contemporary Black Artists, Milwaukee County War Memorial Center, Milwaukee, WI
Selections from “Contemporary Black Artists”, The Gallery Toward the Black Aesthetic, Milwaukee, WI    

1971      
37 Paintings, Prints, Drawings and Jewelry by 9 American Negro Artists, Canton Art Institute (now Canton Museum of Art), Canton, OH
Black Artists: Two Generations, Newark Museum, Newark, NJ; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy; Musée de Peinture et de Sculpture (now Musée de Grenoble), Grenoble, France; California State College, Los Angeles (now California State University, Los Angeles), Los Angeles, CA
Afro-American Images 1971, organized by Aesthetic Dynamics, Inc., National Guard Armory, Wilmington, DE

1972      
The Black Experience in Prints, Pratt Graphics Center Gallery, Pratt Institute, New York, NY
Art exhibit and sale sponsored by Open the Gate Committee: Artists for the Defense of Angela Davis, Manhattan Country School, New York, NY

1973      
[Title unknown], United States Embassy, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Blacks: USA: 1973, New York Cultural Center in Association with Fairleigh Dickinson           University, New York, NY
An Exhibition of Earlier and More Recent Paintings by Eleven Contemporary American Artists: Ilya Bolotowsky, Allan D’Arcangelo, Jimmy Ernst, Alex Katz, John Heliker, John Koch, Norman Lewis, William C. Palmer, Larry Rivers, Mark Rothko, Theodore Stamos, Edward W. Root Art Center, Hamilton College, Clinton, NY

1974      
Selections from the Barnett Aden Collection, Anacostia Neighborhood Museum (now Anacostia Community Museum), Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
Black Artists in the New York Scene, Acts of Art, Inc., New York, NY; Church of the New     Jerusalem, Philadelphia, PA
Directions in Afro-American Art, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Synthesis: A combination of parts or elements into a complex whole, Just Above Midtown, New York, NY

1975      
Professional Artists for Young Artists Benefit Exhibition, The Children’s Art Carnival, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY

1976      
The Printmaking Workshop Group Show, Lehman College Gallery, Herbert H. Lehman College (now Lehman College Art Gallery, Lehman College), The City University of New York, Bronx, NY
Black Artists of the WPA, 1933-1943, New Muse Community Museum of Brooklyn, Brooklyn, NY
Spring 1976 Exhibition, The Burgess Collection of Fine Art, Brooklyn, NY
Two Centuries of Black American Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Dallas Museum of Fine Arts (now Dallas Museum of Art), Dallas, TX; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
14 Afro-American Artists, Pratt Institute Galleries (now the Rubelle and Norman Schafler Gallery), Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY

1977    
Henry Ward Ranger Fund Invitational Exhibition, National Academy Museum, National Academy of Design, New York, NY
[Title unknown], United States Federal Courthouse, New York, NY, as part of Art in Public Spaces initiative of Organization of Independent Artists
[Title unknown], United States Mission to the United Nations, New York, NY

1978      
Man and His Influence, Diamond Art Gallery, Flint, MI
New York/Chicago: WPA and the Black Artist, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY

1980      
I Remember Norman: A Memorial Exhibition, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY

1982      
Works on Paper by Contemporary Black American Artists from the James T. Parker Collection, Vivian G. Harsh Collection of Afro-American Literature and History Room, Carter G. Woodson Regional Library, Chicago Public Library, Chicago, IL

1983      
Celebrating Contemporary American Black Artists, Fine Arts Museum of Long Island, Hempstead, NY
JUS’ JASS: Correlations of Painting and Afro-American Classical Music, Kenkeleba Gallery, New York, NY

1984      
Since the Harlem Renaissance: 50 Years of Afro-American Art, The Center Gallery (now Samek Art Museum), Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA; The Amelie A. Wallace Gallery, College at Westbury (now SUNY Old Westbury), State University of New York, Old Westbury, NY; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY; University of Maryland Art Gallery, University of Maryland, College Park, MD; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA; Museum of Art (now Palmer Museum of Art), Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
Cinque at Sag Harbor 1984: Art Exhibition and Sale of Works by Contemporary Black Artists, organized by Cinque Gallery, New York, NY; Home of Millie and Bob Brown, Sag Harbor, NY 

1985      
Hidden Heritage: Afro-American Art, 1800-1950, Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, WA; Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY; California Afro-American Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT; The Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC; San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio; Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH; The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA; Oklahoma Museum of Art (now Oklahoma City Museum of Art), Oklahoma City, OK

1987     
Contemporary Syntax: Light and Density, Robeson Center Gallery (now Paul Robeson Galleries), Rutgers University, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ
Masters and Pupils: The Education of the Black Artist in New York: 1900-1980, Jamaica Arts Center (now Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning), Jamaica, NY; Metropolitan Life Gallery, New York, NY

1988      
Black New York Artists of the 20th Century, Selections from the Schomburg Center Collections, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library, New York, NY

1989      
The Blues Aesthetic: Black Culture and Modernism, Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, DC; California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Duke University Museum of Art (now Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University), Duke University, Durham, NC; Blaffer Gallery (now Blaffer Art Museum), University of Houston, Houston, TX; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY

1990      
Augusta Savage and the Art Schools of Harlem, Museum of the National Center for Afro-American Artists, National Center for Afro-American Artists, Roxbury, MA

1991      
The Search for Freedom: African-American Abstract Painting, 1945-1975, Kenkeleba Gallery, New York, NY
The Walter O. Evans Collection of African American Art, The Beach Institute African-American Cultural Center / King-Tisdell Cottage, Savannah, GA; Hammonds House Galleries and Resource Center (now Hammonds House Museum), Atlanta, GA; Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL; Boston University Art Galleries, Boston University, Boston, MA; Main Gallery, Arts Consortium of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH; UTSA Institute of Texan Cultures, University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), San Antonio, TX; Canton Art Institute (now Canton Museum of Art), Canton, OH; Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE; University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Art Gallery, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI; Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI; Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI; Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, AL; Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center, Pittsburgh, PA; Cheekwood Museum of Art, Cheekwood Estate & Gardens, Nashville, TN; Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV; Walter Anderson Museum of Art, Ocean Springs, MS; Meadows Museum of Art at Centenary College of Louisiana, Shreveport, LA; Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC; The Museum of Art/Tallahassee, Tallahassee, FL; Museum of Arts and Sciences, Macon, GA; Henry Ford Museum (now The Henry Ford), Dearborn, MI; Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC; Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Spelman College, Atlanta, GA; Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, TX; Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA; Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN; Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY; Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, AL; Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS
Paintings by Three Harlem Renaissance Painters: Charles Alston, Romare Bearden and Norman Lewis, Bomani Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Cinque at Martha’s Vineyard: Exhibition and Sale, organized by Cinque Gallery, New York, NY; Home of Dr. Beny Primm, Oak Bluffs, MA

1992     
Kandinsky and the American Avant-Garde, Terra Museum of American Art (now Terra      Foundation for American Art), Chicago, IL; The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX; The Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH
Myth-Making: Abstract Expressionist Painting from the United States, Tate Gallery (now Tate Liverpool), Liverpool, England
The WPA Era: Urban Views & Visions, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Paris Connections, Bomani Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Cinque Gallery, New York, NY
Alone in a Crowd, Prints of the 1930s-40s by African-American Artists; From the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams, organized by the Newark Museum, Newark, NJ and circulated by the American Federation of Arts (AFA); Newark Museum, Newark, NJ; Equitable Gallery, New York, NY; Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA; The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England; New York State Museum, Albany, NY; Yale University Art Gallery, Yale University, New Haven, CT; Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD; Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC; The Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, FL; Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR; Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA

1993      
Lines and Myths: Abstraction in American Art, 1941-1951, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Norman Lewis and Fred Boswell: A Retrospective, MMC Black and White Gallery, Marymount Manhattan College, New York, NY
Charles Alston and Norman Lewis: Innovators of the African-American Aesthetic, Isobel Neal Gallery, Chicago, IL
The Studio Museum in Harlem: 25 Years of African American Art, organized by The Studio Museum in Harlem; PaineWebber Art Gallery, PaineWebber Group Inc., New York, NY        On Paper: The Figure in Twentieth Century American Art, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Forty Years of African American Printmaking, G.R. N’Namdi Gallery, Detroit, MI 

1994      
The 25th Anniversary Exhibition: Recent Acquisitions and Selected Works from The Studio Museum in Harlem Collection Part II, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Counterpoints: American Art: 1930-1945, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
On Paper: Abstraction in American Art, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
The Harmon and Harriet Kelley Collection of African American Art, San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX; El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, TX; Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University, Atlanta, GA; Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH; Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, TN
Norman Lewis and His Contemporaries, G.R. N’Namdi Gallery, Birmingham, MI
Reclaiming Artists of the New York School: Toward a More Inclusive View of the 1950s, Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, New York, NY
Empowerment: The Art of African American Artists, Krasdale Gallery, White Plains, NY
The Studio Museum in Harlem: Twenty-Five Years of African-American Art, organized by The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY and circulated by The Gallery Association of New York State, Inc., Hamilton, NY; Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ; The Wood Street Galleries, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, Pittsburgh, PA; Museum of Art (now RISD Museum), Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI; The Scottsdale Art Center, Scottsdale, AZ; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX; Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL; New York State Museum, Albany, NY; The Mexican Museum, San Francisco, CA; Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME; Tufts University Art Gallery, Aidekman Arts Center, Tufts University, Medford, MA; The Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY; Lowe Art Gallery (now Lowe Art Museum), University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL
Cinque Gallery at Martha’s Vineyard: 25th Anniversary Celebration Fine Art Exhibition and Sale, organized by Cinque Gallery, New York, NY; Home of Dr. Beny Primm, Oak Bluffs, MA 

1995      
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks II, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY; Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA

1996      
Exploring the Unknown: Surrealism in American Art, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
NYNY: City of Ambition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks III, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Other Artists of the 50s, Kendall Gallery, Martin and Pat Fine Center for the Arts, Kendall  Campus, MDC Galleries of Art + Design, Miami-Dade Community College (now Miami Dade College), Miami, FL
Acquiring Art in the 90s: The Inside Story, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT

1997      
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks IV, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY; Fisk University Galleries, Fisk University, Nashville, TN
Civil Progress: Images of Black America, Mary Ryan Gallery, New York, NY
Dark Images-Bright Prospects: The Survival of the Figure in WWI, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY
Surrealism and American Art, 1932-1949, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, FL
Revisiting American Art: Works from the Collections of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY
Seeing Jazz: Artists and Writers on Jazz, organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) as part of America’s Jazz Heritage; International Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; Western Gallery, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY; Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN; Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV; Museum of the Southwest, Midland, TX
In the Spirit, Cinque Gallery, New York, NY       

1998      
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks V, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY; Newcomb Art Gallery (now Newcomb Art Museum), Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
Art by African-Americans in the Collection of the New Jersey State Museum, New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ
Narratives of African American Art and Identity: The David C. Driskell Collection, University of Maryland Art Gallery, University of Maryland, College Park, MD; African American Museum, Dallas, TX; Colby College Museum of Art, Colby College, Waterville, ME; M. H. de Young Memorial Museum (now de Young Museum), Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA; Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Newark Museum, Newark, NJ; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA; Naples Museum of Art (now The Baker Museum, Artis–Naples), Naples, FL; The Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC
Essence of the Orb, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

1999      
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks VI, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY; Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI
Linear Impulse, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
When the Spirit Moves: African-American Art Inspired by Dance, Springfield Museum of Art, Springfield, OH; Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, MI; Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Spelman College, Atlanta, GA; Arts and Industries Building, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
Norman Lewis paintings, Rashid Johnson photographs, G.R. N’Namdi Gallery, Chicago, IL
African American Artists, Bill Hodges Gallery, New York, NY
Founders and Friends Exhibition, Cinque Gallery, New York, NY

2000      
Modernism & Abstraction: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; Art Museum (now Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum), Florida International University, Miami, FL; Colby College Museum of Art, Colby College, Waterville, ME; Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY; Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, PA; Frist Center for the Visual Arts (now Frist Art Museum), Nashville, TN; Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA; National Academy Museum, National Academy of Design, New York, NY; Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA; Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, MI; Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA
Michael Rosenfeld Gallery: The First Decade, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, VII, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY; Appleton Museum of Art, Ocala, FL
Cultural Ribbons, Morris County Administration & Records Building, Morristown, NJ
A Brush with the Past: Famous African-American Artists from the 20th Century, G.R. N’Namdi Gallery, Birmingham, MI; Reflections Gallery, Dayton Cultural Center, Dayton, OH
African American Artists II, Bill Hodges Gallery, New York, NY
Summer 2000 Show, Cinque Gallery, New York, NY

2001    
Life Impressions: 20th Century African American Prints from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Picker Art Gallery, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY
Jazz and Visual Improvisations, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY
The Stamp of Impulse: Abstract Expressionist Prints, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX; Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
1950-1965: Abstraction on Paper, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, VIII, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY; University Museum at Texas Southern University, Texas Southern University Houston, TX
Abstract Expressionism-Expanding the Canon, Gary Snyder Fine Art, New York, NY
2001 Collector's Show, Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR

2002      
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, IX, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY; Tubman African American Museum (now Tubman Museum), Macon, GA
In the Spirit of Martin: The Living Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, MI; The Bass Museum of Art, Miami, FL; Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum (now the Weisman Art Museum), University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN; International Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, AL
African American Artists III, Bill Hodges Gallery, New York, NY
[Title unknown], Cinque Gallery, New York, NY

2003      
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, X, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Beauford Delaney & Norman Lewis, Abstractionist Visions, Works on Paper, Bill Hodges Gallery, New York, NY
Abstract Poet: Danny Simmons & Norman Lewis, Tubman African American Museum (now Tubman Museum), Macon, GA
Challenge of the Modern: African-American Artists 1925-1945, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
African American Masters: Highlights of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, New-York Historical Society Museum & Library; Cheekwood Museum of Art, Cheekwood Estate & Gardens, Nashville, TN; Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Jacksonville, FL; Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH; Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH; Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE; Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA; Utah Museum of Fine Arts, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
African-American Artists, 1929-1945: Prints, Drawings, and Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
An American Legacy: Art from the Studio Museum in Harlem, Parrish Art Museum,             Southampton, NY
Conversations: A Collection in Dialogue, Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA
Abstraction 1949-59, Hemphill Fine Arts, Washington, DC
Founders and Friends, Cinque Gallery, New York, NY

2004      
Mood Indigo: The Legacy of Duke Ellington–A Look at Jazz and Improvisation in American Art, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Embracing the Muse: Africa and African American Art, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Painting & Sculpture II, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Romare Bearden and Company, Bill Hodges Gallery, New York, NY

2005      
Syncopated Rhythms: 20th-Century African American Art from the George and Joyce Wein Collection, Boston University Art Gallery, Boston University, Boston, MA
Organic New York, 1941-1949, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Stroke! Beauford Delaney, Norman Lewis & Alma Thomas, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Another View: New York School, Opalka Gallery, The Sage Colleges, Albany, NY
African American Art Printmakers: The Legacy Continues, Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art, Newark, NJ
Eye Contact: Painting and Drawing in American Art, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY   
Toward Abstraction, Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA

2006      
Building Community: The African-American Scene, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

2007      
Decoding Myth: African American Abstraction, 1945-1975, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
New Acquisitions: Recent Gifts to the BNG Collection, Bermuda National Gallery, Hamilton, Bermuda

2008     
Eye on the Collection: Views and Viewpoints, Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA
African American Art: 200 Years, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940-1976, The Jewish Museum, New York, NY; Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
Abstract Expressionism: A World Elsewhere, Haunch of Venison, New York, NY
Beyond the Canon: Small-Scale American Abstraction, 1945-1965, Robert Miller Gallery, New York, NY

2009      
Larry and Brenda Thompson Collection, The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of Visual Arts    and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Catching Light: European and American Watercolors from the Permanent Collection, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY
Abstract Expressionism: Further Evidence (Part One: Painting), Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

2010      
Afro Modern: Journeys Through the Black Atlantic, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, England
Unconscious Unbound: Surrealism in America, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Abstract Expressionist New York, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

2011      
Splendor of Dynamic Structure: Celebrating 75 Years of the American Abstract Artists, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
SPIRAL: Perspectives on an African-American Art Collective, Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL
Evolution in Action, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

2012     
African American Art: Harlem Renaissance Civil Rights Era and Beyond, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; Muscarelle Museum of Art, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA; The Mennello Museum of American Art, Orlando, FL; National Academy Museum, National Academy of Design, New York, NY; Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
Signs and Symbols, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Celebrating our Legacy: The 20th Anniversary of Art in the Atrium, Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ
INsite/INchelsea: The Inaugural Exhibition, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Making History: 20th Century African American Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
Five Works from the Collection of Albert Murray: Romare Bearden and Norman Lewis, DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY

2013      
Painting and Sculpture Changes 2013, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Etched in Collective History, Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL
I See the Rhythm, The Lange Family Experiencenter, The Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH
Natural Selections, Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA
Abstract Expressionism / In Context: Seymour Lipton, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

2014      
From the Margins: Lee Krasner / Norman Lewis, 1945-1952, The Jewish Museum, New York, NY
Conversations: African and African American Artworks in Dialogue from the Collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and Camille O. and William H. Cosby Jr., National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
Beyond the Spectrum: Abstraction in African American Art, 1950-1975, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
RISING UP/UPRISING: Twentieth Century African American Art, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Spiral: American Masters, Evolve the Gallery, Sacramento, CA
Witness: Art and Civil Rights in the Sixties, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Point of View: African American Art Masters from the Collection of Elliot and Kimberly Perry, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, MI; Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI
Exterior Spaces, Interior Places, Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA

2015      
Night Visions: Nocturnes in American Art, 1860-1960, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME       
I Got Rhythm: Art and Jazz since 1920, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
In the Line of Duty, Collecting African-American Art and Beyond. The Williams Robinson Family Collection of African-American Art, Lafayette College Art Galleries, Lafayette College, Easton, PA
Common Wealth: Art by African Americans in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

2016      
The Color Line: African American Artists and the Civil Rights in the United States, Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, France
Modern Heroics: 75 Years of African-American Expressionism at the Newark Museum, Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
Abstract Expressionism, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England; Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain
Postwar-Art Between the Pacific and Atlantic 1945-1965, Haus Der Kunst, Munich, Germany; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

2017      
Inventing Downtown: Artist-Run Galleries in New York City, 1952-1965, Grey Art Gallery, New York University, New York, NY; Abu Dhabi Art Gallery, New York University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Roaring into the Future: New York 1925-35, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY
Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, Tate Modern, London, England; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; The Broad, Los Angeles, CA; de Young Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX
Blue Black, curated by Glenn Ligon, Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis, MO
Expanding Tradition: Selections from the Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Collection, Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Ten Americans: After Paul Klee, Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Switzerland; The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
Constructing Identity: Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African-American Art, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
Why Draw? 500 Years of Drawings and Watercolors at Bowdoin College, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME
Solidary & Solitary: The Joyner/Giuffrida Collection, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA; Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Duke University, Durham, NC; Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN; Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Pérez Art Museum Miami, Miami, FL
Art of Rebellion: Black Art of the Civil Rights Movement, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
Parapolitics: Cultural Freedom and the Cold War, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany
Hold: A Meditation on Black Aesthetics, Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

2018      
Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman, Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Jacksonville, FL; New-York Historical Society Museum & Library, New York, NY; Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA; Dixon Gallery & Gardens, Memphis, TN
I Too Sing America: The Harlem Renaissance at 100, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH
Hopes Springing High: Gifts of Art by African American Artists, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
Something to Say: The McNay Presents 100 Years of African American Art, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX
Recent Acquisitions 2014-2017, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Histórias Afro-Atlânticas, Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP) and Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, Brazil
Peindre la nuit, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz, France
Re-Seeing the Permanent Collection: The Long 1968, Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
Revising the Future, Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
Celebrating 50 Years of the US Open Championships, United States Tennis Association (USTA) President’s Suite, Arthur Ashe Stadium, Flushing Meadows, NY
Truth & Beauty: Charles White and His Circle, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
The Masters: Art Students League Teachers and their Students, Hirschl & Adler, New York, NY
Posing Modernity: The Black Model from Manet and Matisse to Today, The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, Lenfest Center for the Arts, Columbia University, New York, NY
Two Worlds: The Reality of Abstraction, Old Jail Art Center, Albany, TX 

2019      
Black Refractions: Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA; Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC; Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI; Smith College Museum of Art, Smith College, Northampton, MA; Utah Museum of Fine Arts, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT; Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA
Seeing America, Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
Vista View, Galerie Buchholz, New York, NY
“Cry Gold and See Black,” curated by Julie Mehretu, Artistic License: Six Takes on the Guggenheim Collection, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
The Shape of Abstraction: Selections from the Ollie Collection, Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO
The Whitney's Collection: Selections from 1900 to 1965, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Atelier 17 e a gravura moderna nas Américas (Atelier 17 and Modern Printmaking in the Americas), Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo (MAC USP), São Paulo, Brazil
Suspense: Key Moments in Midcentury Art, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME
Spiritual by Nature, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Detroit Collects: Selections of African American Art from Private Collections, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
Generations: A History of Black Abstract Art, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD  Afrocosmologies: American Reflections, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT
Self in the City: Highlights from the Collections of the Hudson River Museum and Art Bridges, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY
A LABOR OF LOVE: The Art Collection of Dr. Constance E. Clayton, Art & Artifacts Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library, New York, NY
"Out of War," Collection 1940s-1970s, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Harlem Roots, 2nd Floor Art Gallery and Community Room, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. State Office Building, New York, NY
Globalism Pops BACK Into View: The Rise of Abstract Expressionism, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Color. Theory. & B/W, Sarasota Art Museum, Ringling College of Art + Design, Sarasota, FL
African American Art in the 20th Century, organized by Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; Dubuque Museum of Art, Dubuque, IA; Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL; The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, PA; Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS; Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY

2020     
Black Histories, Black Futures, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA
Riffs and Relations: African American Artists and the European Modernist Tradition, The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
Paper Power, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Expanding Abstraction: Pushing the Boundaries of Painting in the Americas, 1958-1983, Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
Degree Zero: Drawing at Midcentury, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Histórias da dança, Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand (MASP), São Paulo, Brazil
Memories and Inspiration: The Kerry and C. Betty Davis Collection of African American Art, Gilcrease Museum - Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History & Art, Tulsa, OK; Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art, University of Richmond Museums, University of Richmond, Richmond, VA; Appleton Museum of Art, College of Central Florida, Ocala, FL; Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, CT; David Owsley Museum of Art, Ball State University, Muncie, IN; Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV; Albany Museum of Art, Albany, GA; Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN; Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, OH; August Wilson African American Cultural Center, Pittsburgh, PA; Carnegie Arts Center, Turlock, CA; Oklahoma State University Museum of Art, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK; Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA; Sordoni Art Gallery, Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, PA; Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, Laurel, MS; Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA; The Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Willamette University, Salem, OR

2021
Colliding with History: African American Works on Paper from the Collection of Wes and Missy Cochran, The Ernest G. Welch School of Art and Design Gallery, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA
American Landscapes, The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Creating Community: Cinque Gallery Artists, The Art Students League of New York, New York, NY
Mark Makers: The Language of Abstraction, Palmer Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
Distinctive/Instinctive: Postwar Abstract Painting, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Collecting Black Studies: The Exhibition, Christian-Green Gallery, Art Galleries at Black Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
Gestural Expanse: Prints, Sculptures and Books by Chakaia Booker, Plains Art Museum, Fargo, ND
In American Waters: The Sea in American Painting, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR
Slip Zone: A New Look at Postwar Abstraction in the Americas and East Asia, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX
Afro-American Images 1971: The Vision of Percy Ricks, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
Call & Response: Collecting African American Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Utica, NY
The Kinsey African American Art & History Collection, Greenwood Cultural Center and ONEOK Boathouse, Gathering Place, Tulsa, OK; Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA; The Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA
Point of Departure: Abstraction 1958–Present, Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
Exuberance: Dialogues in African American Abstract Painting, Duke Hall Gallery of Fine Art, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA
Supernatural America: The Paranormal in American Art, Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH; Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY; Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN
The Polonsky Exhibition of The New York Public Library’s Treasures, The New York Public Library, New York, NY
Elevation from Within: The Study of Art at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Richardson Family Art Museum, Rosalind Sallenger Richardson Center for the Arts, Wofford College, Spartanburg, SC
Black Artists in America: From the Great Depression to Civil Rights, Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, TN

2022
A Site of Struggle: American Art against Anti-Black Violence, The Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, AL
Sheldon Treasures, Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
Georgia O’Keeffe and American Modernism, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX
Manhatta: City of Ambition, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Just Above Midtown: 1974 to the Present, curated by Thomas J. Lax, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
The Modern City: Urban Experience and Identity in the Art of the United States, 1893-1976, organized by the Terra Foundation for American Art, Pinacoteca de São Paulo, Brazil
Stories Artists Tell: Art of the Americas, the 20th Century, permanent collection exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Summer At Its Best, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Drawing Down the Moon, Hammer Museum, University of California, Los Angeles, CA
Julie Mehretu: Portals, curated by Julie Mehretu, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
New York: 1962-1964, The Jewish Museum, New York, NY
Black Abstractionists: From Then 'til Now, Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, TX

2023
Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930s, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Spike Lee: Creative Sources, The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
I’ve Seen the Wall: Louis Armstrong on Tour in the GDR 1965, Das Minsk Kunsthaus, Potsdam, Germany
Black Artists in America: From Civil Rights to the Bicentennial, Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, TN

2023
Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930s, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Spike Lee: Creative Sources, The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
I’ve Seen the Wall: Louis Armstrong on Tour in the GDR 1965, Das Minsk Kunsthaus, Potsdam, Germany
Black Artists in America: From Civil Rights to the Bicentennial, Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, TN

2024
Century: 100 Years of Black Art at MAM, The Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ