Out of Many: Reframing an American Art Collection

Out of Many offers a re-examination of select works from The Phillips Collection, the Howard University Gallery of Art, and The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora. This volume, and its accompanying exhibition, features seventy-five works of art in various media: paintings, prints, photographs, sculpture, and mixed media by a diverse array of artists including William H. Johnson, Doris Lee, Elisabeth Poe, David Hammons, Ralston Crawford, William Christenberry, Jacob Lawrence, and Romare Bearden.

Arranged into five thematic sections—People, Places, Spaces, Things, and Chronicles—the authors consider why certain artists have been omitted from our current narratives, and how we best contextualize their work.

This catalogue accompanies the exhibition Out of Many: Reframing an American Art Collection on display at The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, from November 8, 2025–February 15, 2026.

Edited by Adrienne L. Childs and Camille Brown
Contributions by Camille Brown, Adrienne L. Childs, Kathryn Coney-Ali, Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, Abby R. Eron, Raul Moarquech Ferrera-Balanquet, Melanee C. Harvey, Tie Jojima, Renée Maurer, and Rebecca Shipman
With a Foreword by Jonathan P. Binstock, Vradenburg Director and CEO of The Phillips Collection

Author biographies

Adrienne L. Childs is senior consulting curator, The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC.

Camille Brown is assistant curator, The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC.

Hardcover: 152 Pages 

113 Color Illustrations

Published: November 2025