The Morris Museum of Art is pleased to host Something to Look Forward To: Abstract Art by 22 Distinguished Americans of African Descent, which presents abstraction by African American artists inspired by the tradition of abstract expressionism. This important movement had penetrated the American art scene by the 1950s with its combination of abstraction—the art did not depict objects in the physical world—and expressionism—it used the raw materials of color and form to record the feelings and passions of the artist.

Abstract expressionism is now part of the canon of modern art, and abstract painters such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning have been recognized among the most important painters of the twentieth century. Some important abstractionists were marginalized during the movement's heyday because they were African American. Their work, though strikingly vigorous and innovative, has remained little known and unappreciated.

Painter Bill Hutson organized this exhibition at Franklin and Marshall College of abstract works by twenty-two African American artists to help rectify the situation. These artists, now in their sixties and seventies, have been pioneers for a half century in both the African American community and the art world. While the art in the exhibition speaks for itself, the Morris's curators also hope that viewers will be attracted to the story behind the art, especially the stories of these African American abstractionists, who have faced unusual obstacles at every stage of their careers. Some of the artists included in the exhibition are Betty Blayton, Edward Clark, Melvin Edwards, Sam Gilliam, Alvin Loving, Joe Overstreet, Howardena Pindell, John T. Scott, and Jack Whitten.

Something to Look Forward To: Abstract Art by 22 Distinguished Americans of African Descent was organized by the Phillips Museum of Art at Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.