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Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers Exhibition Catalogue

Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers Exhibition Catalogue

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From his early self-portraits to his site-specific installations, this volume underscores Rashid Johnson’s fearless engagement with the central themes, questions, and aesthetics of the contemporary era.

Co-organized by the Guggenheim New York and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, A Poem for Deep Thinkers is a three-decade survey of Rashid Johnson’s artistic career. It situates the artist within three interconnected spheres: as a scholar of art history; as a mediator of Black popular culture and its widespread commodification; and as an artist engaged with the globalization of contemporary art.

The exhibition and accompanying catalogue feature nearly 90 artworks, including early photographs, Cosmic Slops, spray-painted text works, collage paintings, Broken Men mosaics, film projects, and key sculptures and installations that incorporate materials such as shea butter, black soap, plants, ceramic vessels, and wax. These explorations demonstrate Johnson’s uncommon fluency with multiple materials and forms as well as a nuanced ability to synthesize the condition of the human psyche.

Lavishly produced with gold block edges and illustrated with more than 200 images, the publication offers creative meditations on excerpts by literary icons Toni Morrison, Gwendolyn Brooks, Jean Genet, Paul Beatty and Amiri Baraka, interspersed among insightful essays and an interview that further illuminate Johnson’s work. 

Born and raised in Chicago, Rashid Johnson (born 1977) received fine arts degrees from Columbia College Chicago and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. At the age of 24, his work was included in Thelma Golden’s 2001 exhibition Freestyle at the Studio Museum in Harlem. Johnson made his directorial debut with his 2019 adaptation of Richard Wright’s Native Son.

Publisher: ‎ Guggenheim Museum
Publication date: ‎ May 27, 2025
Hardcover: ‎ 256 pages
Item Weight: ‎ 2.5 pounds
Dimensions: ‎ 8.86 x 0.98 x 12.2 inches

March 8, 2026 - September 27, 2026

Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers is the artist’s largest exhibition to date and his first major museum survey in more than a decade. Johnson, one of the most acclaimed artists of his generation, is internationally recognized for his multidisciplinary practice that spans painting, sculpture, film, and installation. His work is represented in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

Tracing Johnson’s trajectory from his early experiments in photography and video to his recent materially complex paintings and assemblages, A Poem for Deep Thinkers engages art history, philosophy, and Black popular culture as frameworks for exploring the human psyche. The exhibition reflects on themes of history, identity, masculinity, parenthood, and self-care, underscoring Johnson’s role as both an interpreter of art history and a shaper of contemporary culture.

This exhibition brings together nearly 90 works, including black-soap paintings, spray-painted text pieces, monumental sculptures, film, and video. Highlights include a site-specific installation, an outdoor sculpture, and two works activated through live performance.

The exhibition is organized by the Guggenheim’s Deputy Director and Jennifer and David Stockman Chief Curator, Naomi Beckwith, and Chief Curator at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Andrea Karnes, with additional support from Guggenheim Curatorial Assistant Faith Hunter.

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