The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 17, 2026

A vertically oriented color screenprint on beige paper depicts a man with a grayscale, medium-dark skin tone and cropped hair centered against a flat background. Facing forward, his arms hang at his sides. He wears a dark blue, short-sleeved button-down shirt patterned with light blue polka dots and white pants. A white border with a handwritten number on our left and signature on our right surrounds the portrait.

Handsome

2020

Amy Sherald

(American, b. 1973)
printer

Powerhouse Arts Printshop

(American, 2016-)
printer

Luther Davis

(American)
publisher

Hauser & Wirth, Inc.

America
color screenprint
Image: 102.2 x 81.3 cm (40 1/4 x 32 in.); Sheet: 114.9 x 94 cm (45 1/4 x 37 in.)
Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland 2020.277
© Amy Sherald
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Amy Sherald is best known for her 2018 officially commissioned portrait of former First Lady Michelle Obama, now in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.

Description

Amy Sherald is known for her distinctive style of portraiture that presents Black figures with grisaille (or gray) skin tones, inviting consideration of skin as a signifier. This print, the first made by the artist, reinterprets a painting of the same title. Both depict a dancer from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, founded in 1958 to combine modern dance and African American culture. The subject appears with a casual pose and assertive gaze that align with the artist’s goal, in her words, to “paint black people just being people.”
  • 2020
    (Hauser & Wirth, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)
    2020-
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Hudak, Brittany Mariel. "Girls to the Front: Women in Print." CAN Journal (Spring 2022): 68-71. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 70-71
  • Women in Print: Recent Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 16-June 19, 2022).
  • {{cite web|title=Handsome|url=false|author=Amy Sherald, Powerhouse Arts Printshop, Luther Davis, Hauser & Wirth, Inc.|year=2020|access-date=17 April 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2020.277