The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 13, 2025

Vertically oriented oil painting of a person with medium-dark skin tone visible from the thighs up, standing facing us with their hands clasped behind their back in front of a solid, mint green background. They wear blue jeans and a turtle-neck, green sweater with the number "22" in white on the chest and red, blue, and yellow stripes on the collar and around the armpits. Greys shade their face and they have short, black hair.

He Was Meant for All Things to Meet

2022

Amy Sherald

(American, b. 1973)
America
Oil on linen
137.2 x 109.2 x 6.4 cm (54 x 43 x 2 1/2 in.)
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 2023.5
© Amy Sherald. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth
Location: 229A Contemporary

Did You Know?

Amy Sherald considers photography to be the starting point for her painted portraits.

Description

Amy Sherald’s subjects often fill canvases with a presence that is heightened by frontal stances and direct gazes. While Sherald’s subjects display contemporary qualities, the artist typically places them against flat, solid-colored backgrounds that lack markers of time or place and renders their black skin in shades of gray. She has explained this as a technique to draw viewers’ attention toward the inner life of her subjects. In 2018, Sherald’s distinctive style captured the attention of Michelle Obama. She became the first Black artist to paint the first Black first lady’s official portrait for the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.
  • 2022
    Collection of the artist via Hauser & Wirth Gallery, London
    2023
    (Hauser & Wirth Gallery, London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    2023–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Amy Sherald: The World We Make. Exhibition catalogue. (New York: Hauser & Wirth Publishers, 2022), pp. 90-97, 99.
    Liebert, Emily. "Adding a Work by Amy Sherald: The museum welcomes He was meant for all things to meet.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 63, no. 2 (2023): 36-37. Reproduced: Cover, P. 37; Mentioned: P. 36 archive.org
    "Supporter Story: Remembering Toby Lewis." Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 64, no. 1 (2024): 33-34. Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 34 archive.org
  • Contemporary Art Rotation - Spring 2023. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 7-September 24, 2023).
  • {{cite web|title=He Was Meant for All Things to Meet|url=false|author=Amy Sherald|year=2022|access-date=13 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2023.5