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Installation view of Joseph E. Yoakum: What I Saw, on view from November 21, 2021 through March 19, 2022 at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Photo: Denis Doorly
Exhibition
Joseph E. Yoaku: What I Saw
21 Nov 2021 – 19 Mar 2022
Regular hours
- Sunday
- 10:30 – 17:30
- Monday
- 10:30 – 17:30
- Tuesday
- 10:30 – 17:30
- Wednesday
- 10:30 – 17:30
- Thursday
- 10:30 – 17:30
- Friday
- 10:30 – 17:30
- Saturday
- 10:30 – 19:00
Cost of entry
Adults: $25 (Concessions available)
Address
- 11 West 53 Street
- New York
New York - NY 10019
- United States
Travel Information
- From the east side of Manhattan M1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 to 53rd Street From the west side of Manhattan M50 cross-town to 50th Street. Proceed to 53rd Street.
- From the east side of Manhattan 6 train to 51st Street, transfer to the E or M train; one stop to 53rd Street and Fifth Avenue From the west side of Manhattan E or M train to 53rd Street and Fifth Avenue, or B, D, or F train to 47-50 Street Rockefeller Center
At age 71, artist Joseph E. Yoakum (1891–1972) began making landscape drawings of the places he had travelled to over the course of his life. “Wherever my mind led me, I would go,” he said. “I’ve been all over this world four times.”
About
Joseph E. Yoakum: What I Saw presents over 100 of Yoakum’s works. Drawn from memories, both real and imagined, his landscapes reveal a world no one has seen before or since: it is dense with swelling landforms, serpentine empty roads, and evergreen foliage, and almost always empty of people. The works reflect Yoakum’s religious faith and exploration of the tenets of Christian Science as much as they do his experience as a man of color in the United States over the course of the 20th century. He depicted events like major naval voyages and UFO sightings, and represented notable figures of African American history and culture in portrait drawings.
Joseph E. Yoakum: What I Saw provides a unique opportunity to see and celebrate the world as Yoakum did, and offers new discoveries about his working process, the development of his style, and the ways he imbued the living landscape with his shifting sense of personal identity.
