March 4–July 9, 2023

Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina

Above: Historian and exhibition cocurator Jason Young with a jar by Dave (later recorded as David Drake) from 1857. Stoneware with alkaline glaze. The John Axelrod Collection—Frank B. Bemis Fund, Charles H. Bayley Fund, and The Heritage Fund for a Diverse Collection.

Above: Historian and exhibition cocurator Jason Young with a jar by Dave (later recorded as David Drake) from 1857. Stoneware with alkaline glaze. The John Axelrod Collection—Frank B. Bemis Fund, Charles H. Bayley Fund, and The Heritage Fund for a Diverse Collection.

Explore an untold chapter in American history

Focusing on the work of Black potters in the 19th-century American South, this landmark exhibition presents approximately 60 ceramic objects from Old Edgefield District, South Carolina, a center of stoneware production in the decades before the Civil War, together with contemporary responses.

“Hear Me Now” tells a story about art and enslavement—and about the joy, struggle, creative ambition, and lived experience of African Americans in the decades before the Civil War. The exhibition features many objects never before seen outside of the South, bringing together monumental storage jars by the enslaved and literate potter and poet Dave, later recorded as David Drake (about 1800–about 1870), with rare examples of the region’s utilitarian wares and powerful face vessels by unrecorded makers.

It also links past to present, in part by including the work of leading contemporary Black artists who have responded to or whose practice resonates with the Edgefield story. Established figures like Theaster Gates and Simone Leigh, as well as younger, emerging artists like Adebunmi Gbadebo, Woody De Othello, and Robert Pruitt, have contributed to the show. Working primarily in clay, these artists respond to the legacy of the Edgefield potters and consider the resonance of this history for audiences today.

Co-organized with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the exhibition is accompanied by a scholarly publication and informed by new scientific research. The show will additionally travel to the University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.

“Forged by hand with common soil, ‘Hear Me Now’ reaches across generations to make a broken story whole.”
—Boston Globe

  • Lois B. and Michael K. Torf Gallery (Gallery 184)
Orange black cemetery soil is molded into a mango shape and punctured with real human hair.
A brown clay pot with a lip, two handles, and dripped in a lighter glaze.
A brown and beige stoneware jug shaped into the form of a human face.
A cracked, reconstructed stoneware jug with handle and a large hole in its side.
A beige stoneware watercooler jug with two handles, a small opening, and decorated with the figures of two people and a pig.
A white glazed stoneware jug with a handle on top and seven adornments that resemble puka shells.
A large, clay jug of brown hues with white drips, a handle, and small opening.
A drawing of a young person with a patterened cloth around their shoulders like a cape, pouring liquid out of a jug.
An earthenware bowl with a wide opening and engraved with swirls.
A large, greenish clay jug with a large opening, two handles, and imprinted with the test "12th June 1834."
An earthenware jug with a small opening, a handle, and decorated with the features of a human face.
A light orangey-brown jug engraved with text and adorned with a large opening and three handles.

Videos

In the News

The Wall Street Journal (5/10/23): "A Legacy of Slavery in Clay"
The Boston Globe (3/4/23): "Enslaved potter David Drake searched for his family. More than 150 years later, they’ve found him."
WBUR (3/1/23): "Pottery exhibit at the MFA spins a tale of artistry despite the odds"
The Boston Globe (3/9/23): "At the MFA, enslaved Black potters’ work brings lives into the light in ‘Hear Me Now’"

Sponsors

Terra Foundation for American Art
Henry Luce Foundation
The Americana Foundation
National Endowment for the Arts

Generous Supporter

Additional support from the Wyeth Foundation for American Art, The Bruce and Laura Monrad Fund for Exhibitions, the Dr. Lawrence H. and Roberta Cohn Exhibition Fund, the Eugenie Prendergast Memorial Fund, and an anonymous funder.

“Hear Me Now: Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina” is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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