Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers
If you haven’t yet experienced Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers at the Guggenheim, it’s showing until January 20 and is not to be missed. For nearly 30 years, Chicago-born artist Rashid Johnson (b. 1977) has cultivated a diverse body of work, drawing inspiration from history, philosophy, literature, and music. This major solo exhibition highlights Johnson’s role as a scholar of art history, a mediator of Black popular culture, and a creative force in contemporary art.
Almost 90 works—from black-soap paintings and spray-painted text pieces to large-scale sculptures, film, and video—fill the museum’s rotunda, including Sanguine, a monumental site-specific installation on the building’s top ramp featuring an embedded piano for musical performances. A dynamic program of events, developed in collaboration with community partners across New York City, activates a sculptural stage on the rotunda floor.
The exhibition is organized by Naomi Beckwith, the Guggenheim’s Deputy Director and Jennifer and David Stockman Chief Curator, and Andrea Karnes, Chief Curator, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, Texas, with additional support from Faith Hunter, Guggenheim Curatorial Assistant.
At Manuela, art isn’t just on the walls—it’s built into the experience. Rashid Johnson’s Broken Men Table (2024), created especially for the restaurant, is both artwork and functional design. The seven-meter mosaic table seats twenty-four and continues Johnson’s Anxious Men and Broken Men series through handmade tiles, spray paint, and shattered mirror.