Black History Month Artist Basil Kincaid

As we recognize Black History Month, I keep coming back to how powerful art can be when it tells the truth.

These photographs capture a Clark Collection installation by Basil Kincaid, an extraordinary Black artist from St. Louis whose work invites reflection, connection, and understanding. His art does more than occupy space. It holds stories. It honors lived experience. It reminds us that Black history is not separate from American history. It is foundational to it.

What strikes me most about Basil’s work is how it reaches across divides. It reflects the shared humanity in stories of struggle, resilience, creativity, and contribution. The stories of Black Americans who have helped shape, build, and strengthen this country are not singular or static. They are layered, complex, and deeply human. Art like this gives us a way to sit with those truths and see them more clearly. Basil speaks of resonance as a shared vibration, of memory embedded in materials, of devotion carried forward, and of the power of love and belief to shape what comes next.

Black History Month is a moment to celebrate excellence, but it is also a moment to listen, learn, and reflect. Supporting and uplifting Black artists matters because their voices help us all better understand who we are and who we can be.

This belief is also why my wife, Jane, and I are proud to support the Studio Museum Exhibition Fund. Institutions like the Studio Museum play a vital role in creating space where Black artists can fully explore, amplify, and sustain their voices. Supporting this work, and the platforms that make it visible, is one way to ensure those resonant stories continue to ripple forward, touching lives long after the moment we first encounter them.

I am grateful for the opportunity to experience and share this work, and for artists like Basil Kincaid who continue to push culture forward through honesty, craft, and courage.

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