“Something to Look Forward To,” an exhibition featuring abstract images and objects by 22 celebrated African American artists over the age of 60, will be on display at the Heckscher Museum of Art from June 2 through August 14.

The exhibition of sculptures, works on paper, furniture and multimedia was created by the artists and highlights the exceptional talent, unique vision and courageous persistence of mature artists who have created dynamic forms of abstract art.

This show features work by Betty Blayton, Frank Bowling, Yvonne Pickering Carter, Edward Clark, Melvin Edwards, Sam Gilliam, David Hammons, Gerald Jackson, Lawrence Compton Kalawole, Howardena Pindell, Alvin Loving, Richard Mayhew, Sam Middleton, Mary Lovelace O’Neal, Joe Overstreet, Howardena Pindell, Helen Evans Ramsaran, John T. Scott, Sylvia Snowden, and the late Mildred Thompson, Jack Whitten, William T. Williams and Frank Wimberly. Two works, created six to ten years apart, represent each artist.

Curated for The Phillips Museum of Art by Bill Hutson, then Cook Distinguished Artist-in-Residence at Franklin & Marshall College, the exhibition opened at the college museum in March 2004. The Heckscher is the first venue of “Something to Look Forward To” in a national tour circulated by Smith Kramer Fine Art Services.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog with essays by April Kingsley, art critic and curator of the Kresge Art Museum at Michigan State University; Art Asia Pacific editor-in-chief Franklin Sirmans; and poet and essayist Geoffrey Jacques, whose doctoral dissertation examines the interaction and interplay between literary modernism and African American culture.

In his essay, Sirmans writes of the “grand tradition at work in this show that needs to be explored, nourished, cherished and supported. Through the artists and the artworks in ‘Something to Look Forward To,’ we are offered first and foremost the opportunity to see great art by great artists, but secondarily to make consideration of abstract art that, while not totally original, is glorious. Bringing together these artists – who all happen to be ‘black’ – we can see that there is a black aesthetic to abstract art.”

The Heckscher Museum of Art is in Heckscher Park, Main Street (Route 25A) and Prime Avenue. For information, 631-351-3250.