The de Young Museum in San Francisco is preparing to hold a comprehensive survey of works by the British filmmaker and visual artist Isaac Julien. The exhibition I Dream a World represents the first retrospective of Julien's work to be held in the United States. For the de Young Museum, which is part of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), this exhibition also represents a milestone, as it is their first exhibition dedicated to an artist who works with the moving image.

Claudia Schmuckli, Chief Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at de Young, has made a selection of 10 major installations created by Julien during the period of 1999 to 2022. Visitors to the Herbst Exhibition Galleries of the museum will be greeted by the installation The Long Road to Mazatlán (1999), an exploration of the myth of the cowboy imbued with a contemporary homoerotic twist, followed by works such as Paradise Omeros (2002), Baltimore (2003) and Fantôme Afrique (2005). The multi-screen installation Ten Thousand Waves (2010), a retelling of the 16th-century legend of the Chinese sea goddess Mazu, will be accessible to the public at Wilsey Court.

Isaac Julien, Pas de Deux No. 2 (Looking for Langston Vintage Series) (1989/2016). Ilford classic silver gelatin fine art paper, mounted on aluminium and framed. 58.1 x 74.5 cm. © Isaac Julien. Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro.

The centerpieces of this retrospective will be two of Julien's most recent works: Lessons of the Hour (2019) and Once Again… (Statues Never Die) (2022). The former, a recent acquisition by FAMSF, is a ten-channel installation with Frederick Douglass as the subject, which recounts the life of the famous abolitionist and highlights the role that technology and image-making have in forming bonds between people. The latter examines the neglected place that African objects have in western art museums through the lens of the relationship between the art collector Alfred C. Barnes and the first African-American Rhodes Scholar, Alain Locke.

Besides the aforementioned installations, the de Young is also displaying a selection of Julien's earlier film works, including Looking for Langston (1989), Lost Boundaries (1981-87) and This Is Not An AIDS Advertisement (1987). The exhibition I Dream a World opens on April 12 and is on view through July 13, 2025. For more information visit the FAMSF site.

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