CCH Pounder’s Art Collection on Display at Philadelphia Museum

A select portion of the gathering of works by actress CCH Pounder and her late husband Boubacar Koné is on display at the African American Museum in Philadelphia through March 2, 2025.

informed that there are 40 exhibits on display, and Pounder, who previously donated to museums as did Charles Wright in Detroit and the DuSable Black History Museum in Chicago, working with the vice chairman of curatorial services at the African American Museum in Philadelphia, Delay Duckett, to organize the gathering.

Duckett described viewing the Pounder collection in her New Orleans home as an incredible experience, but in addition a singular challenge: choosing pieces for a museum exhibit.

“It was a feast for the eyes when we walked through. The biggest challenge I had was narrowing down what we could bring to Philadelphia,” Duckett told the outlet. “To live with art of that scale and with that beauty — just being in that space was amazing. You can’t walk out without being inspired.”

The exhibition, titled “Shared Vision,” focuses on figures, paintings, and mixed media that present black bodies as sites of tension, exploring concepts related to history, identity, and relationships. As Duckett explained, the portraits of figurative works create a chance for the work to inform a story to viewers.

“Historically, portraits of figurative works, whether real or imagined, signal the power, significance, or virtue of their subjects,” Duckett said. “When you walk into a museum, especially a black museum, and you see these portraits, their power emanates from you and tells the viewer their story.”

Pounder recounts her love of portraiture, which matches back to her youth in England, where she ceaselessly visited museums across Europe, including the Louvre in France. She recalled that these institutions rarely featured portraits or representations of black people. She often felt the urge to the touch art, nevertheless it was at all times just out of reach.

“I remember at the very top of the Louvre there were these tiny 20-by-30-inch portraits of Arabs and ‘exotics,’ and the Mona Lisa and all these other wonderful people were at the bottom,” Pounder told the location. “I thought, ‘How do I get these people here?’ That’s probably what I thought when I started.”

Pounder also said that her decision to pursue acting and art collecting was inspired by a mentor at England’s Hastings College. “I really took that to heart and literally said, ‘Great! I’ll be an actress for the first half of the century and an artist for the second half,’” Pounder recalls. “It doesn’t really happen that way. Life changes.”

In 2022, Pounder spoke to about the method it uses to find out which artistic endeavors to purchase.

“It’s very rare that I buy a piece of art without interacting with the artists. The months of the pandemic have improved my internet skills, and I now correspond and have textual relationships with artists I collect from around the world, such as Alex Peter Idoko, who lives and works in Nigeria,” Pounder said.

She continued, “More than collecting, I am fascinated by the way an artist sees. A work of art is an interpretation of life from an emotional, intellectual, ancestral, or spiritual inspiration that is transferred to canvas, or carved in wood, bent in steel, blown in glass, beaded, or collaged. Being able to savor these gestures is why I collect and why I share with those who can only see… a painting.”