The late Route 1 artist David Driskell, who lived in Hyattsville but worked in College Park, is at the center of a new HBO documentary.

A landmark 1976 art exhibition curated by Driskell, who died of the coronavirus in April at the age of 88, is a crucial turning point in the history of African-American art as highlighted in the documentary “Black Art: In the Absence of Light.”

Driskell also narrates large portions of the film, which features the likes of historian Henry Louis Gates Jr., portrait painter Kehinde Wiley and photographer Carrie Mae Weems.

That’s appropriate, since the documentary aims to capture a broad spectrum of Black artists, much like Driskell’s exhibition for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which was called Two Centuries of Black American Art.

The same year as the exhibition, Driskell moved to Hyattsville to work for the University of Maryland, where he worked until 1998. In 2001, the college established the David C. Driskell Center, which studies art and culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora. Some have also suggested renaming Magruder Park in Hyattsville for him.

“Black Art,” which premiered last week, airs on HBO this week at 11:20 p.m. on Wednesday, 6:30 p.m. on Thursday and 11:05 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 21. It is also available on demand.

You can watch the trailer here.