LIBERATION
Artist/Maker
Fred Wilson
(American, b. 1954)
Date2012
MediumAcrylic on canvas and blown glass
DimensionsCanvas: 27 1/8 × 40 × 1 3/8 in. (68.9 × 101.6 × 3.5 cm)
Overall (Glass Drip A): 3 3/4 × 12 1/2 × 3 in. (9.5 × 31.8 × 7.6 cm)
Overall (Glass Drip B): 14 1/8 × 3 1/2 × 2 3/4 in. (35.9 × 8.9 × 7 cm)
Overall (Glass Drip C): 3 1/2 × 16 × 3 in. (8.9 × 40.6 × 7.6 cm)
Overall (Glass Drip A): 3 3/4 × 12 1/2 × 3 in. (9.5 × 31.8 × 7.6 cm)
Overall (Glass Drip B): 14 1/8 × 3 1/2 × 2 3/4 in. (35.9 × 8.9 × 7 cm)
Overall (Glass Drip C): 3 1/2 × 16 × 3 in. (8.9 × 40.6 × 7.6 cm)
Credit LineRuth C. Roush Contemporary Art Fund, and gift of the artist and Pace Gallery, Douglas Baxter (OC 1972), President
Object number2016.30A-D
Status
Not on viewLIBERATION takes as its subject the Black Liberation flag designed by Marcus Garvey in the 1920s as part of the Pan-African movement, which argued that all African peoples—those on the continent and those in the diaspora—are united in a common struggle. Wilson has removed the flag’s red color, which represents the blood shared by people of African ancestry and the blood shed in pursuit of liberation, as well as its green, which nods to the abundant natural wealth of Africa. What remains is a central black stripe on raw canvas, from which blown-glass drips that evoke blood, tears, oil, and ink appear to seep.
Exhibition History
Fred Wilson: Sculptures, Paintings and Installations 2004-2014
- Pace Gallery, New York (September 12, 2014 - October 18, 2014 )
Fred Wilson: Black to the Powers of Ten
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 30, 2016 - June 12, 2017 )
Afterlives of the Black Atlantic
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (January 20, 2019 - May 24, 2020 )
Collections
- Modern & Contemporary
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ca. 1854
1948–50
postmarked July 4, 1958
