Traveling Art Exhibit Addresses Painful Elements Of Black History

By

“30 Americans,” a prominent traveling exhibition of artwork by African-Americans, goes on display this Friday at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

The name of the exhibit is slightly (and deliberately) imprecise – there are actually 31 artists in the show. Most of the artists are contemporary; some of the themes they explore, however, look back at issues like slavery, plantation life and lynching.

Museum director of exhibitions William Rudolph describes a work by Gary Simmons called “Duck, Duck Noose.” It features white Ku Klux Klan hoods sitting on nine chairs placed in a circle. In the middle is a noose hanging from the ceiling.

Stay informed on the latest news

Sign up for WPR’s email newsletter.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

“It is a piece that very powerfully and disturbingly talks about an ugly moment in United States history, and lynching, which was one of the Klan’s favorite weapons of choice, was not confined to the south.”

The exhibit also includes a video work called “The Great White Way,” shown on a monitor a foot or so off the floor. The piece addresses modern homelessness and difficulties for the disabled, as artist William Pope crawls 22 miles along Broadway in New York. Rudolph explains the piece “as a commentary about social hierarchies and the struggles of people to exist.”

Rudolph says black artists have often been marginalized by the art world, but he hopes “30 Americans” brings more of those artists into the limelight.

The Milwaukee Art Museum exhibit begins Friday and runs through early September.

Related Stories