I contain multitudes : the varied lives of a cast of J.Q.A. Ward's The Freedman / Margaret C. Adler -- The Freedman as an emergent being and emblem of Black yearning / Maurita N. Poole -- What to America is The Freedman? / Kelvin Parnell -- Artist interview / Hugh Hayden -- Artist interview / Letitia Huckaby -- From emancipation to transcendence : meditations on freedom in American art / Maurita N. Poole -- Artist interview / Alfred Conteh -- A controlled burn : discursive emancipation, abolitionism, and the consolidation of "race" in visual culture / Kirsten Pai Buick -- Artist interview / Sable Elise Smith -- The Fremonts and The Freedman / Andrew J. Walker -- Artist interview / Jeffrey Meris -- Artist interview / Sadie Barnette -- The Freedman in multiple : a look at its casting history / Thayer Tolles -- Artist interview / Maya Freelon -- An antidote to melancholy / Margaret C. Adler -- Finale : Walking awake / N. K. Jemisin.
Summary:
"Emancipation critically interrogates the impact of sculpture in public life, centering around ideas of agency and emancipation in historical and contemporary expression. The fulcrum of the book will be the Amon Carter Museum of American Art's copy of John Quincy Adams Ward's bronze sculpture The Freedman (1863). Unlike conventional depictions of enslaved African Americans at this time, which showed them as powerless, this heroic figure has broken his chains. The catalogue begins with an introduction to Civil War-era works contextualizing The Freedman, then examines the work of six contemporary Black artists whose respective practices engage the mediums of sculpture and installation connected to themes of freedom or imprisonment, the long legacy of the Civil War in the United States, body, and personhood. Featuring the work of Sadie Barnette, Maya Freelon, Hugh Hayden, Letitia Huckaby, Jeffrey Meris, and Sable Elyse Smith, as well as a reprinted short story by N.K. Jemisin, Emancipation brings contemporary issues of racial inequities, the legacy of war and conflict, and issues of freedom-or lack thereof-for Black Americans to the fore"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.