Gouache and ink on Arches
50.25 x 115.25 inches
You know Ajax and Blackjack and Black Bess and Brown Roan,
Butler and Bucephalus and Captain and Dixie.
But do you recall
The Civil War wasn’t their fault at all?
You know Dixie and Fire Eater and Firefly and Fleeter,
Fleetfoot and Fly-By-Night and Hero and Highfly.
But do you recall
The Civil War wasn’t their fault at all?
You know Lightning and Jeff Davis and Jinny and King Philip,
Little Sorrel and Lucy Long and Milroy and My Maryland.
But do you recall
The Civil War wasn’t their fault at all?
You know Nellie Gray and Pocohontas and Red Eye and Red Pepper,
Richmond and Rifle and Roderick and Shiloh.
But do you recall
The Civil War wasn’t their fault at all?
You know Skylark and Tom Telegraph, Traveller, Virginia and Warren.
They were sired and sold, traded and slaughtered.
But do you recall
The Civil War wasn’t their fault at all?
You know Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee and John Hunt Morgan and Wade Hampton,
Sterling Price and Edward Porter Alexander and Patrick Cleburne and Albert Sidney Johnston.
But do you recall
They were presidents and governors
Engineers and executives and authors?
You know Robert E. Rodes and Belle Boyd and Walter Herron Taylor and James Longstreet
J.E.B. Stuart and Nathan Bedford Forrest and John Bell Hood and Isaac R. Trimble.
But do you recall
They were actors and bankers and lawyers
Insurance and real estate brokers and superintendents?
You know Stonewall Jackson and John B. Gordon and Fitzhugh Lee and George H. Stuart
Richard Brooke Garnett, Patrick Ronayne Cleburne and Richard Stoddert Ewell,
Daniel Rugles, Turner Ashley Jr. and Brian Grimes.
But do you recall
They were politicians and executives and diplomats?
These white supremacists, rapists, enslavers, and Grand Wizards
Created and maintained, as do we,
Forced labor camps, disenfranchisement, and caste inequity.
Precluding education, working wages, and possibilities,
Denying housing, child and health care and security,
Silencing, terrorizing, torturing and killing with impunity.
We’ll go down in infamy.
Gouache, 42.5 x 91 Inches
Detail: Blue grin
Detail: Blue outlook
Detail: Perspective on the ground
Detail: Tangled tail
Detail: Blue solidarity
Detail: Hither
Ink on cold pressed arches, 50 x 105 inches
Detail of police shields and boy with drum
Detail of police face shields
Detail of child with headphones
Detail of police shields and gear
Ink and charcoal, 75 x 42 inches
In his third press conference following the Charlottesville riot, President Trump argued: "So this week it's Robert E. Lee. I noticed that Stonewall Jackson is coming down. I wonder, is it George Washington next week? And is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You know, you really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?
But they were there to protest -- excuse me, if you take a look, the night before they were there to protest the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee.
President Trump, August 15, 2017 at Trump Tower
Detail
Detail, Child skeleton reflection
Detail, Child torso
Detail, Tiki reflection
Detail, mirror
Detail, gorilla skull
Detail: Washington and Jefferson reflection
"So this week it's Robert E. Lee," Trump told reporters. "I notice that Stonewall Jackson's coming down," he added, referring to another famous Confederate commander.
"I wonder: Is it George Washington next week, and is it Thomas Jefferson the week after?" Trump said. "You know, you really do have to ask yourself — where does it stop?"
President Trump, August 15, 2017 at Trump Tower
Detail: Washington relfection
Ink on paper, 40 x 27 inches.
This ink drawing responds to the contentious legacy of the Stephen Foster public sculpture, first erected in 1900 in Pittsburgh’s Highland Park and now situated on Schenley Plaza near the Stephen Foster Memorial on the University of Pittsburgh campus. The bronze sculpture features the American composer seated, gazing outward, with a shoeless banjo player at his feet — identified as “Uncle Ned.”
Created by Giuseppe Moretti, the sculpture was actually designed by a committee that included banker Andrew W. Mellon, the director of the Carnegie Museum of Art, a railroad mogul and a parks director among others. 50,000 Pittsburghers lined the parade route for its dedication and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Director led 3,000 school children in song at its unveiling. During the Great Depression, ‘Uncle’ Ned’s banjo and Foster’s pen were repeatedly stolen and presumably sold as scrap metal.
The monument depicts the writing of the song “Uncle Ned” about an enslaved person recently deceased.
His fingers were long like de cane in de brake,
He had no eyes for to see.
The drawing's title, I Come From Alabama With A Banjo Round My Neck, is a modification of a lyric in Foster’s popular Oh! Susanna, a minstrel song considered one of the top 100 western songs of all time. Not content with transcribing Ned’s music, Foster is depicted taking his banjo, too. The transference, however, puts Foster in the enslaved’s shoeless state, with no eyes ‘for to see’ and dangling from the banjo’s extended strings. His toes are now rubbed for ‘good luck’ while a ghost of child labor sits still shining shoes. How does it feel –does it tickle?
Links to related stories:
Tony Norman: Monuments and their discontents
What to do with a Stephen Foster statue with a black man at his feet?
Detail of Stephen Foster Vampire
Detail, Stephen Foster with strings attached
Detail, Banjo round my neck
Detail, shine on
Ink and charcoal, 75 x 42 inches
Cat skeleton detail
Cat skeleton detail
Eagle detail
Detail, Regressive Reflections
Detail, Salute Reflection
Ink, 75 x 42 inches
In his third press conference following the Charlottesville riot, President Trump argued: "So this week it's Robert E. Lee. I noticed that Stonewall Jackson is coming down. I wonder, is it George Washington next week? And is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You know, you really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?
But they were there to protest -- excuse me, if you take a look, the night before they were there to protest the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee."
President Trump, August 15, 2017 at Trump Tower
Detail: smoke
Detail: Jefferson's pony tail
In his third press conference following the Charlottesville riot, President Trump argued: "So this week it's Robert E. Lee. I noticed that Stonewall Jackson is coming down. I wonder, is it George Washington next week? And is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You know, you really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?
But they were there to protest -- excuse me, if you take a look, the night before they were there to protest the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee."
President Trump, August 15, 2017 at Trump Tower
Ink, charcoal, graphite, 42 x 84 inches
Mixed media, 40 x 27.5 inches
Wax, ink and charcoal on paper, 43 x 39 inches (with Molotov turnip)
Detail
Wax, ink and charcoal on paper, 43 x 39 inches
Charcoal on paper, 43 x 31 inches
Detail of skirt of justice
Charcoal on paper, 43 x 31 inches
Ink, 21.5 x 29.5 inches
Ink