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Glenn Ligon , b. 1960

Untitled (speech/hands) #1

2000
40 in. x 44 in. (101.6 cm x 111.76 cm)

Medium and Support: Silkscreen, coal dust, oilstick, and glue on paper

Credit Line: Museum purchase

Accession Number: 2001.14

Commentary

Glenn Ligon provocatively pushes the limits of legibility to comment on language’s ability to communicate and invisibility as it relates to issues of identity, race, and representation. Untitled (speech/hands) #1 is one of a series that layers text from Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan’s speech at the 1995 Million Man March over a silkscreened news photograph depicting the event. Rendered in black oil stick and coal dust, the glittering text is simultaneously seductive and frustrating. Inviting close inspection but providing neither legible text nor lucid imagery, Ligon’s ambiguous work questions the effectiveness of words and images to convey clear truths and invites us to consider the ways in which they can alternately report, distort, and obscure historical events.

Exhibition List

This object was included in the following exhibitions:

Defying Distinction: Works from the Addison Collection Addison Gallery of American Art , 1/12/2002 - 4/14/2002
Glenn Ligon: Some Changes The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Harbourfront centre , 6/24/2005 - 12/31/2006
The Discerning Eye: Five Perspectives on the Addison Collection Addison Gallery of American Art , 9/4/2007 - 12/30/2007
Then and Now Addison Gallery of American Art , 5/10/2008 - 7/13/2008
Inside, Outside, Upstairs, Downstairs: The Addison Anew Addison Gallery of American Art , 9/7/2010 - 3/27/2011
Light/Dark, White/Black Addison Gallery of American Art , 1/17/2015 - 7/31/2015
Seen and Unseen Addison Gallery of American Art , 9/1/2017 - 12/31/2017
To Make Visible: Art and Activism, 1980–2000 Addison Gallery of American Art , 10/16/2020 - 1/3/2021

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