From August 13-November 6, the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts will feature ‘A Site of Struggle: American Art Against Ainti-Black Violence.
Organized by The Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, curators include Janet Dees, Steven and Lisa Munster Tananbaum of modern and contemporary art at The Block, with the assistance of Alisa Swindell, associate curator of photography at the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College and former curatorial associate at The Block Museum of Art.
Conceived in 2016, A Site of Struggle includes more than 50 works of art and ephemera on loan from private and public collections across the country. The exhibition is divided into three sections that are organized thematically around different artistic approaches, visual strategies and lines of inquiry across time periods. A Red Record explores how graphic depictions of violence were enlisted as a form of protest and awareness raising. In Abstraction and Affect, artists employ conceptual strategies and varying degrees of abstraction to avoid literal representation of violence. Written on the Body explores subtler allusions to and forms of violence, such as psychological impacts of racism, through engagement with the body.
Before opening at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, A Site of Struggle premiered at The Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University Jan. 26-July 10.
Significance:
“How can art history help inform our understanding of the deep roots of racial violence?” asks curator Janet Dees. A Site of Struggle: American Art against Anti-Black Violence seeks to address this and related questions as it considers the long history of American artistic engagement with anti-Black violence. From the anti-lynching campaigns of the 1890s to the founding of Black Lives Matter in 2013 and up to today, the exhibition evokes the unbroken history of violence against African Americans in the United States and highlights African Americans as active shapers of visual discourse. With an emphasis on how art has been used to protest, process, mourn and memorialize anti-Black violence, A Site of Struggle stakes a claim on the power of the visual to make change.
A major companion publication of the same title accompanies the exhibition. The book features significant contributions from established and emerging scholars in the fields of African American studies, art history, communications and history. Co-published by The Block Museum of Art and Princeton University Press, the catalogue includes a foreword by Huey Copeland and original essays by Sampada Aranke, Courtney R. Baker, Janet Dees, Leslie M. Harris and LaCharles Ward.
Lead support for the exhibition is generously provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art. Major support is provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. The project is also supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bernstein Family Contemporary Art Fund, the Myers Foundations, The Block DEAI Fund and The Block Board of Advisors. Generous support is contributed by William Spiegel and Lisa Kadin, the Alumnae of Northwestern University, the David C. and Sarajean Ruttenberg Arts Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council Agency, the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation and Lynne Jacobs. The related publication is supported by Furthermore, a program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund and the Sandra L. Riggs Publication Fund.
Local support for exhibitions was provided by lead sponsors Alabama Power Foundation and Lamar; with additional support from sponsors Mr. Will Hill Tankersley and Dr. Kristin Tankersley; and co-sponsors AmeriFirst Bank; Balch & Bingham, LLP; Captrust; Mr. and Mrs. Marvin H. Campbell II; Ms. Camille Elebash-Hill and Mr. W. Inge Hill, Jr.; Mr. and Mrs. L. Daniel Morris, Jr.; Dr. and Mrs. Alfred J. Newman, Jr.; River Bank & Trust; Valley Bank, and Warren Averett, LLC.
A full range of programs and opportunities for engagement have been organized in conjunction with A Site of Struggle. View the full roster of related events, please visit mmfa.org.
