Object Details
- Artist
- David Driskell, born Eatonton, GA 1931-died Hyattsville, MD 2020
- Execution Date
- Dancing Angel resonates with allusions to ancient, classical, and African art, and to personal history. The angel’s body is crafted with oil paint, fabric, and clippings from a 1969 Look magazine article entitled “The Blacks and the Whites: Can We Bridge the Gap?” The striped Benin cloth alludes to banded quilts made by Driskell’s mother, and the angel herself refers to Driskell’s father, a Baptist minister who often talked about angels in his sermons. The angel’s face—half modern, half reminiscent of Ife masks—signals the dual nature of Driskell’s own African American heritage. This complex collage is a tribute to Driskell’s family and to the multiple sources in Africa that infuse black life in the American south.
- Modern Masters: Midcentury Abstraction from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2008
- Credit Line
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Cynthia Shoats and museum purchase
- Copyright
- © 1974, David C. Driskell
- 1974
- Object number
- 2004.27
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Type
- Painting-Mixed Media
- Medium
- oil, fabric and collage on canvas
- Dimensions
- 60 x 40 in. (152.4 x 101.6 cm)
- See more items in
- Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
- Department
- Painting and Sculpture
- Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Topic
- Recreation\dancing
- Religion\angel
- Record ID
- saam_2004.27
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk7d95546f3-b47f-4437-8047-205a8b15e0aa
