2003.21.3
Runaways
Artist
Glenn Ligon
(Bronx, New York, 1960 - )
Title
Runaways
Creation Date
1993
Century
late 20th century
Dimensions
16 in. x 12 in. (40.64 cm x 30.48 cm)
Object Type
print
Creation Place
North America, United States
Medium and Support
lithograph on paper
Credit Line
Museum Purchase, Lloyd O. and Marjorie Strong Coulter Fund, © Glenn Ligon; Courtesy of the artist, Luhring Augustine, New York, Regen Projects, Los Angeles, and Thomas Dane Gallery, London
Copyright
This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s
Copyright Terms and Conditions.
Accession Number
2003.21.3
The relationship between the languages of words and images plays a key role in the artist’s lithographic series "Runaways". To create the cycle, Ligon asked a series of friends to create descriptions by which others might recognize him, and then matched these “word portraits” with nineteenth-century emblems depicting escaped slaves. The powerful disjunctions that resulted provoke questions concerning the nature of our knowledge and understanding of one another, suggesting the inadequacy of linguistic description and other systems of representation. By invoking the history of slavery, Ligon examines the larger social and historical forces that shape personal identity, interrogating our ability to overcome, whether as subjects or observers, the perceptions and roles these may reinforce.
Object Description
Print says…
RAN AWAY, Glenn Ligon. He’s a shortish broad-shouldered black man, pretty dark-skinned, with glasses. Kind of stocky, tends to look down and turn in when he walks. Real short hair, almost none. Clothes non-descript, something button-down and plaid, maybe, and shorts and sandals. Wide lower face and narrow upper face. Nice teeth.