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Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

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Glenn Ligon

Untitled, from the portfolio Runaways

1993

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Glenn Ligon’s work is often autobiographical, exploring how his own identity as a black man intersects with and is shaped by the sociopolitical circumstances and events of American culture, past and present. His print portfolio Runaways mimics the rhetoric and typography of nineteenth-century advertisements for runaway slaves in Southern newspapers, inserting various contemporary descriptions of himself in place of the runaway. The descriptions were drawn from ten of his friends, each of whom was asked to provide a verbal account of Ligon as though reporting his disappearance to the police. The texts that emerged from this process combine the casual language of physical appearance with the blunt reality of slavery. [Permanent collection label, 2017]

  • Artist Glenn Ligon (American, b. 1960)
  • Title Untitled, from the portfolio Runaways
  • Date 1993
  • Medium Lithograph
  • Edition description 30/45
  • Dimensions sheet | 16 x 12 in.
  • Part of Runaways
  • Credit line University purchase, Nathan Cummings Fund and Art Acquisition Fund, 1996
  • Object number WU 1996.01.10

Performance and Performativity in Contemporary Art
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/09/2011 - 01/09/2012

2/28/1996
Schmidt Contemporary Art

Inscription LR: “Glenn Ligon ‘93”

RAN AWAY, a man named Glenn, / five feet eight inches high, / medium-brown skin, black-framed / semi-cat-eye glasses, close-cropped hair. / Grey shirt, watch on left hand. Black / shorts, black socks and black shoes. / Distinguished looking.

This artwork record may be incomplete or need refinement. Our staff actively researches the collection and revises records when new information is available. If you have questions or comments about this record, please contact us.

Related Content

go to Slavery and Its Legacies page
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Theme

Slavery and Its Legacies

go to Performance and Performativity in Contemporary Art page
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Exhibitions

Performance and Performativity in Contemporary Art

September 09, 2011–January 09, 2012

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