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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Identification and Creation

Object Number
2006.78.A
People
Glenn Ligon, American (Bronx, NY born 1960)
Published by Sikkema Jenkins & Co.
Title
Condition Report
Classification
Prints
Work Type
print
Date
2000
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/314875

Location

Location
Level 3, Room 3620, University Study Gallery
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Physical Descriptions

Technique
Iris digital print
Dimensions
Sheet: 81.3 x 57.8 cm (32 x 22 3/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: verso lower left in graphite pencil: Glenn Ligon 2000
  • inscription: verso lower left in graphite pencil: Glenn Ligon 2000
  • inscription: verso lower right in graphite pencil: 15/20 L

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[Sikkema Jenkins & Company, New York, New York], sold; to Harvard University Art Museums, June 2006.

State, Edition, Standard Reference Number

Edition
15/20

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Margaret Fisher Fund
Copyright
© Glenn Ligon
Accession Year
2006
Object Number
2006.78.A
Division
Modern and Contemporary Art
Contact
am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Description
Condition Report consists of two parts (A (left) and B (right)), sheets identical in size, one Iris digital print and one Iris digital print with serigraph.
Commentary
During their March 1968 strike, the black sanitation workers of Memphis, Tennessee carried placards printed with the words "I AM A MAN." Ernest Withers immortalized the protest and its slogan in a photograph that has become an iconic document of the civil rights movement in the south. (Martin Luther King was assassinated when he went to Memphis to show his support for the strikers.) Glenn Ligon co-opted the format of the strike poster and its declarative statement for a 1988 painting, putting further emphasis on the assertion by underlining its verb, "I AM A MAN." This printed diptych is based on the earlier painting and a fictive condition report that identifies such aberrations as "dark spots" and "brown smudges" on the painting. Besides pointing to the history of African-American oppression, Ligon's prints reference the artistic commodification of that oppression by the art world.

Exhibition History

Subjects and Contexts

  • Collection Highlights

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu