Harvard Art Museums > 2006.78.A: Condition Report Prints Collections Search Exit Deep Zoom Mode Zoom Out Zoom In Reset Zoom Full Screen Add to Collection Order Image Copy Link Copy Citation Citation"Condition Report (Glenn Ligon)(Published by Sikkema Jenkins & Co.) , 2006.78.A,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, Nov 21, 2024, https://hvrd.art/o/314875. This object does not yet have a description. 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 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 The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request. 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 DISSENT!, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 11/11/2006 - 02/25/2007 Vision and Justice: The Art of Citizenship, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/27/2016 - 01/08/2017 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