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Stranger in the Village #13

Large rectangular painting that is mostly black, shaded in black paint and coal dust. Many words and phrases in black paint span the canvas in horizontal lines, but they are barely legible.

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  • Large rectangular painting that is mostly black, shaded in black paint and coal dust. Many words and phrases in black paint span the canvas in horizontal lines, but they are barely legible.

Date:

1998

Artist:

Glenn Ligon
American, born 1960

About this artwork

Glenn Ligon is best known for text-based paintings that engage themes of authorship, history, and identity. Borrowing from writers such as Ralph Ellison and Zora Neale Hurston, Ligon systematically stencils quotations across his canvases. Stranger in the Village #13 is part of a series that the artist began in 1997, in which he rendered passages from James Baldwin’s 1953 essay of the same title in nearly illegible black paint. In response to Baldwin’s experience as an African American living in a remote village in Switzerland, Ligon commented, “The gravity and weight and panoramic nature of that work inspired me … and the addition of the coal dust seemed to me to do that because it literally bulked up the text.” Allowing the words to degrade as part of his process, Ligon incorporated Baldwin’s meditations on colonialism, race, and national identity while addressing language’s inability to fully articulate experience.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Contemporary Art

Artist

Glenn Ligon

Title

Stranger in the Village #13

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1998

Medium

Enamel, silkscreen ink, oil and acrylic paint, gesso, and coal dust on canvas

Dimensions

193.1 × 335.3 cm (76 × 132 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of The Peter Norton Family Foundation

Reference Number

1999.303

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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