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Image

RISDM 2001-80-30.jpg
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Carrie Mae Weems

Commemoration Plate, 1992

Description

Maker

  • Carrie Mae Weems, b. 1953, American
  • Lenox, Inc., fl. 1889-present, American, manufacturer

Title

Commemoration Plate

Year

1992

Medium

Bone china

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • bone china

Dimensions

Diameter: 27.3 cm (10 3/4 inches)

Type

  • Ceramics

Credit

Gift from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Barnet Fain

Object Number

2001.80.30

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Everyday Things

April 13, 2012 - February 24, 2013

Decorative plates such as Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee Plate, the Official Royal Wedding Commemorative Plate for Prince William and Catherine Middleton, and inauguration plates for U.S. Presidents traditionally commemorate the rites and rituals of rich and powerful people. Carrie Mae Weems’s twenty-plate series Commemorating was produced by the artist with the American china manufacturer Lenox, which is known for its White House commissions and customized tableware for U.S. Embassies and governors’ mansions. The series uses the classic design of a round, gold-ringed, bone-white dinner plate, but celebrates rather than royalty the achievements of famous, average, familiar, and forgotten people and moments in African-American history. This one reads: “Commemorating Blues, Jazz, Collard Greens & Thelonius Monk,” while subjects of other plates in the series range from Harriet Tubman to the ghettos of Harlem, Watts, and Detroit to “Every Black Man Who Lives to See Twenty-One.”

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in Copyright. This object is Commemoration Plate with the accession number of 2001.80.30. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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