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Z0034489.jpg

Kara Walker, Cotton Hoards in the Southern Swap, Harper's Pictorical History of the Civil War (Annotated), 2005. Purchased with funds from the Collection of Dr. and Mrs. Joseph A. Chazan. © Kara Walker

Introduction

United Histories

March 23 - August 12, 2018

This exhibition interrogates some of the issues and profound differences that characterize the past, present, and future of the United States. How do race and class define lived experience in America? How do we address changing values and notions of domesticity and motherhood? What shifting contingencies of “freedom” are presented by differing interpretations of the Constitution? How are our national histories reflected in the complicated relationships we maintain internationally? The works in United Histories, and the conversations staged between them, encourage us to reexamine and reconsider American history from new and possibly challenging perspectives.

Dominic Molon
Richard Brown Baker Curator of Contemporary Art
RISD Museum

Selected Objects

RISDM 2012-133-3-5.jpg

Rashid Johnson

Thurgood in the Hour of Chaos, 2009
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Carey Young

Declared Void, 2005
RISDM 2014-9-1.jpg

Roger Shimomura

American Guardian, 2008
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Robert M. Wilson

Stalin Chairs, 1977
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Wallace Nutting

Braced Bow Back Windsor Chair, ca. 1920
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A. Wighe

Trial by Jury, 1849
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Kara Walker

Cotton Hoards in the Southern Swamp, 2005
RISDM 43-003.jpg

Alonzo Chappel

The Landing of Roger Williams in 1636, 1857
RISDM 44-094 v_01.jpg

Horace Pippin

Quaker Mother and Child, ca. 1935-1940
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Mimi Smith

Maternity Dress, 1966

More objects +

Exhibition Checklist

United Histories

March 23 - August 12, 2018
View Checklist PDF

RISD Museum

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