Dancing Angel

Object Details

Date
1974
Artist
David Driskell, born Eatonton, GA 1931-died Hyattsville, MD 2020
Execution Date
Dancing Angel resonates with allusions to ancient, classical, and African art, and to personal history. The angel’s body is crafted with oil paint, fabric, and clippings from a 1969 Look magazine article entitled “The Blacks and the Whites: Can We Bridge the Gap?” The striped Benin cloth alludes to banded quilts made by Driskell’s mother, and the angel herself refers to Driskell’s father, a Baptist minister who often talked about angels in his sermons. The angel’s face—half modern, half reminiscent of Ife masks—signals the dual nature of Driskell’s own African American heritage. This complex collage is a tribute to Driskell’s family and to the multiple sources in Africa that infuse black life in the American south.
Modern Masters: Midcentury Abstraction from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2008
Topic
Recreation\dancing
Religion\angel
See more items in
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department
Painting and Sculpture
Credit Line
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Cynthia Shoats and museum purchase
Copyright
© 1974, David C. Driskell
Data Source
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Object number
2004.27
Type
Painting-Mixed Media
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Medium
oil, fabric and collage on canvas
Dimensions
60 x 40 in. (152.4 x 101.6 cm)
GUID
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk7d95546f3-b47f-4437-8047-205a8b15e0aa
Record ID
saam_2004.27