The Struggle

Object Details

Date
1973-1974
Artist
Purvis Young, born Miami, FL 1943-died Miami, FL 2010
Gallery Label
Purvis Young lived his entire life in a segregated district of Miami known as Overtown, commonly called "Colored Town" before the late 1960s. When his neighborhood of African Americans and Caribbean immigrants was boarded up to make way for an overpass bridging more affluent sections of Miami, Young knew he had to do something.
Inspired by the Black activist murals in Chicago and Detroit, he began painting the boarded-up facades of shops along a once thriving baker's row, which locals called "Goodbread Alley."
For the rest of his life, Young made paintings focusing on the perils of being poor and socially disempowered in the United States. The Struggle shows individuals left with next to nothing fighting over what's left. It shows people hitting the road, moving on, making a way out of no way.
Topic
Figure male
Cityscape
Architecture\vehicle\truck
Architecture Exterior\domestic\apartment
See more items in
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department
Painting and Sculpture
On View
Smithsonian American Art Museum, 3rd Floor, East Wing
Credit Line
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Grumbacher-Viener Collection in memory of Nancy Grumbacher
Data Source
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Object number
2014.15
Type
Painting
Folk Art
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Medium
acrylic on wood
Dimensions
88 × 77 in. (223.5 × 195.6 cm)
GUID
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk71dd4ff09-ac8e-459f-9afe-c3f82185ed52
Record ID
saam_2014.15