Fear Not the Third Millennium

Celebrate the dawning of 2001, the actual start of the new century, with the Smithsonian American Art Museum's monument to the third millennium.

This amazing work of folk art, composed of 180 pieces wrapped in layers of foil, was created between 1950 and 1964 by James Hampton.

As early as 1931, Hampton believed that he began receiving visions from God, and by 1945 he had made one small, shrine-like object. … His work on The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly probably began in earnest around 1950, when he rented an alleyway stable in his northwest Washington D.C., neighborhood.

A poor man, Hampton scavenged his materials from secondhand stores, the streets, and government buildings where he worked. He gathered metallic foils from liquor-store displays and cigarette boxes, and also bought rolls of household aluminum wrap. After completing his janitorial duties around midnight, Hampton worked almost daily on his project until he died in 1964, an event that cut short his hopes to retire and display the Throne in a storefront ministry.

While the Smithsonian American Art Museum is closed for renovation, this wonderful piece is currently on view at The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Source: Lynda Hartigan. Hampton Throne Installation(exhibition text, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1999).

Pictured top: James Hampton, 1909–64 , The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millenium General Assembly (detail), about 1950–64, gold and silver aluminum foil, Kraft paper, and plastic over woodfurniture, complete configuration: 10 1/2 x 27 x 14 1/2 ft., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of anonymous donors.

Pictured bottom: James Hampton, 1909–64, The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millenium General Assembly, (detail).