The Colonel’s Cabinet

Renée Stout, The Colonel's Cabinet, 1991-1994, mixed media: carpet, chair, painting, and cabinet with found and handmade objects, overall: 67 1⁄2 x 60 x 50 1⁄2 in. (171.5 x 152.4 x 128.3 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson, 1994.45.1A-MMM, © 1994, Renee Stout

Artwork Details

Title
The Colonel’s Cabinet
Artist
Date
1991-1994
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
overall: 67 1⁄2 x 60 x 50 1⁄2 in. (171.5 x 152.4 x 128.3 cm.)
Copyright
© 1994, Renee Stout
Credit Line
Museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson
Mediums
Mediums Description
mixed media: carpet, chair, painting, and cabinet with found and handmade objects
Classifications
Highlights
Subjects
  • Object — weapon — dagger
  • Object — art object — photograph
  • Object — written matter — map
  • Object — musical instrument — guitar
  • Object — other — container
  • Object — furniture — cabinet
  • Object — written matter — book
  • Object — furniture — chair
  • Object — art object — sculpture
Object Number
1994.45.1A-MMM
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1994.45.1A-MMM

Artwork Description

The Colonel’s Cabinet is a narrative of exploration and memory that traces the life of one Colonel Frank. Like the gentleman travelers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries who created “cabinets of curiosities” filled with artifacts of distant people and places, the fictitious Colonel Frank collected small treasures to remind himself of where he had been and individuals he had met. An invented persona based on Stout’s father, who, she said, brought the world to her shy and introspective mother, the colonel also reflects Stout’s own search for a personal history.


African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Right Era, and Beyond, 2012

Works by this artist (16 items)

View all artworks
Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Landscape, 1920, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1965.38
Landscape
Artist
Date1920
oil on canvas
On view
Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Strong Woman and Child, 1925, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation, 1986.6.50
Strong Woman and Child
Artist
Date1925
oil on canvas
On view
Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Landscape, 1936, conte crayon on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the Evander Childs High School, Bronx, New York through the General Services Administration, 1975.83.107
Landscape
Artist
Date1936
conte crayon on paper
Not on view
Yasuo Kuniyoshi, (Untitled), 1931, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Nathaly Baum, 1976.21.9
(Untitled)
Artist
Date1931
Not on view

Exhibitions

Media - 1995.22.1 - SAAM-1995.22.1_1 - 65784
African American Art in the 20th Century
Smithsonian American Art Museum
The Smithsonian American Art Museum is home to one of the most significant collections of African American art in the world.

More Artworks from the Collection

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Marcus Root, Caroline Lamb Norris, ca 1855, daguerreotype with tinting, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Charles Isaacs and Carol Nigro, 1999.86.2
Caroline Lamb Norris
Artist
Attributed to Marcus Root
Dateca 1855
daguerreotype with tinting
Not on view
Image Not Available
Bently
Artist
Dateca. 1975
gelatin silver print
Not on view
Eugene Von Bruenchenhein, Untitled, ca. 1945-1950, gelatin silver print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Lewis and Jean Greenblatt, 2002.86.9
Untitled
Artist
Dateca. 1945-1950
gelatin silver print
Not on view
Eugene Von Bruenchenhein, Untitled, ca. 1945-1950, gelatin silver print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Lewis and Jean Greenblatt, 2002.86.7
Untitled
Artist
Dateca. 1945-1950
gelatin silver print
Not on view