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Bikers Take a Break. Sunday Afternoon in Druid Hill Park, Baltimore, Maryland, September 1973, from the series Southern Roads/City Pavements

  • Roland L. Freeman, Bikers Take a Break. Sunday Afternoon in Druid Hill Park, Baltimore, Maryland, September 1973, from the series Southern Roads/City Pavements, 1973, printed 1982, gelatin silver print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of George H. Dalsheimer, 1991.80.6, © 1973, Roland L. Freeman

Exhibition Label
A back story is always featured in Freeman’s photographs, providing an implicit chronicle that links the people in his pictures with a larger narrative. Bikers Take a Break is not only an image of hip young men showing off lean bodies, it is also a reminiscence of black Baltimoreans coming together on Sunday afternoons for the beating of the drums, an informal gathering that serves as a reminder of a time in history when drumming was banned by slave owners because it kept alive the legacy of African culture.


African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond, 2012
Title
Bikers Take a Break. Sunday Afternoon in Druid Hill Park, Baltimore, Maryland, September 1973, from the series Southern Roads/City Pavements
Artist
Roland L. Freeman
Date
1973, printed 1982
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
sheet: 11 x 13 7/8 in. (28.1 x 35.2 cm.)
Copyright
© 1973, Roland L. Freeman
Credit Line

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Gift of George H. Dalsheimer

Mediums Description
gelatin silver print
Classifications
Photography
Photoprint
Keywords
  • Figure group – male
  • Cityscape – Maryland – Baltimore
  • Ethnic – African-American
  • Landscape – park – Druid Hill Park
Object Number
1991.80.6
Palette
Linked Open Data URI

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