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Erased Lynchings

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  • Ken Gonzales-Day, Erased Lynchings, 2006, fifteen inkjet prints, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2012.12.2A-O, © 2006, Ken Gonzales-Day

This group of photographs is based on historic postcards of California lynching victims that circulated in American culture during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. To produce these works, Gonzales-Day photographed the original images and then digitally removed the victims. In doing so, he redirected viewers’ attention away from the victim and towards the actions of the perpetrators. Regionally inflected words and phrases like ​“cowboy justice” and ​“bandito” printed on the original postcards contextualize these events.

Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art, 2013
Title
Erased Lynchings
Artist
Ken Gonzales-Day
Date
2006
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
dimensions variable
Copyright
© 2006, Ken Gonzales-Day
Credit Line

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment

Mediums Description
fifteen inkjet prints
Classifications
Photography
Photoprint
Object Number
2012.12.2A-O
Palette
Linked Open Data URI

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