Artwork Details
- Title
- Ode to George Floyd II
- Artist
- Date
- 2021
- Location
- Not on view
- Dimensions
- 47 1⁄2 × 45 1⁄4 in. (120.7 × 114.9 cm)
- Credit Line
- Gift of Fleur S. Bresler
- Mediums
- Mediums Description
- commercial cotton, batik cotton, cotton batt, and cotton thread
- Classifications
- Subjects
- Portrait male — Floyd, George, II — bust
- African American
- Object Number
- 2023.40.21
Artwork Description
Peggie L. Hartwell
born 1939, Springfield, SC
resides Summerville, SC
Ode to George Floyd II
2021
commercial cotton, batik cotton, cotton batting, and cotton thread
George Floyd, who died after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for nine minutes and twenty-nine seconds on May 25, 2020, is featured here. The incident sparked the largest demonstrations for racial justice in American history. Floyd’s last words, “I can’t breathe,” are appliquéd in large letters. A silhouette of his mother looks on from the trees.
Quilter Peggie Hartwell describes her work as quilts of consciousness, documenting history so we do not forget it. She wrote a poem to accompany this quilt:
Breath: An Ode to George Floyd
Mama, they have thrown me to the ground.
One of them has straddled my neck!
“O! the pain.
“I can’t breathe.”
They are talking amongst themselves.
A crowd is looking on . . . “Help me!”
“Mama. Can’t move.
I can’t breathe!”
Mama, my breath is escaping me.
The pressure is so great.
“O! the pain!”
“I can’t breathe.”
Mama.
“Yes, son. I am here.”
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Fleur S. Bresler, 2023.40.21
We Gather at the Edge: Contemporary Quilts of Black Women Artists, 2025