Our City

Herbert Gentry, Our City, 1998, acrylic on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of the artist, 2006.22.1, © 1998, Herbert Gentry
Herbert Gentry, Our City, 1998, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 50 in. (152.4 x 127.0 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of the artist, 2006.22.1, © 1998, Herbert Gentry

Artwork Details

Title
Our City
Artist
Date
1998
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
60 x 50 in. (152.4 x 127.0 cm)
Copyright
© 1998, Herbert Gentry
Credit Line
Bequest of the artist
Mediums
Mediums Description
acrylic on canvas
Classifications
Subjects
  • Abstract
Object Number
2006.22.1
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2006.22.1

Artwork Description

Our City is a field of barely controlled skeins of color that swirl around a large central head. Above, a face resembling a traditional African mask summons thoughts of Gentry’s ancestors. Below is a perched bird, a form that appears often in Gentry’s art as a metaphor for the unconscious. Gentry said he painted “people I’ve met throughout most of the world – American, African American…who are my friends.” Our City has the feel of both a memory painting and an ancestral tree. It evokes people he knew and the ancestors whose lives and cultures are an inextricable part of his identity.


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

Works by this artist (1 item)

Richard R. John, Music Rack, 1975, black walnut and ebony, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1975.171
Music Rack
Artist
Date1975
black walnut and ebony
On view

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Chair
Artist
Date1995
mortise-and-tenon constructed, oiled, lacquered, and hand-rubbed claro walnut, macassar ebony, and putumuju, and leather
Not on view