Private Law and Order Leagues (study for medallion, Medals for Dishonor series)

David Smith, Private Law and Order Leagues (study for medallion, Medals for Dishonor series), ca. 1938-1939, felt-tipped pen and ink (from verso) and pen and ink on paper, sight 10 ³⁄₄ x 13 ³⁄₄ in. (27.3 x 35.0 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by Olin Dows, 1988.60

Artwork Details

Title: Private Law and Order Leagues (study for medallion, Medals for Dishonor series)
Artist: David Smith
Date: ca. 1938-1939
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: sight 10 ³⁄₄ x 13 ³⁄₄ in. (27.3 x 35.0 cm)
Credit Line: Museum purchase made possible by Olin Dows
Mediums: ink
Mediums Description: felt-tipped pen and ink (from verso) and pen and ink on paper
Classifications: Drawing
Subjects: Object — other — flag
Allegory — civic — injustice
State of being — death — execution
History — United States — Black History
Study
Figure group
Object Number: 1988.60
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1988.60

Artwork Description

In the mid-1930s, Smith began drawings for a series of fifteen relief sculptures he called “Medals for Dishonor,” an ironic reference to the nation’s highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor. Smith believed that groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and the German-American Bund, a pro-Nazi organization, represented fascism in America. In the background of this study, KKK hats mimicking mountains surround a lynching tree, while a cross transforms into a swastika. Although a central theme of this series is women as victims of physical aggression, they do not escape indictment. With her hatchet, Carrie Nation represents the self-righteous zealotry of bigots. Strewn with references to the “wild West,” this vision portrays the horrors of vigilante justice in the guise of law and order.

Graphic Masters II: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2009