The Struggle

Purvis Young, The Struggle, 1973-1974, acrylic on wood, 88 × 77 in. (223.5 × 195.6 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Grumbacher-Viener Collection in memory of Nancy Grumbacher, 2014.15

Artwork Details

Title: The Struggle
Artist: Purvis Young
Date: 1973-1974
Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum
/
3rd Floor
/
East Wing
Dimensions: 88 × 77 in. (223.5 × 195.6 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of the Grumbacher-Viener Collection in memory of Nancy Grumbacher
Mediums Description: acrylic on wood
Classifications: Painting
Highlights: African American Art
Folk and Self-Taught Art
Subjects: Architecture Exterior — domestic — apartment
Architecture — vehicle — truck
Cityscape
Figure male
Object Number: 2014.15
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2014.15

Artwork Description

Purvis Young lived his entire life in a segregated district of Miami known as Overtown, commonly called "Colored Town" before the late 1960s. When his neighborhood of African Americans and Caribbean immigrants was boarded up to make way for an overpass bridging more affluent sections of Miami, Young knew he had to do something.

Inspired by the Black activist murals in Chicago and Detroit, he began painting the boarded-up facades of shops along a once thriving baker's row, which locals called "Goodbread Alley."

For the rest of his life, Young made paintings focusing on the perils of being poor and socially disempowered in the United States. The Struggle shows individuals left with next to nothing fighting over what's left. It shows people hitting the road, moving on, making a way out of no way.