Lessons of the Hour Gallery Talk

Join curators Saisha Grayson and Charlotte Ickes for a gallery talk about Isaac Julien’s tour de force Lessons of the Hour, jointly acquired for the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. The film installation interweaves period reenactments across five screens to create a vivid picture of nineteenth-century activist, writer, orator, and philosopher Frederick Douglass. 

Image credit: Isaac Julien, Lessons of the Hour, 2019, five screen installation 35mm film and 4K digital color, 5.1 surround sound; 28:44 minutes, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Joint museum purchase between the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. Acquired by National Portrait Gallery in part through the generosity of the Smithsonian Secretary and the Smithsonian National Board and Agnes Gund. Smithsonian American Art Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2023.42, © Isaac Julien, Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro