The Colonel’s Cabinet

Copied Renée Stout, The Colonel's Cabinet, 1991-1994, mixed media: carpet, chair, painting, and cabinet with found and handmade objects, overall: 67 1⁄2 x 60 x 50 1⁄2 in. (171.5 x 152.4 x 128.3 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson, 1994.45.1A-MMM, © 1994, Renee Stout

Artwork Details

Title
The Colonel’s Cabinet
Artist
Date
1991-1994
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
overall: 67 1⁄2 x 60 x 50 1⁄2 in. (171.5 x 152.4 x 128.3 cm.)
Copyright
© 1994, Renee Stout
Credit Line
Museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson
Mediums
Mediums Description
mixed media: carpet, chair, painting, and cabinet with found and handmade objects
Classifications
Highlights
Subjects
  • Object — other — container
  • Object — furniture — cabinet
  • Object — written matter — book
  • Object — furniture — chair
  • Object — art object — sculpture
  • Object — musical instrument — guitar
  • Object — written matter — map
  • Object — art object — photograph
  • Object — weapon — dagger
Object Number
1994.45.1A-MMM
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1994.45.1A-MMM

Artwork Description

The Colonel’s Cabinet is a narrative of exploration and memory that traces the life of one Colonel Frank. Like the gentleman travelers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries who created “cabinets of curiosities” filled with artifacts of distant people and places, the fictitious Colonel Frank collected small treasures to remind himself of where he had been and individuals he had met. An invented persona based on Stout’s father, who, she said, brought the world to her shy and introspective mother, the colonel also reflects Stout’s own search for a personal history.


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

Exhibitions

Media - 1995.22.1 - SAAM-1995.22.1_1 - 65784
African American Art in the 20th Century
Smithsonian American Art Museum
The Smithsonian American Art Museum is home to one of the most significant collections of African American art in the world.