Our City

Herbert Gentry, Our City, 1998, acrylic on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of the artist, 2006.22.1, © 1998, Herbert Gentry
Copied 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

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