Facing Down The Status Quo – washingtonpost.com
The National Museum of African American History and Culture is slowly lifting the curtain on how it will approach the multitude of stories about African Americans. The museum is years away from opening on the Mall. Today its first exhibition opens at its Smithsonian sister the National Portrait Gallery, whose rich materials it scoured to present images from the past 151 years.
“Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits,” surveys 100 photographs, from a 1856 ambrotype, an early technique of photography, of Douglass to a 2004 snapshot of musician and composer Wynton Marsalis with a microphone in front of him, not a trumpet.
The faces are powerful and gorgeous. Their poses telegraph dignity and warmth. Their stories tell how they made steps forward as individuals to forge an image of a resilient, talented people.
We received a great review from the Washington Post for the exhibition that opened last Friday.
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Tags: Portrait, Smithsonian, history, photography, exhibition, gallery
Musings from Sumigirl 
October 22, 2007 at 11:39 am
Maybe when we come down before Thanksgiving we can catch this exhibit. Looks powerful!