Glenn Ligon, Untitled - Four Etchings [C] | Facing History & Ourselves
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Glenn Ligon, Untitled - Four Etchings [C]

In this black-on-black etching, Glenn Ligon uses Ralph Ellison's quote from the prologue of his novel, Invisible Man (1952): "I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids—and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus side-shows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only themselves, or figments of their imagina-"
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At a Glance

image copy
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Language

English — US

Subject

  • History
  • Racism

Credit:
Glenn Ligon/Reproduced with permission from Thomas Dane Gallery

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Using the strategies from Facing History is almost like an awakening.
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