Description
This companion publication to the Smithsonian Institution's major traveling exhibition of the same name is the first book to demonstrate through the visual arts, the enduring influence and importance of the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. King's deeds and beliefs first awakened artists during the dramatic days of the Civils Rights Movement. In the more that thirty years since his tragic death, his message and dominion have continued to grow. In the Spirit of Martin vividly portrays the wide-ranging outpouring of responses to Dr. King's life and work. This landmark volume presents over 130 works of art - painting, sculpture, drawing, collage, and printmaking - created by more that 100 visual artists. These artworks are presented alongside never before published commentary on the life of Dr. King, and explore the ideas and events that served as their inspiration. The art of In the Spirit of Martin was selected from many hundreds of works gathered through an extensive national search. Included are many important African American artists such as Elizabeth Catlett, Kerry James Marshall, Glenn Ligon, Raymond Saunders, Charles White, Faith Ringgold, and Jacob Lawrence. These artists' works are represented alongside other of the most widely acclaimed artists of the last half century - creators as diverse as Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Paul Cadmus, and Norman Rockwell. In the Spirit of Martin also presents the works of self-taught artists, many of whom have lived in relative obscurity within the South that Martin Luther King strove to liberate and transform. These folk and vernacular artists demonstrate King's impact throughout all areas of American life and art. In the Spirit of Martin is a large-format, 224-page, richly illustrated book with more that 180 artworks, all reproduced in full color, including more that forty works t! hat were not available for the exhibition. In 1963 Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote, "The men and women who rode the freedom buses through Alabama, who walked in Montgomery, who knelt in prayer in Albany, who hold and sing We Shall Overcome Someday in the face of hostile mobs - their acts cry out for songs to be sung about them, and pictures to be painted of them." In the Spirit of Martin is the realization of his dream for these people to be immortalized in the struggle for civil rights - and a magnificent testament to the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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