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Estimate: $ 10,000 - $ 15,000
RASHID JOHNSON (1977 - ) Manumission Papers.
Van Dyke Brown photo-emulsion print on heavy wove paper, 2002. 1270x1003 mm; 50x39 1/2 inches.
Provenance: acquired directly from the artist; private collection.
Exhibited: Sunrise Museum, Charleston, WV, 2002, with the label on the frame back.
This contemporary Chicago-born artist earned a BA in 2000 from Columbia College Chicago and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2004 before moving to New York City, where he currently works. One of his earliest photographic series, Manumission Papers references the papers given to freed slaves as proof of their freedom, and are printed using the Van Dyke Brown process, an early photographic technique from the mid-19th century. The geometric compositions of singular body parts against a sparse, dark background do not belong to a single individual, but rather form a harmonic whole. Johnson's oeuvre, which incorporates photography into his larger assemblages, evokes an African-American identity, with images of famous African Americans, literature, albums and daily household products all present.
His first solo museum exhibition, Rashid Johnson: Message to Our Folks, is currently at the Miami Art Museum, before going to the High Museum of Art, Atlanta. It was on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, earlier this year. Johnson's work was also included in the recent group exhibitions The Bearden Project at the Studio Museum in Harlem and 30 Americans, Rubell Family Collection, Miami.
