Emancipation

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

An oil painting the crucifixion of a young Black man on a tree. His body is positioned along the branches and trunk of the tree like the body of Christ, with each outstretched arm bound in multiple places to a branch and his feet crossed at the ankles and nailed to the bottom of the tree trunk. Beneath the tree is the figure of a small child facing away from the tree and the crucified figure and towards a glow of light emanating from the left side the painting. In the blue sky of the background, seven white cranes fly towards the same glow the small child is facing. The painting is signed and dated in the bottom right corner: [Kadir Nelson MMCI (C)].

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