The Man Nobody Killed

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.

A framed stenciled paint and collaged work on printed commercially available cardboard featuring a portrait image of a young man, the artist Michael Stewart, who died after being beaten by New York City Transit Police following an arrest for writing graffiti on a wall in a subway station. Stewart is shows from the shoulders up in stenciled black paint. Across his face is stenciled text that reads "THE MAN NOBODY KILLED” in red paint. There is a white rectangle of paper adhered to the cardboard on top of the stenciled portrait. Located on his neck just below his jaw, the white rectangle has black text that reads “MICHAEL / STEWART / 1958- / 1984.” The artwork is stenciled atop a piece of white repurposed commercial cardboard with printing, stamps, and tape on it. In the upper left corner is black printed text "C/G." In the upper right corner is black printed text "BW.

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