Psychological Redlining (13 Studies)

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.

This is a mixed media portrait of a man with a pigeon emerging from the top of his head, framed within a red frame in the shape of a birdcage. The graphite portrait shows the man from the nose up. His head is shown rising up from below the bottom of the frame. He faces front, with a very slight tilt of his head to the right. His gaze is directly on the viewer. The bird emerging from the crown of his head is shown from its neck upward. Its head is turned slightly to the left, giving a quarter profile. The portrait is enclosed in a frame of red paint creating a birdcage shaped like a house. The two sides consist of wide red lines while the bottom is a thinner red line. The top of the “cage” is a solid red triangle while its underside forms a dome.

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