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 beak and feathers in place of a mouth and nose. The portrait is framed within a red frame in the shape of a birdcage. The graphite portrait shows the man from the neck up. His face is in three-quarter profile. He is bald. The feathers on his face begin just below his eyes, above his chin, and along his cheeks surrounding his mouth. The feathers culminate in a large beak bird beak proportionate to his face, complete with a nasal cere at the base. The portrait is enclosed in a frame of red paint in the shape of a birdcage. A thin red line is used to create a domed “cage” around the portrait head. There is a thick red bar directly below the head to create the bottom of the birdcage.

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