On View
Visual Arts Gallery
Exhibition
Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience.
Created by
Pindell, Howardena Doreen, American, born 1943
Date
1987
Medium
acrylic, pressure-sensitive tape, rhinestone, wood, metal, silicone, zircon, canvas
Dimensions
H x W x D (painting): 24 × 21 1/2 × 3 in. (61 × 54.6 × 7.6 cm)
H x W x D (frame): 30 × 28 × 7 in. (76.2 × 71.1 × 17.8 cm)
Caption
Howardena Pindell created Separate But Equal in protest of apartheid—South Africa’s rigid, racially segregated caste system created by the country’s white citizens. It established and maintained wealth and privilege while depriving the black majority of their civil, economic, and political rights. The system’s implications are revealed through the use of color, words, and found objects. In the white section, Pindell incorporates words such as Barbaric, Parasitic, and Profit; in the middle section, terms include Endless Labor, Pass Book, and 0 Votes; the lower , ripped from and tenuously reconnected to the rest of the canvas, contains the words Malnutrition, Death, and Torture. Each section, combined with the rhinestones, nails, and painted gold frame, deftly reveals the tension, danger, and violence prevalent during this dark era.
Description
A mixed media artwork referencing apartheid in South Africa. The work features a black and white canvas studded with rhinestones; a white strip forms a horizontal plane atop a black field. The canvas has been ripped and then sewn together, leaving a diagonal gash along the right side of the work. Words have been superimposed on the black field using black vinyl tape: Apartheid, Camps, The Mines, Disappearances, Pass Book, Endless Labor, 0 Votes, Detention, Interrogation, SOWETO. Words have been added to the white part of the canvas using white vinyl tape: Indifference, Separate State, Cruel, Profit, The Bomb, Barbaric, Killers, Comfort, Parasitic, Apartheid. There is a wooden frame around the plaster with nails protruding out from it.
Place depicted
South Africa, Africa
Classification
Visual Arts
Movement
Anti-apartheid movements
Type
multimedia works
Topic
Abstraction
Africa
Art
Politics
Segregation
Credit Line
Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
Object number
2012.80
Restrictions & Rights
© 1987 Howardena Pindell
Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
GUID
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/fd54da84404-ccf0-4d32-9d22-1ba20eb89cf7

Cataloging is an ongoing process and we may update this record as we conduct additional research and review. If you have more information about this object, please contact us at NMAAHCDigiTeam@si.edu

Share this page