- Created by
- Rucker, Rashaun, American, born 1978
- Date
- 2020
- Medium
- graphite and paint on paper
- Dimensions
- H x W x D (frame): 32 1/8 × 26 × 2 3/8 in. (81.6 × 66 × 6 cm)
- H x W (work): 23 3/4 × 18 in. (60.3 × 45.7 cm)
- Caption
- Rashaun Rucker is best known for his work dealing with Black male identity and social conditioning. In his Psychological Redlining series, he merges portraits of African American men with images of rock pigeons. Rock pigeons are generally viewed as urban, unclean nuisances. Rucker asserts that people perceive Black men much the same way—essentially pigeonholing them psychologically into a space where they don’t belong. The red cages framing each portrait relates to redlining, a systemic real estate policy demarcating communities of color by red lines on a map to limit access to home loans, insurance, and even grocery stores. Rucker says he created these images to “communicate why we as Black men often don’t fly, even though we have the ability to go far and beyond our circumstance.”
- Description
- 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. The red bar has seven small square notches cut out of the bottom margin. The rounded top of the birdcage has several links of red chain leading towards the top margin of the page. The artist's signature "Ruck" appears along the man's neck.
- Place made
- Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan, United States, North and Central America
- Portfolio/Series
- Psychological Redlining (13 Studies)
- Classification
- Visual Arts
- Topic
- Art
- Identity
- Men
- Mental health
- Race discrimination
- Stereotypes
- Urban life
- Credit Line
- Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Partial gift of Arthur Primas and Jumaane E. N’Namdi and museum purchase.
- Object number
- 2023.107.6
- Restrictions & Rights
- © Rashaun Rucker
- Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.




