Art 21: History Reaction

Glenn Ligon is an abstract expressionist artist, who is concerned with the American black history. In his artworks, he examines the cultural and the societal identity of this nation by looking into photographs, literature and historical episodes such as slavery and the civil right movements in America. He uses oil crayon, painting, neon lights and literary texts as a media to reach the attention of the public. The reason why the artist does not uses his own words in his artworks and takes quotations from literary sources, is because he is more interested in reading what people have to say about the issues in respect with the american black community. However, Glenn Ligon's photographs, neon lights, childish drawings, jokes, texts and paintings are created with the aim of discovering  what America is, and how the society has evolved through the pass of history.