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Sherman Beck USA, b. 1942

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Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Sherman Beck, Portrait of Shirley Chisholm, 2022
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Sherman Beck, Portrait of Shirley Chisholm, 2022
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Sherman Beck, Portrait of Shirley Chisholm, 2022
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Sherman Beck, Portrait of Shirley Chisholm, 2022
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Sherman Beck, Portrait of Shirley Chisholm, 2022

Sherman Beck USA, b. 1942

Portrait of Shirley Chisholm, 2022
Acrylic on canvas
36 x 24 in
(91.4 x 61 cm)
Framed 40 x 28 x 1 3/4 in (101.6 x 71.1 x 4.4 cm)
8507

Further images

  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 1 ) Sherman Beck, Untitled, 2022
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 2 ) Sherman Beck, Untitled, 2022
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 3 ) Sherman Beck, Untitled, 2022
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 4 ) Sherman Beck, Untitled, 2022
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 5 ) Sherman Beck, Untitled, 2022
This portrait memorializes Shirley Chisholm. Born in Brooklyn in 1924, Chisholm became the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress, a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus...
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This portrait memorializes Shirley Chisholm. Born in Brooklyn in 1924, Chisholm became the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress, a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus and of the National Women’s Political Caucus, and the first Black woman to be a candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States. Here, Beck portrays Chisholm as she appeared on January 25, 1972, as she announced her candidacy for President. Rather than posing her turned to the side as she is in most photographs of the moment, Beck portrays Chisholm facing straight ahead, and has modified the geometry of Chisholm’s dress from rectangles to wavy, linear patterns, He has also expanded the five-band silver necklace Chisholm wore on the day into a five-band red, green, and black necklace, representative of the colors of the Pan-African flag. According to the The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League, which adopted the flag in 1920, “Red is the color of the blood which men must shed for their redemption and liberty; black is the color of the noble and distinguished race to which we belong; green is the color of the luxuriant vegetation of our Motherland.” On Chisholm’s gravestone, the epitaph reads, “Unbought and Unbossed,” the same slogan she used in her Presidential run.
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