Reginald Gammon, 1921-2005, Harlem on My Mind

Lot description

Reginald Gammon 1921-2005 Harlem on My Mind 1969 c-print 14 x 11 inches stamped with the artist's name and address in Kalamazoo, Michigan verso; also bears stamp verso from Acts of Art, 15 Charles Street, New York. Acts of Art was owned by Nigel Jackson (a Black gallerist) and famously hosted the exhibit, Rebuttal to the Whitney Museum Exhibition: Black Artists in Rebuttal in 1971. Reginald Gammon superimposes an image of his own painting of the boxer Jack Johnson over the entrance and exhibition banner of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's controversial exhibition Harlem on My Mind. The Black Emergency Cultural Coalition was organized in January 1969 in response to the exhibition's exclusion of art and omission of the contributions of African American artists. As one of the founders, alongside Benny Andrews and Cliff Joseph, Gammon was a leading voice in the artists' protest against the Met and later the Whitney Museum of American Art, and in their call for more representation of African American artists and curators within art institutions. This image is in the collection of the Harvard Art Museum.