(from Arkansas Memory Series)

Artist Manuel Hughes (American, b. 1938)

Date2008

Dimensions(Frame) H: 20 5/16 in. (51.6 cm); W: 8 9/16 in. (21.7 cm); Depth: 1 5/8 in. (4.1 cm);
(Canvas) H: 19 3/8 in. (49.2 cm); W: 7 3/4 in. (19.7 cm); Depth: 3/4 in. (1.9 cm)

MediumOil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LineGift of Cynthia and Ronald Thompson

Object number

2009.393A-J

Not on View

Label TextThe objects change but the expressive intent is constant: to capture empirical reality revealing an inner light. Manuel Hughes creates lovingly descriptive images of everyday objects. Hughes was born in Arkansas, but moved to St. Louis at age 7 and now resides in Paris. This set of images from a series he calls “Arkansas Memories” references early childhood, while incorporating, according to his studio, “historical African American objects that represent the vast, sometimes disturbing, often beautiful images of both past and present life as an African American man in America.” Equally evocative and unsettling, these haunting, meditative tableaus of suspended doll parts are almost religious in tone.