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CARRIE MAE WEEMS
(American, born 1953)
The Armstrong Triptych, 2000
From “The Hamilton Project”
Ink on canvas
Gift of the New Art Collectors 2001.9 a-c
Both a poet and visual artist, Carrie Mae Weems has spent the last
two decades untangling the webs of history through her poignant
and provocative combinations of photography and text. An African-American
artist, Weems has focused much of her work on the experiences and
the representation of African Americans from the days of slavery
to the present.
The Armstrong Triptych consists of three canvases that have been
ink-jet printed based on nineteenth-century photographs. The left
canvas represents a group of Native Americans just after they arrived
in 1878 at Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, a school for
blacks and Native Americans. The right canvas shows the same group,
two years later, dressed like white, middle-class students. The
central image depicts the family of Samuel Chapman Armstrong, the
school’s founder. Across this central image Weems has written
a thought-provoking statement that reads, “With your missionary
might you extended the hand of grace reaching down and snatching
me up and out of myself.” The text and the two photographs
of the students illustrate what has been lost through Chapman’s
well-intended efforts. His family portrait represents the agents
of that loss, although he and his family look just as frail and
human as the students. |
