OU SHAED FUTUE:

COLLECTIONSHIGHLIGHTS

OCTOBE2023

The following feature highlights a One Smithsonian approach to collections acquisition and 

stewardship. These highlights show how the Smithsonian is focused on diverse representation 

within the collections that reflect the full story of the American experience.
SMITHSONIAN MUSEUMS COLLABORATE ON JOINT ACQUISITIONS

Around the country and the world, museums are feeling an urgent need to diversify their holdings to make 

them better reflect the full scope of art and human history by acquiring works by women artists and artists of 

color. The Smithsonian Institution’s diverse museum complex offers a unique opportunity for collaboration 

and shared acquisitions among the Institution’s art and culture museums. By working together, the 

Smithsonian’s museums are leveraging their resources to acquire key works from artists that reflect the 

experiences of the people we serve and bring new voices and perspectives to the critical issues of our time. 

These acquisitions not only increase the diversity of the artists in our collections but also provide context 

around current issues that involve civics, history, and social justice. Supported by internal funding sources such 

as the Latino Initiatives Pool and the American Women’s History Initiative Pool, the museums and the 

Institution as a whole are supporting the Secretary’s priorities to pursue relevance and ensure that all our 

visitors see their stories reflected in our museums.

 
CHSDM AND SAAM, WITH AWHI FUNDS: TANYA AGUIÑIGA, METABOLIZING THE BORDER

For more than 20 years, Aguiñiga has worked 

along the 2,000 miles of the U.S.-Mexico 

border wall—an experience that has 

culminated in her most ambitious work to 

date, Metabolizing the Border. The artist 

produced a performance suit made of blown 

glass and embedded with border fence 

remnants to help process—metabolize—her 

fraught experiences at the border. In January 

2020, the artist wore the suit during a 

performance at the border fence. 

Metabolizing the Border was included in the 

Renwick Gallery's 50th-anniversary exhibition 

and catalog, This Present Moment: Crafting a 

Better World, and featured in SAAM's "Drawn 

to Art" comic series about women artists. 

Metabolizing the Border allows both the 

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

(CHSDM) and the Smithsonian American Art 

Museum (SAAM) to broaden conversations 

about the history of the U.S.-Mexico border 

and the people whose lives are continuously 

shaped by its dominating presence. The 

purchase was supported through the 

American Women’s History Initiative 

Acquisitions Pool, administered by the 

Smithsonian American Women’s History 

Initiative. 

Tanya Aguiñiga (B. 1978), Metabolizing the Border, 2018-2020. Joint museum 

purchase with Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum and Smithsonian 

American Art Museum through the American Women’s History Initiative 

Acquisitions Pool, administered by the Smithsonian American Women’s History 

Initiative—photo by Gina Clyne.
NMAAHC AND NPG, WITH AWHI FUNDS: EMMA AMOS, WILL YOU FORGET ME?

A New York-based painter, printmaker, textile 

designer, and educator, Emma Amos was the only 

woman to join the pathbreaking African-American

artist group Spiral at the invitation of Hale 

Woodruff in 1964. In the New York Times, she 

stated, “It’s always been my contention, that for 

me, a black woman artist, to walk into the studio is 

a political act.” Amos often spoke out about racism 

and sexism, especially in the art world, and she was 

an active member of feminist groups throughout 

her career, including the Guerrilla Girls. Amos also 

served as an editor for the feminist art magazine 

Heresies. Her work has been featured in 

international retrospective exhibitions organized by 

the Tate Modern, the Brooklyn Museum, and the 

Georgia Museum of Art, among others. Artsy.com 

posthumously named Emma Amos as a 2020 Artsy 

Vanguard in the category “Getting Their Due.”

An autobiographical painting from Amos’s 

acclaimed Falling Figures series depicts the artist 

holding an oversized photographic portrait of her 

mother, India, who died in Atlanta in 1979 when 

the artist was 42. India’s memory remained a 

guiding force in her daughter’s life. The source 

photograph for the portrait of India was taken 

before Amos was born, when her mother was a 

twenty-year-old college student. Amos’s notion of 

time as fleeting, beyond control yet contained in 

the images of those who have lifted her is the focus 

of the work. This is signaled in her painted 

incorporation of what looks like a sepia 

photograph, emphasizing the importance of the 

photographic portraiture found in family albums as a key mode of preserving Black family histories. The use of 

kente cloth on the border and Dutch trade cloth for the dress reference Amos’s place within the African 

diaspora. 

Amos was a forerunner in the practice of conceptual portraiture, which has influenced acclaimed 

contemporary artists today, including Amy Sherald. Her feminist and social justice lens contributes to the work 

and vision of the American Women’s History Initiative and the Our Shared Future: Reckoning with Our Racial 

Past Initiative. The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) and the National 

Portrait Gallery (NPG) jointly acquired the work.

Emma Amos, Will You Forget Me?, 1991. Acrylic on canvas with 

fabric collage and African fabric borders, 65 x 45 in. Collection of the 

Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and 

Culture and National Portrait Gallery, Museum purchase through the 

American Women’s History Initiative Acquisitions Pool, administered 

by the Smithsonian American Women’s History.
NMAAHC AND NPG, WITH AWHI FUNDS: FLORA SILHOUETTE AND BILL OF SALE

The silhouette and the bill of sale for a nineteen-year-old woman known as Flora, along with Flora herself, 

originally belonged to Asa Benjamin (1763-1833) of Stratford, Connecticut. At an unknown date, the papers 

were stored in the basement (former slave quarters) of the Captain David Judson House, an early-eighteenthcentury building in Stratford. They were possibly deposited there by one of the residents, Sarah Plant Judson 

(1775-1857), the sister of Asa Benjamin’s wife. In 1925, the Judson House was bequeathed to the Stratford 

Historical Society. The documents were discovered in the 1960s when the Society renovated the house.

The miraculous 225-year survival of the portrait of Flora, together with the legal document that altered her 

destiny, constitutes a unique historical legacy. Display of these documents will take every precaution to ensure 

their physical longevity and maximize their public impact. The portrait of Flora and the bill of her sale will 

alternate between the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) and the National Museum of African American History 

and Culture (NMAAHC), with mandatory rest periods in between to slow degradation from light exposure.

As noted above, the portrait of Flora and the bill of her sale constitute a unique and somewhat miraculous 

historical survival. Because of the rarity and significance of these artifacts, the NPG and NMAAHC are pursuing 

joint ownership as a means of reaching diverse audiences, maximizing interpretive programming, and 

facilitating scholarly research. These artifacts provide a unique opportunity to fill a gap in our collections 

through the representation of an enslaved woman whose life spanned the American Revolution and the 

period of the Early Republic. Flora’s name, face, and biography will allow us to personalize the monolithic, 

200-year history of slavery in New England through the human scale of an individual African American life. The 

indexical nature of Flora’s silhouette, which was traced at life-size directly from her cast shadow, makes her 

portrait especially effective in conveying a tangible sense of human presence. By viscerally connecting 

present-day viewers with a woman from the past, we believe the portrait of Flora will elicit an empathic 

response and spark curiosity about her life as well as the experiences of other African-American women in 

early-nineteenth-century New England.

Flora silhouette and bill of sale, ca. 1777 – 1815. Collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and 

National Portrait Gallery purchased through the American Women’s History Initiative Acquisitions Pool, administered by the Smithsonian 

American Women’s History Initiative.
HMSG AND SAAM: ARTHUR JAFA, LOVE IS THE MESSAGE, THE MESSAGE IS DEATH

For twenty years, Arthur Jafa has straddled the worlds of filmmaking and fine art, focused in both spaces on 

framing Black bodies, Black life, and Black stories with a belief in their transcendent beauty. When Jafa 

debuted the seven-and-a-half-minute video, Love is the Message, The Message is Death, in 2016, it was 

instantly recognized as one of the most important artworks of the twenty-first century. A powerful montage 

of original and appropriated footage, it presents the whiplash of joy, pain, transcendence, and tragedy that 

constitutes the African American experience through a hundred years of moving-image recordings. The 

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (HMSG) featured the video in the 2017 exhibition, The Message: 

New Media Works, and in 2018, partnered with the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) to co-acquire 

the work. As noted at the time, its presence in the Hirshhorn collection affirms its globally defining impact, 

while at SAAM, the work extends three centuries of American artists wrestling with the country’s racial 

complexities. 

 

In June 2020, HMSG and SAAM collaborated with the artist to continuously stream the work online for 48 

hours. Eleven other art museums and collections in seven countries hosted the stream on their websites as 

well, making the work available globally beyond gallery walls. Now, in its largest and most accessible 

presentation for D.C.-audiences, Love is the Message, The Message is Death, is on view as the centerpiece of 

SAAM’s special exhibition, Musical Thinking: New Video Art and Sonic Strategies (through January 29, 2024). 

Arthur Jafa, Love is the Message, The Message is Death, 2016, single-channel high-definition digital video (color, sound); 07:25 min. 

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Joint museum purchase with the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, 

Washington, D.C. Gift of Nion T. McEvoy, Chair of SAAM Commission (2016-2018), and McEvoy's fellow Commissioners in his honor; additional 

funding provided by Joseph H. Hirshhorn Bequest Fund, 2020.001., 2020.3, © 2016, Arthur Jafa. Image courtesy of the artist and Gavin Brown’s 

enterprise, New York / Rome.
NPG AND SAAM: ISAAC JULIEN, LESSONS OF THE HOUR

Projected across five screens for almost thirty minutes, Sir Isaac Julien’s visionary film installation Lessons of 

the Hour (2019) teases the achievements and ongoing importance of America’s foremost abolitionist figure 

and philosopher, Frederick Douglass (1818–1895). Structured around intoned passages from Douglass’s key 

speeches, including the titular “Lessons of the Hour,” “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?,” and “Lecture 

on Pictures,” the lush visuals weave together reenacted scenes from Douglass’s life and lectures, shots of his 

historically preserved home in Washington, D.C., and more recent footage of fireworks and protests as the 

struggle to make good on America’s promise of equality continues. In this way, the piece brings to life the 

zeitgeist of Douglass’s era while showing how his legacy continues today. It also continues Julien’s prominence 

as a moving-image pioneer whose cinematic and multichannel installations often center on iconic African 

Americans, from Matthew Henson to Langston Hughes to Alain Locke. 

 

Julien enters the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) and the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM)’s 

collections through this, their first major co-acquisition together, acquired in part through the generosity of 

the Smithsonian Secretary and the Smithsonian National Board. As NPG and SAAM share a building, they now 

have the unique opportunity to co-present Julien’s immersive work in the context of both their historical 

collections galleries. The joint exhibition Isaac Julien: Lessons of the Hour—Frederick Douglass D.C., opening 

December 2023, will debut the work for D.C. audiences and remain on view through the United States 

Semiquincentennial. 

Isaac Julien, Lessons of the Hour, 2019, five-channel installation, 35mm film and 4K video (color, sound); 28:44 min. Joint museum purchase 

between the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. Acquired by the 

National Portrait Gallery in part through the generosity of the Smithsonian Secretary and the Smithsonian National Board and Agnes Gund. 

Smithsonian American Art Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, NPG.2023.23 and SAAM 2023.42. © 

Image courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro.
HIRSHHORN AND NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY: JAMES LUNA, HALF INDIAN/HALF MEXICAN

Although he began his art career as a painter 

in the mid-1970s, James Luna is best known

as a multi-media installation and 

performance artist with a practice rooted in 

unflinching self-examination. Using humor, 

vulnerability, and empathy, his art faces 

head-on the entrenched stereotypes and 

income disparities that ruthlessly curtail life 

potential for the marginalized communities 

with which he identified. Luna is typically 

presented and discussed as a Native 

American artist, often overlooking his Latinx 

cultural heritage. 

A self-portrait, Half Indian/Half Mexican, is therefore highly significant as it examines his intersectionality as a 

descendant of two marginalized communities and is a direct commentary on what Luna referred to as “the 

absurdity of being of measurably mixed blood ancestry.” Evoking the “objective” profile picture that is 

evocative of both historical eugenics studies and criminal mug shots, this triptych brings issues inherent in 

Luna’s complex cultural identity to the surface and alludes to how those marginalized identities (the 

indigenous and the Mexican/Latinx) have been denigrated.

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (HMSG) co-acquisition with the National Portrait Gallery

(NPG) was supported with funds from the Latino Initiatives Pool Award. 

James Luna (Luiseño, Puyukitchum, Ipai, and Mexican-American, b. 

Orange, California, 1950-2018) Half Indian/Half Mexican, 1991

Silver gelatin print. Three elements: 60 x 48 inches each (60 x 144 

inches, overall). Edition of 6 + 2AP. 
NMAAHC AND NPG: DEBORAH ROBERTS, 80 DAYS FROM THE NESSUM DORMA SERIES

Deborah Roberts has long been an advocate for 

telling stories of underrepresented subjects, 

particularly African-American women and girls. She 

says, “Having one’s identity dismantled, marginalized, 

and regulated to non-human status demands action. 

This led me to engage image-making in art history and 

pop-culture critically, and ultimately grapple with 

whatever power and authority these images have 

over the female figure.”

In 1944, fourteen-year-old George Stinney Jr. was 

executed in an electric chair for a murder he did not 

commit. He remains the youngest person to have 

been executed in a U.S. prison. Deborah Roberts’s 

series Nessun Dorma (None Shall Sleep) honors 

Stinney’s life and brings to light this tragic story of 

injustice and violence during the Jim Crow era of 

racial discrimination. The story of George Stinney, Jr. 

remains emblematic of the continued injustices 

against African Americans who continue to lose their 

lives due to false accusations today.

Stinney’s exoneration decades later by the state of 

South Carolina points to the many injustices against 

African American youths who have lost their lives due 

to false accusations. When Roberts found Stinney’s 

mugshot, she felt compelled to make this work: “I 

didn’t want to—I was called to do it,” she said. 

The work is now part of the collection of the National 

Museum of African American History and Culture

(NMAAHC) and the National Portrait Gallery (NPG), a 

joint purchase made possible by the American 

Women’s History Initiative Acquisitions Pool, 

administered by the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative. 

Deborah Roberts, 80 Days from the Nessun Dorma series, 2018. 

Paper, acrylic, graphite, and pastel on canvas, 2018. Gold fingernails 

added in 2022. 72 x 48 in. Collection of the Smithsonian National 

Museum of African American History and Culture and National 

Portrait Gallery, Museum purchase through the American Women’s 

History Initiative Acquisitions Pool, administered by the Smithsonian 

American Women’s History Initiative