<I>Rodney King, Before BLM</I>
date: label: Date
content: 2017
name: label: Created by
content: Shaun Leonardo, American, born 1979
label: Subject of
content: Rodney Glen King, American, 1965 - 2012
label: Subject of
content: Los Angeles Police Department, American, founded 1869
notes: label: Caption
content: It's in the tactility of charcoal, the slow rendering of the image, and viewer's reflected image within the mirrored tint, that a person is absorbed by the drawing and invited to sit with the image differently. — Shaun Leonardo
label: Caption
content: Shaun Leonardo’s Rodney King challenges how media selections shape cultural memory and consciousness. The rate by which we are bombarded and distracted by media images reduces life events and history to flashes of select photographs and headlines. Leonardo explores the extent to which we are complicit. As the artist explains, “By forcing one to question how they previously perceived these images of state sanctioned violence, and thus implicate the way we see and receive these images, an opening is created that turns our looking into bearing witness.”
label: Description
content: A framed charcoal drawing on white fibrous paper depicting a scene from the video of the Los Angeles Police Department officers brutally beating Rodney King in 1991. The drawing has a black background with King's car in white. The eleven officers present at the scene are drawn blurred in charcoal with white highlights, as they appeared in the video footage. The image of King on the ground at the center of the drawing has been removed and a mirror tint glaze applied on the underside of the frame glass, allowing the viewer to be reflected in King's place.
place: label: Place depicted
content: Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, United States, North and Central America
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: Art
label: Topic
content: Mass media
label: Topic
content: Police brutality
label: Topic
content: Race discrimination
label: Topic
content: Race relations
label: Topic
content: U.S. History, 1969-2001
label: Topic
content: Violence
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
label: Classification
content: Visual Arts
label: Movement
content: Black Lives Matter
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture purchased with funds provided by the Smithsonian Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2021.44
objectType: label: Type
content: drawings
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: © Shaun Leonardo
label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: charcoal on paper with mirror tint on frame
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (Sheet): 30 × 45 in. (76.2 × 114.3 cm)
label: Dimensions
content: H x W x D (Frame): 31 1/2 × 46 1/2 × 1 1/2 in. (80 × 118.1 × 3.8 cm)