Descriptive Summary
Access
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Acquisition Information
Scope and Content of Collection
Indexing Terms
Descriptive Summary
Title: Glenn Ligon papers
Dates: 1994-1996
Collection Number: 1996-16
Creator/Collector:
Extent: 1.6 linear feet
Repository:
GLBT Historical Society
San Francisco, California 94103
Abstract: The Glenn Ligon papers consist of books, essays and articles about the Million Man March and representations of black people,
exhibition catalogues, journal notes, test photos, photo albums and scrapbooks used in the preparation of his exhibit at the
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, May 23rd through August 25th, 1996.
Language of Material: English
Access
Collection is open for research.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item]. Glenn Ligon papers. Collection Number: 1996-16. GLBT Historical Society
Acquisition Information
Gift of Glenn Ligon on June 24, 1996.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Glenn Ligon papers consist of books, essays and articles about the Million Man March and representations of black people,
exhibition catalogues, journal notes, test photos, photo albums and scrapbooks used in the preparation of his exhibit at the
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, May 23rd through August 25th, 1996. Ligon is an American conceptual artist whose work
explores race, language, desire, and identity; his work is greatly informed by his experiences as a Black gay man living in
the United States. According to Ligon, his SFMOMA show (“Glenn Ligon: New Work”) is about autobiography, how identity is formed
within the framework of society’s understanding of race, class, gender and sexual preference, and about the conflicting nature
of those identifications. Scrapbooks created by Ligon as an extension of the Museum exhibit were simultaneously exhibited
at the GLBT Historical Society. The exhibition pamphlet notes, “For Ligon, placing a trove of materials about the [Million
Man] march and his work on it in the care of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society is an act with many
layers of meaning in relation to the questions of presence and absence, visibility and invisibility that run through the rest
of the exhibition. It is a way of filling in spaces left hauntingly blank by the images in the gallery, of speaking personally
to a more motivated, less impersonal audience than that of a large museum, an audience willing to make the extra effort to
visit a space they might otherwise ignore or avoid.” An index to the material in the collection is available in Box 1. GSSO
linked terms: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GSSO_003728; http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GSSO_007675; http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GSSO_001039;
http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GSSO_001601; http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GSSO_006371; http://purl.bioontology.org/ontology/MESH/D001154;
http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GSSO_000374
Indexing Terms
Black people
Art
Gay men
African Americans
People of color