[Untitled] (Crowd/The Fire Next Time)
Brooklyn Museum photograph
Object Label
In this piece, spelled out in sparkling coal crystals are the words “something in me wondered ‘What will happen to all that beauty?’” This quotation, from a 1962 essay by James Baldwin (reprinted the following year in the volume The Fire Next Time), is set over a blurred black-and-white image of the Million Man March, a gathering of black social activists in Washington, D.C., in 1995. The accumulation of crystals suggests the mass of participants in this historic event as viewed from above, while the juxtaposition of Baldwin’s words with the image of the march—separated by more than three decades—reminds us of the still-ongoing dialogue about race in America.
Caption
Glenn Ligon American, born 1960. [Untitled] (Crowd/The Fire Next Time), 2000. Screenprint with coal crystals on paper, image: 12 × 18 1/8 in. (30.5 × 46 cm) sheet: 19 5/8 × 27 11/16 in. (49.8 × 70.3 cm) frame: 27 1/8 × 35 1/8 × 2 1/4 in. (68.9 × 89.2 × 5.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Alfred T. White Fund, 2000.56. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2000.56_transp5856.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Printers
Title
[Untitled] (Crowd/The Fire Next Time)
Date
2000
Medium
Screenprint with coal crystals on paper
Classification
Dimensions
image: 12 × 18 1/8 in. (30.5 × 46 cm) sheet: 19 5/8 × 27 11/16 in. (49.8 × 70.3 cm) frame: 27 1/8 × 35 1/8 × 2 1/4 in. (68.9 × 89.2 × 5.7 cm)
Signatures
Signed lower right in graphite: "Glenn Ligon"
Credit Line
Alfred T. White Fund
Accession Number
2000.56
Rights
© artist or artist's estate
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Frequent Art Questions
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This work by Glenn Ligon features black coal crystals spelling out the phrase "What will happen to all that beauty?" in front of a photo from the Million Man March in DC in 1995. The innumerable individual coal crystals used in this work signify the massive crowd of people who attended the march. The words come from a James Baldwin essay written in 1962 and printed in 1963 in the volume "The Fire Next Time."
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