Skip Navigation

Oath

Deana Lawson

Contemporary Art

Shooting primarily in the United States and the Caribbean, Deana Lawson is inspired by the expression and aesthetics of black cultures worldwide. Using a large-format camera, and working across a variety of photographic traditions—including portraiture, staged scenes, found or appropriated imagery, and vernacular photography such as family albums—she addresses themes of the body, sensuality, community, and spirituality, among others. Lawson’s photographs can be seen as psychological portraits of black subjects in an extended, mythological diasporic family.
MEDIUM Pigment print
DATES 2013
DIMENSIONS 40 x 50 in. (101.6 x 127 cm) frame: 41 x 51 in. (104.1 x 129.5 cm)  (show scale)
SIGNATURE Signed verso
COLLECTIONS Contemporary Art
ACCESSION NUMBER 2015.6.1
CREDIT LINE William K. Jacobs, Jr. Fund
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Deana Lawson (American, born 1979). Oath, 2013. Pigment print, 40 x 50 in. (101.6 x 127 cm). Brooklyn Museum, William K. Jacobs, Jr. Fund, 2015.6.1. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Image courtesy of the artist, CUR.2015.6.1_Lawson_photograph.jpg)
IMAGE overall, CUR.2015.6.1_Lawson_photograph.jpg. Image courtesy of the artist
"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
RIGHTS STATEMENT ©Deana Lawson
The Brooklyn Museum holds a non-exclusive license to reproduce images of this work of art from the rights holder named here. The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org. If you wish to contact the rights holder for this work, please email copyright@brooklynmuseum.org and we will assist if we can.
RECORD COMPLETENESS
Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.
Deana Lawson (American, born 1979). <em>Oath</em>, 2013. Pigment print, 40 x 50 in. (101.6 x 127 cm). Brooklyn Museum, William K. Jacobs, Jr. Fund, 2015.6.1. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Image courtesy of the artist, CUR.2015.6.1_Lawson_photograph.jpg)