Radcliffe Bailey
My Brother the Wind

My Brother the Wind

© Radcliffe Bailey. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York

My Brother the Wind
My Brother the Wind
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • My Brother the Wind
Date1998
PlaceUnited States
MediumMixed media, found photograph, and Plexiglas on wood
Dimensions82 × 69 × 6 in. (208.3 × 175.3 × 15.2 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by Lester and Diane Marks, Tom Roupe, Carol C. Ballard, and members of the department of Twentieth Century Art
Object number98.438
Non exposé

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Object Type
Description

Born in New Jersey, Radcliffe Bailey was
raised in Georgia and attended the Atlanta College of Art, where he received a
B.F.A. in 1991. This painting takes
its title from Sun Ra’s 1992 album My Brother
the Wind
; like Sun Ra’s musical collages, Bailey’s work explores the roots
of his heritage to address the African American Diaspora, personal identity
within that larger history, and the particular qualities of contemporary
Southern life.



The central
image is a recreation of a Victorian tin-type photograph, which is surrounded
by a richly painted oval frame. Among the interwoven images are references to
the Middle Passage and to African American migrations across the United States.
The stenciled image of the machete is for Bailey a symbol of protection and
sacrifice, and refers to the Oklo people of Africa, and written in reverse, as
if visible only the portrait figure, are the African nations—Ghana, Liberia,
and Guinea— which make up Bailey’s heritage.




ProvenanceThe artist; [David Beitzel Gallery, New York]; purchased by MFAH, 1998.
Exhibition HistoryExhibited: "African-American Art in the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston", The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, February 22, 2004 - May 9, 2004.

Exhibited: "Statements: African American Art from the Museum's Collection," The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Millennium Gallery, May 23–September 25, 2016.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
The painting is signed in black oil stick on a piece of white paper glued onto the face of the painting, upper quarter.

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

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