Traditional Hang-up (Containment Series)

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Artist John Outterbridge(American, 1933–2020)American, 1933–2020

CultureAmerican

Titles

Traditional Hang-up (Containment Series)

Date1969

MediumMixed media

DimensionsOverall: 30 × 25 × 3 in. (76.2 × 63.5 × 7.6 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment

Object number2020.313

Not on view

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Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Object Type

SCULPTURE

DescriptionIn the aftermath of the 1965 Watts Rebellion
in Los Angeles, John Outterbridge was one
of a pioneering group of Black artists who
revived the California Assemblage movement
by collecting debris from the streets to
transform fragments of destruction into
objects of reflection. Traditional Hang-up
features a horizontal stencil of an American
flag supported by a vertical container filled
with carved wooden heads. While the piled
heads evoke the bodies of Africans packed
into slave ships centuries earlier, they recall
modern day Black Americans’ struggles against
discrimination, blocked from upward mobility
by a symbol of the country they nonetheless
have served.
ProvenanceThe artist; Private collection; [Tilton Gallery, New York]; purchased by MFAH, 2020
Exhibition History“John Outterbridge, Brockman Gallery,” Los Angeles, 1971. [perhaps]

“Black Art: The Black Experience,” Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA, 1971.

“Los Angeles 1972: A Panorama of Black Artists,” Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, February 2-March 19, 1972.

“A Tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr.,” Los Angeles Municipal Arts Gallery, Barnsdall Park, Los Angeles, California, 1976. Illustrated in catalogue in installation photo.

“19 Sixties: A Cultural Awakening Re-evaluated 1965-75,” California Afro-American Museum, Los Angeles, California, 1989. Illustrated in catalogue p.21.

“John Outterbridge: A Retrospective,” California Afro-American Museum, Los Angeles, 1993. Illustrated in catalogue, p. 9

“The Art of Betye Saar & John Outterbridge: The Poetics of Politics, Iconography and Spirituality,” 22nd Bienal Internacional de Sao Paolo, Sao Paolo, Brazil, 1994. Illustrated in catalogue, p. 5.

Los Angeles 1955 – 1985, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 2006. Illustrated in catalogue, Plate 18, p. 197.

“Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles 1960–1980,” Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, October 2, 2011—January 8, 2012; traveled to MoMA P.S.1, New York, October 21 - March 11, 2013; Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA, July 20 - December 1, 2013. Illustrated in catalogue, p. 166.

“Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power,” Tate Modern, London, UK, July 12 - October 22, 2017, traveled to Crystal Bridges, Bentonville, AR, February 2 - April 23, 2018; the Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY, September 7, 2018 - February 3, 2019; The Broad, Los Angeles, CA March 23 - September 1, 2019; de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA, November 9, 2019 - March 15, 2020; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, June 27 – August 30, 2020. Illustrated in catalogue p. 32.
Published References Von Blum, Paul. Resistance, Dignity, and Pride: African American Artists in Los Angeles. Los Angeles: CAAS Publications, 2004. Illustrated Fig. 15-1. Tilton Connie Rogers, and Lindsay Charlwood, editors. L.A. Object & David Hammons Body Prints. New York: Tilton Gallery, 2011. Illustrated p. 184. Cahan, Susan, David C Driskell, Edmund B Gaither, Linda Goode-Bryant, Jae Jarrell, Wadsworth Jarrell, Samella S Lewis, et al. Soul of a Nation : Art in the Age of Black Power. Edited by Mark Godfrey and Whitley Zoé. London: Tate Publishing, 2017. Illustrated p. 32. Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

Catalogue raisonnéNA

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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