Negroes To Be Sold, Hank Willis Thomas
About the Work
Hank Willis Thomas is a photo conceptual artist working primarily with themes related to identity, history, and popular culture. Negroes to Be Sold appropriates and riffs on the form and appearance of 18th-century advertisements for the sale of slaves, inserting familiar silhouettes of contemporary sports and entertainment figures and of the now iconic figures used to represent enslaved bodies. Realized as a laser-cut relief print, Thomas has captured the style and tactile quality of 18th-century prints with raised lettering that renders the printing surface as a sculptural relief. The original auction advertisement appropriated by the artist was published in Charleston, SC, on April 26, 1760.
—From Brandywine Workshop and Archives records
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About the Artist
Hank Willis Thomas is a photographer, sculptor, and conceptual artist born in Plainfield, NJ. He earned his BFA in photography and Africana studies from New York University and an MA in visual criticism and an MFA in photography from California Co...
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