Banjo art follows American history
Submitted on December 6, 2005 - 1:00am.
B. Blair Dedrick - Fall 2005
WASHINGTON - On one wall in the Corcoran Gallery of Art hangs a photo of a well-dressed white woman playing a banjo under a statue of Flora, the goddess of flowers. Across the room hangs a cartoon, captioned in stereotyped dialect, crudely depicting a black couple tugging and pushing a mule, loaded with baby and banjo, up a hill.
The 1895 photo by Frances Benjamin Johnston and the 1881 cartoon published by Currier and Ives of New York illustrate the extremes of the banjo's role in American culture. They are on display in a show that opens Saturday, “Picturing the Banjo,” a 71-work exhibit that includes images and instruments.
The 1895 photo by Frances Benjamin Johnston and the 1881 cartoon published by Currier and Ives of New York illustrate the extremes of the banjo's role in American culture. They are on display in a show that opens Saturday, “Picturing the Banjo,” a 71-work exhibit that includes images and instruments.
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