Glenn Ligon has gained international acclaim for his resonant multi-media works that explore issues surrounding race, sexuality, identity and language. Ligon is best known for paintings in black oil stick and coal dust of stencilled, racially charged prose, such as Negro Sunshine. The words Ligon uses are not his own. He draws on a range of African-American literary, political and popular culture voices, such as Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin and Richard Pryor. The phrase ‘Negro Sunshine’ comes directly from Gertrude Stein’s ‘Melanctha’, the second of the stories in Three Lives, her first published work. ‘Melanctha’ is an unconventional and highly charged novella that focuses upon the distinctions and blending of race, sex and gender in a segregated American town.
2010 Oilstick, coal dust and gesso on paper. 30.5 × 23 cm (12 × 9 in). Signed, titled and dated ‘Study for Negro Sunshine #54, 2010, Glenn Ligon’ on the reverse.