Revival: Digging Into Yesterday, Planting Tomorrow

Isaac Julien’s Lessons of the Hour, a key work in Revival, is a poetic meditation on Frederick Douglass’ life informed by some of the abolitionist’s most important speeches, such as “Lessons of the Hour,” “What to the Slave Is the 4th of July?,” and “Lecture on Pictures.” Douglass, the most photographed man of the 19th century, believed in the power of art and technology to shape lives and society. The still image of Douglass, his wife Anna Murray Douglass, and the noted African-American photographer J.P. Ball, Serenade, attests to the importance of the role of representation, in both politics and aesthetics, in shaping both Douglass’ groundbreaking work and Julien’s artistic vision. As writer Cora Gilroy-Ware observes, “The films of Isaac Julien know what beauty can do.”

Beauty abounds in this exhibition as artists deploy visual allure to illuminate how the past echoes in the present moment and into tomorrow. Reviving complex histories from a global spectrum of sources that are alternately inspiring and challenging, the artworks on view highlight how paths forward often lead back, and then through, inspiring transformation, transcendence, and reframing of the works. Listening to these echoes can spur a deeper understanding of where we have come from, where we are, and where we are going. As Isaac Julien says, “these historical linkages to the present perhaps hold keys to the future.”

Artists: Kelani Abass, Stacey Gillian Abe, Maxwell Alexandre, Katrina Andry, Daphne Arthur, Omar Ba, Alberto Baraya, Wim Botha, Andy Llanes Bulto, Gareth Cadwallader, Carolyn Castaño, Kudzanai Chiurai, Joana Choumali, Myrlande Constant, Christian Curiel, Uuriintuya Dagvasambuu, Godfried Donkor, Michael Eastman, Jeannette Ehlers, Esiri Erheriene-Essi, Carlos Gamez de Francisco, Julie Heffernan, Isaac Julien CBE RA, Kapwani Kiwanga, Dinh Q. Lê, Hew Locke, Isabelle Frances McGuire, Kyle Meyer, Tyler Mitchell, Mohau Modisakeng, Madame Moreau, Richard Jonathan Nelson, Melvin Nesbitt Jr., Ruth Owens, Michael Pajón, Ebony G. Patterson, Duke Riley, Alberto Alejandro Rodriguez, Kay Ruane, Athi-Patra Ruga, Manuel Hernandez Sanchez, Simone Saunders, Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, Stan Squirewell, Stephanie Syjuco, Hank Willis Thomas, Sara Sonié Joi Thompson-Ruffin, Jeroen van Kesteren, Maxim Wakultschik, Cosmo Whyte, Kehinde Wiley, Nate Young

Curator: Alice Gray Stites, Chief Curator and Museum Director at 21c Museum Hotels