Towards Liberation

In 2023, the Memphis Art Museum acquired the Warren Black Gospel Window (1877), a stained-glass window portraying Jesus Christ and three biblical women. In its time, at the end of Reconstruction and the start of the Jim Crow era, the window was a radical statement on racial and gender equality. Towards Liberation connects this historically significant work with artworks that grapple with complicated shifts in American society since the nation’s founding in 1776.

The story of the United States is defined by a continued striving towards freedom, even when that progress has been nonlinear or short-lived. Over the past 250 years, many social movements have fought for a more complete expression of this nation’s promise of liberty and justice for all. This exhibition honors that history, featuring artwork and objects from the American Revolution to more recent struggles for Indigenous representation and LGBTQ+ rights. Towards Liberation is both rooted in the groundwork of the past and hopeful for a future that provides indelible rights for all those who call this country home.

Towards Liberation is curated by Adeze Wilford, Blackmon Perry Curator of African American Art and Art of the African Diaspora.

All exhibitions at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art are underwritten by the MBMA Exhibition Fund: Lead support provided by Kay Clark, and Maggie and Milton Lovell, with additional funding from Anonymous, Irene and Ron Ayotte, Gloria and Kenneth Boyland, Deborah and Bob Craddock, Susan and James Edelman, Debi and Galen Havner, Sally Hergenrader, James R. Humphreys, Betty and George Johnson, Kristen and Jay Keegan, Valerie and Carl Person, Deborah D. Tipton, Bill Townsend, and the Doris S. and Hubert Kiersky Charitable Remainder Trust.