Emancipation+House

Date: 1964
 * [[image:https://s3.amazonaws.com/saam.media/files/styles/x_large/s3/images/1976/1976.60_1a.jpg?itok=ks6ZPgqn width="362" height="289" link="@https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/emancipation-house-27625"]] || Title: **Emancipation House**

Artist: **George W. White, Jr.** Born: Cedar Creek, Texas 1903 Died: Dallas, Texas 1970

Medium: mixed media: wood, cloth, and oil Dimensions: 19 1/2 x 23 1/4 x 18 1/2 in. (49.5 x 59.2 x 47.0 cm.) Smithsonian American Art Museum Museum purchase

Accession: 1976.60 || A Texan of African-American, Native American, and Mexican ancestry, George White included anecdotal recollection and commentary in the narrative relief panels and three-dimensional tableaux that he made after 1957. Although he emphasized his experience as a southern black man in constructions such as //Emancipation House//, his intent was often ambiguous, as was his use of stereotypical imagery in humorous or exaggerated form. White maintained that this sculpture dealt with the “emancipation” of sexual awareness. Originally, the kerchiefed woman stood outside the outhouse, so frightened by a snake that her bodice had burst, fully exposing her bosom to a boy positioned inside the gate. Around 1975 the artist’s widow removed the boy and reclothed and shifted the woman. Details such as the illustration of Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration and the men at work in a humble rural setting, however, also may suggest White’s perception of the lives of African Americans long after the Emancipation Proclamation. Whatever the message, White delivered it in entertaining fashion and installed electrical wiring to activate the rooftop figures and illuminate the interior. The wiring, unfortunately, is no longer operational.
 * About the Artwork: **

Events tied to personal experience and family histories are often at the center of folk expressions. Here the artist, a Texan of African American, Native American, and Mexican ancestry, incorporates history, humor, and memory into a detailed rural scene in which three men repair a roof while two women eat watermelon beneath an illustration of Lincoln's inauguration. Little is understood about White's intentions in using exaggerated stereotypical imagery. Yet aspects like the electrical wiring that once animated the rooftop men and lit the interior, underscore his delight in entertaining viewers.
 * Gallery Label: **

Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006

White in the Newspaper George White - Catalogue from the Waco Creative Art Center
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14.3px;">SAAM Collections Page
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14.3px;">Links: **