Constellations IX SE
Artist
Lina Iris Viktor
Liberian British
Date2021
MediumPure 24-karat gold, acrylic, copolymer resin on cotton rag paper
Dimensionsheight and width: 56 × 40 in. (142.2 × 101.6 cm)
frame: 60 1/4 × 44 1/4 × 3 in. (153 × 112.4 × 7.6 cm)
frame: 60 1/4 × 44 1/4 × 3 in. (153 × 112.4 × 7.6 cm)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LinePurchased with funds from the North Carolina State Art Society (Robert F. Phifer Bequest)
Object number2021.17
On View
Not on view—Lina Iris Viktor, in “Dark Sublime—The Value of Darkness: In Conversation with Lina Iris Viktor” by Renée Mussai, 2019.
Gold has undeniably held a unique power over humans throughout history. Constellations IX SE is richly adorned with this singular metal on a field of matte and glossy blacks. Whereas gold is typically associated with light, wealth, success, and spirituality, black is an adjective aligned with gloom, illness, hostility, evil, and illegality.
According to Viktor, this coding has “long determined how we as black people ... are spoken about and seen.” Viktor offers another view—a renegotiation that aligns blackness with notions of light, positivity, and the magical cosmic qualities of gold. To her, black and gold are not colors but values—siblings within a more inclusive spectrum.
ProvenanceCreated London, 2021; collection of the artist; [Autograph/Rivington Place, London]; sold to NCMA, 2021.
Exhibition HistoryRaleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," October 7, 2022–October 9, 2023.. Object Rights Statement
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