Misconstrued Rap Lyric #1, 2019; triple beam balance, painted plaster bust of Martin Luther King, shelf; 20 x 19 x 6 in (50.8 x 48.3 x 15.2 cm)



Featuring works created over the past forty years, many of which are owned by the Menil, this display presents artists’ response to the precariousness of life through the expression of longing, grief, and spirituality. Artworks include Kara Walker’s powerful 40-foot-long silhouette work, Freedom Fighters for the Society of Forgotten Knowledge, Northern Domestic Scene, 2005; Andy Warhol’s expansive late painting, The Last Supper, 1985; Mel Chin’s monumental sculpture Our Strange Flower of Democracy, 2005, on special loan from the artist; and a major recent acquisition by Nari Ward, Say Can You See, 2021. The display highlights a myriad of artistic approaches to political issues of the past decades.