File:Joe Ray US 1993.jpg

Assemblage-painting by Joe Ray, US, acrylic on canvas, cotton fabric, on panel; 48" × 72", 1993. Collection of LACMA). The image illustrates a key body of work in Joe Ray's career from the 1990s: his series of assemblage-paintings probing issues of identity, racial justice and inclusion. These works often responded to events—as in this case, the Los Angeles riots and Rodney King incident—employing a fluid use of imagery as both symbols and formal elements in order to subvert negative stereotypes and racial epithets. In this work, Ray juxtaposed symbols of freedom and equality (a gazelle mask symbolizing the African continent; kente cloth, a Ghanaian textile with significance to the West African diaspora he used in place of an American flag's traditional blue field; flowers seemingly growing out of concrete; Abstract Expressionist paint handling) with symbols of repression and protest (splashes of black paint suggesting stained urban sidewalks and anger; a spade forms evoking a racial slur). This work was publicly exhibited in prominent exhibitions, discussed in art journals and press publications, and acquired by a major museum.

Artist Joe Ray. Copyright held by the artist.

Joe Ray (artist)

Entire artwork

Yes

The image serves an informational and educational purpose as the primary means of illustrating a key body of work in Joe Ray's career dating from the 1990s, when he produced a series of assemblage-paintings that probed issues of identity, racial justice and inclusion. These works often referenced current and historical events, and employed a fluid use of imagery as both symbols and formal elements in order to subvert negative stereotypes and racial epithets. The series juxtaposed symbols of freedom and equality and repression and protest, drawing on from African imagery and materials, U.S. racial history, metaphor, and art-historical references (e.g., Abstract Expressionism). Because the article is about an artist and his work, the omission of the image would significantly limit a reader's understanding and ability to understand this major body of work, which brought Ray later recognition through museum exhibitions and acquisitions, public exhibitions and coverage by major critics and publications. Ray's work of this type and this series is discussed in the article and by critics cited in the article.

There is no free equivalent of this or any other of this series by Joe Ray, so the image cannot be replaced by a free image.

The image will not affect the value of the original work or limit the copyright holder's rights or ability to distribute the original due to its low resolution and the general working of the art market, which values the actual work of art. Because of the low resolution, illegal copies could not be made.