Existing comment:
Juan Fuentes
born Artesia, New Mexico 1950
Many Mandelas
1986
screenprint on paper
In the 1980s, in the midst of the international Divestment from South Africa campaign, Fuentes portrayed a youthful Nelson Mandela (1918–2013), repeating his likeness five times over a large red ribbon, which was then a symbol of the anti-apartheid movement. Mandela was a South African political leader who was imprisoned for twenty-seven years because of his outspoken activism. His release in 1990 signaled the end of apartheid, a system of legal segregation on grounds of race. Four years later he was elected president of South Africa.
Gift of Tomás Ybarra-Frausto, 1995.50.20 |