Wall Drawing Series: Marcia Kure

The Menil Drawing Institute presented the third of an ongoing series of ephemeral, site-specific wall drawings. Artist Marcia Kure (b. 1970) has a multidisciplinary art practice in which she explores a wide range of concepts, including colonial legacies and diasporic identities. She is known for compositions that feature Uli line, a Nigerian design motif traditionally drawn on bodies and the walls of homes, as well as her use of natural pigments.

Kure’s wall drawing used the line as a metaphor for contemporary and historical trade routes. In her formulation, the line is not only a mark; it is activated in space through the movement of bodies in daily actions. In NETWORK, 2021, Kure used kola nut, indigo, tea, and charcoal as drawing media while also addressing their role as commodities that trace the African diaspora. These connections implicate the viewer in a complex history of migration, labor, and exploitation. Furthering this narrative, the installation included two African sculptures placed on pedestals, one in the style of a Mande headdress and the other of a Dogon female figure, both modified with the addition of synthetic hair extensions.

Kure has said that, for her, “drawing has been a life-long journey. It’s been a language that I’ve been trying to understand for the longest time—from historic South African cave drawings, to collage, to sewing— trying to find my own way of drawing the line. Line is not a mere mark on paper, it’s something that contains memory, purpose, and thought. Line is something that we all engage with daily, our entire body participates in making the mark, implicating us all in a vast interconnected and entangled network that continues beyond the wall.”

Wall Drawing Series: Marcia Kure was curated by Kelly Montana, Assistant Curator, Menil Drawing Institute.

This exhibition was generously supported by Clare Casademont and Michael Metz; Penelope and Lester Marks; Scott and Judy Nyquist; Leslie and Shannon Sasser; and Robin and Andrew Schirrmeister.

Collection Close-Up: Bruce Davidson’s Photographs consisted of a selection of the American photographer’s most consequential series made between 1956 and 1995. Primarily drawn from a recent anonymous gift to the Menil Collection of approximately 350 photographs, the exhibition offered an intimate perspective on Davidson’s subjects and their communities, from circus performers to Welsh miners to New York City neighborhoods.

The exhibition opened with works from one of Davidson’s earliest series, Brooklyn Gang, 1959. After reading an article about a group of teenagers called the Jokers who had instigated a skirmish in Prospect Park, Davidson (b. 1933) sought them out and earned their trust by socializing with them on street corners late at night. Davidson’s resulting photographic essay portraying their adolescent struggles was published in Esquire magazine. The work received international acclaim, and the artist subsequently was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to document “Youth in America.” For this project, Davidson joined the Freedom Riders, college-age activists who confronted racial segregation in the American South. Davidson was profoundly impacted by the violent resistance the group encountered, as well as by the glaring inequity in the communities they visited.

From 1961 to 1965, Davidson continued to record the civil rights movement and the effects of segregation throughout the United States in his series Time of Change. His images show Mother Brown, a former slave living in Harlem, aboard the Circle Line boat tour as it passes the Statue of Liberty; a member of the Ku Klux Klan handing out pamphlets on the streets of Atlanta; and demonstrators marching from Selma to Montgomery in late March 1965, during their third attempt to reach the state capitol.

Collection Close-Up: Bruce Davidson’s Photographs was curated by Molly Everett, Curatorial Assistant, Modern and Contemporary Art, The Menil Collection.