April 6 - July 13, 2018
Location: Skirball Gallery, Third Floor
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
50 East Freedom Way, Cincinnati, OH 45202
Admission: $5.00 with general admission
Confederate Currency: The Color of Money, presented by BB&T, investigates the importance of slavery in the economy of the South.
Artist John W. Jones researched and documented over 126 images of slavery that were depicted on Confederate and Southern States money. The juxtaposition of the framed Confederate currencies with the acrylic paintings inspired by the slave images on the currencies makes a very powerful statement on the contribution of enslaved Africans to the American economy. In these paintings, as Jones says, “history informs art, which in turn artfully reveals more history.” Confederate Currency has been exhibited at Avery Research Center Museum, African American Museum and Library at Oakland, Louisiana State University, Schumacher Gallery and the Augusta Museum of History.
Jones was recently presented with the U.S. Consul General’s Award for Cultural Diplomacy at an American Gullah culture and heritage workshop hosted by the Academia delle Belle Arti of Brera in Italy.
PRESS RELEASE
August 22, 2017
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center Exhibition Schedule Redefines African American Identity and Representation in History and the Arts
