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Driskell Prize Lecture: Jamal Cyrus--"Phylacteries to Repel Ghosts",
Price: Members: FREE
Event DescriptionIn 2020, Jamal Cyrus was awarded the Driskell Prize in celebration of his contributions to the field of African American art. Join us for this program where Cyrus will discuss the important role autodidacticism, or being self-taught, plays within his work and in Black American culture at large.Encompassing several mediums from object-based to performance art, Cyrus's work is a form of self-education and is influenced by such subjects as Black American history and political movements, and spiritual and religious traditions within the African diaspora. Cyrus textures his work with hybridized cultural elements, including references to Ghanaian textile patterns, Southern quilt making, and spiritual amulets, or phylacteries, meant to repel evil. One set of amulets woven into Cyrus's work contains short excerpts from The Autobiography of Malcolm X, related specifically to Malcolm X's self-education and transformational religious conversion.The Driskell Prize, named for the renowned African American artist and art scholar, was established by the High in 2005 as the first national award to celebrate an early- or midcareer scholar or artist whose work makes an original and important contribution to the field of African American art or art history. Since the prize's inception, the funds have supported the acquisition of fifty works by African American artists for the High's collection.Photo Credit: Jamal Cyrus by Ronald JonesTAGSArtist/MakerAtlantanCollege StudentLife-Long LearnerMemberModern ArtScholarYoung ProfessionalFree for MembersMe TimeTalks
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