Study for Sunshine #57, 2010

Glenn Ligon is a renowned American conceptual artist whose work examines race, language, sexuality, and historical memory. Through the repeated use of text drawn from literary, political, and cultural sources, Ligon creates pieces that are both visually striking and intellectually rigorous. His engagement with African American identity often manifests through the layering, smudging, and partial erasure of language—strategies that question the legibility and permanence of Black experience in dominant cultural narratives. Ligon’s practice frequently blurs the line between visual art and literature, prompting viewers to confront the instability and weight of words, especially when shaped by the politics of race and representation.

In Study for Negro Sunshine #57 (2010), Ligon utilizes oil stick, coal dust, and gesso on paper to explore the haunting resonance of the phrase “Negro sunshine,” a term taken from Gertrude Stein’s 1909 novella Three Lives. Measuring just 12 by 9 inches, this small-scale work is part of a larger series in which Ligon repeatedly inscribes the phrase until it becomes both form and texture. The addition of coal dust deepens the surface with a material associated with labor and Blackness, amplifying the work’s political charge. The study functions as both a meditation and a challenge—inviting viewers to reflect on how language tied to Black identity can be simultaneously luminous and fraught, legible and obscured.