{"product_id":"henry-ward-beecher-freedwoman-and-children-by-howard-skrill","title":"\"Henry Ward Beecher, Freedwoman and Children\" by Howard Skrill","description":"\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003epastel on bristol\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e11\" x 14\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eMy submission to the Fl3tch3r exhibition is a plein-air drawing that I made of public effigies in walking distance from my long-term Brooklyn home in 2014. The figure group is situated at the end of a wide promenade that leads to the Brooklyn bridge. Other effigies, likenesses of great men and various personifications, are carefully sited in proximity to Brooklyn’s most prominent public buildings. Henry Ward Beecher stands with both feet solidly planted on a raised plinth. Beecher is celebrated for advocacy of emancipation as the civil war ramped up. Literally at his feet stands a barefooted freedwoman stretching her arms to lay laurels of victory upon the edge of the plinth. The freedwoman cranes her head towards Beecher towering above and he stares towards Brooklyn. Two children personifying the future are on the other side of the plinth, holding onto ropes. The words 1861-1865 are carved beneath Beecher's name on the plinth’s front facing. Public effigies press certain narrative strands such as Beecher as savior and the freedwoman as saved. Thirteen years and an existential battle over American identity sit between this image of Beecher and new works where the freedwoman in studio installations is foregrounded and Beecher has disappeared. Effigies from the Civil War have been wiped from public places and we must endure a tedious but predictable backlash. The fate of effigies predicts the fates of the communities that raise or erase them, a zero-sum battle of existential proportions. My art documents and attempts to reframe this battle in numerous modalities and most recently to participate in its unfolding.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Fischman Gallery","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52800259457335,"sku":null,"price":1124.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0870\/6234\/8087\/files\/20260807_145551.jpg?v=1786131184","url":"https:\/\/fischmangallery.org\/products\/henry-ward-beecher-freedwoman-and-children-by-howard-skrill","provider":"Fischman Gallery","version":"1.0","type":"link"}