Artwork
Untitled
Untitled is an oil drawing by Glenn Ligon. It dates from 1996 and is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
About this work
Overview
Created in 1996, this work by American conceptual artist Glenn Ligon consists of oil stick applied to paper. The piece is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art and exemplifies Ligon’s ongoing investigation of language, race and identity through a stark monochrome palette.
Subject & Meaning
The drawing juxtaposes dense black strokes with softer white fields, generating a visual tension that reflects the artist’s engagement with literary and cultural references, notably figures such as James Baldwin and Zora Neale Hurston, whose texts often inform Ligon’s explorations of representation.
Technique & Style
Ligon employs oil stick to build thick, tactile black marks that form a grid‑like structure, while the surrounding white areas are rendered with lighter, feathered applications. This contrast of heavy, raised pigment against delicate washes creates a three‑dimensional surface quality within a two‑dimensional medium.
Context
The work belongs to a period when Ligon was articulating ideas around “Post‑Blackness,” a term he helped popularize to question conventional racial categories in contemporary art. Its formal austerity aligns with his broader practice of using text and abstraction to interrogate social narratives.
Legacy
As part of MoMA’s holdings, the piece contributes to the museum’s representation of late‑20th‑century conceptual art that foregrounds issues of identity and language, and it continues to be cited in discussions of Ligon’s influence on subsequent generations of artists addressing race and visual culture.
Artist & collection
Artist
Glenn Ligon (born 1960, pronounced Lie-gōne) is an American conceptual artist whose work explores race, language, desire, sexuality, and identity.
