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Collage of five diverse artworks from the Hammer Museum Collections side by side. From left to right: 1) Contemporary painting of two embracing figures with surreal elements. 2) Post-impressionist style painting of trees with vibrant blues and greens. 3) Black and white illustration of a face with intricate patterns. 4) Japanese woodblock print style image of a figure in a checkered robe. 5) Photograph of a couple dancing, the woman in a black dress and the man in white

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Digital Archive Take It or Leave It: Institution, Image, Ideology
Art Robert Gober, Hanging Man/Sleeping Man
Hanging Man/Sleeping Man, by Robert Gober, 1989

Robert Gober, Artist
Hanging Man/Sleeping Man , 1989

Medium
Hand-printed silk screen on paper
Dimensions
Dimensions variable
Credit Line
Courtesy of the artist. Installation view at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; photography by Brian Forrest

A black man hanging, lynched, from a tree branch and a white man soundly asleep beneath the covers form the motif of this wallpaper by Robert Gober. The wallpaper distills the troubling history of dispossession on which America is built by juxtaposing scenes of violence and passivity, and underscores the central role of race in the social fabric of America.