"54 Massachusetts, Unique Variation III"

Rushern Baker IV is a Baltimore-based painter and teacher. Baker received his and his MFA in painting and printmaking from Yale University. He has exhibited in group and solo shows at galleries across the world. Baker’s abstract pieces billow with themes of military destruction, dense architectural elements, and tumbling dilapidated ruins of the Greco-Roman world. Fragments of Civil War soldiers, flags, and conflict mingle in an atmospheric array of colors and shapes to create objective narratives about war, history, and culture.

54th Massachusetts, Unique Variation III, and 54th Massachusetts, Unique Variation VI are part of a series that reflects on the nation's current political unrest, Manchurian politics, and the resurgence of racism seen in this country and around the world. Inspired by an 1890 painting of the 54th Massachusetts, the first African American infantry regiment, Baker's 54th Massachusetts prints symbolize the struggle for equality Black Americans are still calling for today. Using graphic figuration and Civil War historical motifs to focus on the black people that were making the sacrifices of bringing about true democracy in America, Baker’s paintings take strong objective perspectives on our current political climate through abstract visual devices.

Rushern Baker

2020

Image Courtesy the Artist and Hemphill Gallery