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Brothers Phree


Isaka Shamsud-Din, Brothers Phree, ca. 1990, acrylic on wood, Museum Purchase: Robert Hale Ellis Jr. Fund for the Blanche Eloise Day Ellis and Robert Hale Ellis Memorial Collection, © Isaka Shamsud-Din, 91.7

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Details
Title

Brothers Phree

Related Titles

display title: Brothers Fhree

Artist

Isaka Shamsud-Din (African American, born 1940)

Date

ca. 1990

Medium

acrylic on wood

Dimensions (H x W x D)

50 1/4 in x 122 1/2 in

Collection Area

Modern and Contemporary Art; Northwest Art

Category

Paintings

Object Type

painting

Culture

American

Credit Line

Museum Purchase: Robert Hale Ellis Jr. Fund for the Blanche Eloise Day Ellis and Robert Hale Ellis Memorial Collection

Accession Number

91.7

Copyright

© Isaka Shamsud-Din

Terms

acrylic paint

bars

billiards

paintings

Picturing Oregon

wood

Place Made

Created in and depicts: Oregon

Related Places

Depicts: Portland

Description

Isaka Shamsud-Din has devoted much of his artistic career to depicting the lives and histories of African-American people in easel paintings, murals, and prints. But he has also been a civil rights activist, an important member of the Nation of Islam, and a mentor to young people. As a boy, newly arrived from Texas, Shamsud-Din and his family lost all they had to the devastating Vanport flood of 1948. This was the subject of one of his earliest murals, which can be found at Portland State University, where he was an art student in the early 1960s.

In Brothers Fhree, which celebrates a well-known Portland nightspot, Shamsud-Din has suggested the pulsing energy of the place through his brilliant—and often expressionist—use of color and his deft, sure line. His ability to unify several incidents and focal points within a single, dynamic composition attests to his skills as a muralist.

History
Exhibitions

2019 Isaka Shamsud-Din: Rock of Ages Portland Art Museum

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