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
This work is not currently on view.
- Title
Brothers Phree
- Related Titles
display title: Brothers Fhree
- Artist
- 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
- Place Made
Created in and depicts: Oregon
- Related Places
Depicts: Portland
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.
- Exhibitions
2019 Isaka Shamsud-Din: Rock of Ages Portland Art Museum