Scholar David Driskell on Aaron Douglas's Painting Let My People Go | Met Collects

"Can a work of art reclaim history?" David Driskell on Aaron Douglas's "Let My People Go"

David C. Driskell, professor emeritus at the University of Maryland, College Park, is a leading scholar of African American art and an artist.

Featured artwork:
Aaron Douglas (American, 1899–1979). Let My People Go, ca. 1934–39. Oil on Masonite; 48 x 36 in. (121.9 × 91.4 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 2015 (2015.42)

http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/676458

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Archival footage of Aaron Douglas:
Harmon Foundation Presents: A Study of Negro Artists, 1937?
The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, (H-HF-214x )

Art © Heirs of Aaron Douglas/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY