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The Artist Project

The Artist Project: Hank Willis Thomas

Artist Hank Willis Thomas reflects on a daguerreotype button in this episode of The Artist Project.
3 min. watch
From March 2015 to June 2016, we invited 120 artists—local, national, and global—to choose individual works of art or galleries that sparked their imaginations. In this online series, artists reflect on what art is, what inspires them from across 5,000 years of art, and in so doing, they reveal the power of a museum and The Met.

"There is that magic of visibility/invisibility and meaning, and that ambiguity is what makes most art both legible and eternal."

Artist Hank Willis Thomas reflects on a daguerreotype button in this episode of The Artist Project—an online series in which artists respond to works of art in The Met collection.

About the Artist
Hank Willis Thomas, born in 1976, is an American photo conceptual artist.

Hank Willis Thomas (American, born 1976)

Thenceforward and Forever Free, 2012

Mixed media; 61 x 17 1/2 × 4 5/8 in. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York © Hank Willis Thomas

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Art Mentioned

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[Button], Unknown, Daguerreotype
[Button]
Unknown
1840s–50s