Lynched-Seymour Lipton

             While the Palmer Museum was filled with plenty of interesting and unique paintings, the piece of art that stood out the most to me was a small mahogany sculpture on the second floor. Though the sculpture was simple, uniform brown and small, it held much more meaning than any of the other paintings there. Made by Seymour Lipton in 1933 , the sculpture depicted a black man in fetal position, arms tied behind his back, head turned violently with a look of anguish on his face and a noose around his neck.  The only words present on the tag below it were the artists name, the names of the people who donated money for this sculpture and the name of the sculpture itself, Lynched.  Though it wasn't much, I didn't need anything else to understand the sculpture.
            The sculpture was created in the 1930's, a time when African Americans faced discrimination and segregation. Though it wasn't legal, groups such as the KKK found ways to keep blacks enslaved. African Americans getting lynched, mugged or killed was a common occurrence and thought there were many people during that time that did not care for the mistreatment of African Americans, there were many that didn't care for change. This sculpture depicts the harassment and abuse that blacks were subject to at that time. I believe the point of the sculpture was to use pathos in order to make a provocative statement about discrimination. The agony on the man's face appeals to our emotions because it shows you how the African Americans suffered. Because reading about the abuse and actually seeing the abuse happen are different, the emotions on the sculpture's face bring the pain to life and make it more real to us. While we may thing, wow that is a terrible thing that happened, when we read about a black getting murdered, actually seeing the look of terror and pain on his face in the statue brings up stronger emotions. This terrible depiction of lynching is meant to make a negative statement and speak out against discrimination. It is meant to show the inhumane parts of what people were doing to African Americans. The man in the sculpture is being treated like an animal, not even being allowed to have clothes on. The fetal position and look on the man's face bring up images of pain. Since he is wearing a noose around his neck we can also deduce that he will be hung soon and thus die.
         Seymour Lipton is known to make works of art that speak out against discrimination and slavery. Another sculpture John Brown and the Fugitive Slave is an example of his focus on African Americans and their struggles. Lipton also establishes his identity in art through other sculptures such as Sea King, Mandrake, Moby Dick, Arctic Bird and Scroll. 
          Though I had already been the the Palmer Museum multiple times before, I would still go back.My experience at that museum was a positive one and I enjoy looking at the different pieces of art and sculptures. One of my favorites at the Palmer Museum is the Peacock Blue and Yellow Seaform Set with Yellow Lip Wraps by Dale Chihuly in 1995. The hand blown glass grabs my attention because of it's vibrant colors and interesting positioning of the different hand blown pieces within the display itself. I also like that way that the display was placed in front of the window because of the way the light seems to catch the glass and make the colors even more colorful. This is one of the many reasons why I enjoy the Palmer Museum.