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• 1 media/15-762.jpg media/15-762.jpg 2021-05-01T10:40:32-07:00 Duke Ellington 9 Charles Freeman
  Duke Ellington High School Administration Building
  1975 (repainted in 1977) plain 2021-05-18T15:50:26-07:00 1975 33.935616,-118.303421 Charles Freeman’s Duke Ellington fits right into a very politically charged era of visual arts, and social justice, in conjunction with the civil rights movement of the 1970s. With this mural, Freeman celebrates renowned jazz musician Duke Ellington, by showcasing him in three separate portraits, each with immense detail, deep tones, and dramatic light sourcing against a stark black background to make the figures pop. The figure in the middle is given a halo-like blue ring around him, suggesting a sense of greatness, then on the right, Ellington is depicted playing the piano, illuminating his life's work. Freeman created this work a year after Ellington’s passing away as a tribute to his greatness and further, a memorial mural. This genre of muralism is heavily seen in Los Angeles, especially within the African American visual arts community, made to publicly draw attention to the greatness of African American figures who deserve to be honored.
  
  Artist Charles Freeman is a self-taught, Los Angeles based artist who specializes in muralism. His work is primarily concentrated in Los Angeles, CA, and mostly focuses on African American subject matter, often in the form of portraiture like Duke Ellington. Such works are made to honor the achievements of notable African American people throughout the mid-late 1900s. Freeman himself was a member of the Black Panther party and dedicated much of his life to advocating for Black pride, Black excellence and social justice, both through his artwork and activism.  With the rise of the civil rights movement, beginning in the 1960s, there also came a rise of artwork focused on uplifting African American’s known as the Black Arts Movement. This movement was a politically motivated, African American-led undertaking, that aimed to convey a message of African American pride across the United States by way of art. Themes of the movement included self-determination, cultural pride, appreciation of beauty and celebration of the intelligence of Black people. With this artwork, Freeman displays these themes by creating a public portrait of Ellington to pay homage to his many accomplishments and celebrate the positive impact he had on the African American community with his success.
  
  Written by Thea Wallace, c/o ‘24