Form and Power: Black Murals in Los Angeles

Introduction

Form and Power: Black Murals in Los Angeles is an online exhibition that uses digital images from USC’s Robin Dunitz Slides of Los Angeles Murals, 1925-2002 collection to explore African American muralism in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The installation presents artifact labels alongside short thematic essays that examine the role of Black murals in community-building, political movements, and illustrating Black histories. Form and Power pays particular attention to the ways aesthetics have been a powerful source of Black pride in Los Angeles muralism, historically and today.

The exhibition was collectively curated by Dr. Ellen Macfarlane and the freshman students enrolled in Form and Power in African American Art (GESM 110g) during the Spring 2021 semester at USC.

We would like to thank Curtis Fletcher, Director of the Ahmanson Lab, and Stacy Williams, head of the Architecture and Fine Arts Library for their support.
 
Thematic Essays
Browse Murals
Artist Pages
Mapping the Murals
Chronology of Murals
Visualize the Murals