Blacknuss: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

An offset lithograph with a variety of objects, words, and vignettes celebrating Black music. The imagery is in red, black, blue and green against a green, black, and blue background. Across the top in large black and red lettering is [BLACKNUSS] with the “USS” running down the right side. The words [BLACK] and [BLACKNUSS] are repeated in various sizes and colors throughout the print along with images of hands, hearts, stars, singing lips, and musical notes. There is a hand with a tambourine and a conga drum just left of center. At bottom center, a musician in a hat is seated at a red piano with the word [Hallelujah] in red script. At the bottom right corner is a musician playing the saxophone. Surrounding the print is a simple border of overlapping black, blue, and red lines. The printing extends to the edges of the paper and the vertical side edges are deckled. Along the bottom edge, handwritten in graphite is [A/P] at left, [BLACKNUSS] at center, and the artist’s signature and date [95] at right.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1995
• Created by: Willie Birch, American, born 1942
• Type: offset lithographs
• Medium: ink on paper
• Dimensions: H x W: 29 3/4 × 21 1/2 in. (75.6 × 54.6 cm)
• Place depicted: New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: African diaspora
• Topic: Art
• Topic: Christianity
• Topic: Music
• Topic: Musicians
• Topic: Religion
• Object number: 2021.116.3
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Juanita and Melvin Hardy
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: © Willie Birch Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.