On View
On viewObject number2004.11
Invisible Man (after Ralph Ellison), South Bronx
Artist
Tim Rollins
(American, 1955 - 2017)
Artist
K.O.S.
Date2003
Mediumacrylic, pencil, printed book pages on canvas
Dimensionsframe: 36 × 36 × 1 1/2 in. (91.4 × 91.4 × 3.8 cm)
image flush: 36 × 36 in. (91.4 × 91.4 cm)
image flush: 36 × 36 in. (91.4 × 91.4 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Art League in Honor of their 50th Anniversary Celebration
Exhibition History"Tim Rollins and K. O. S. (Kids of Survival)," KIA (Jan. 17 - Mar. 7, 2004).
"Unmasking Masculinity for the 21st Century," KIA Galleries 2-5 (September 24, 2022 - December 29, 2022)
"Unmasking Masculinity for the 21st Century: The Remix," KIA Galleries 2&5 (January 7 - March 12, 2023)
"Legendary Voices: Art for the Next Century," KIA (September 7 - February 18, 2025)
Label TextTim Rollins collaborated with at-risk youth in New York’s South Bronx neighborhood from 1981 to his death in 2007. During the program, students combined reading, writing, and artmaking using printed texts and painted forms. Former participants became known as Kids of Survival or (K.O.S.).
Incorporating nearly 40 pages from Ralph Ellison’s 1952 novel, Invisible Man, Rollins, and his collaborators painted IM over the pages in bold black block lettering. Invisible Man is a story about the world’s inability to recognize a Black man’s humanity because of his Blackness. Viewers can make out fragments of this pioneering textat the edges and in between the two prominently painted letters. Ellison’s prologue (the word is visible in the top left corner of the work) begins with:
I am an invisible man… I am a
man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids -- and I might even be
said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people
refuse to see me…When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination–indeed, everything and anything except me.
As a result, IM becomes a bold declaration of existence and self-actualization for youths, who may also have also felt overlooked and rejected by society. [Label for "Unmasking Masculinity for the 21st Century", 2022]
