Muralist who depicted enslaved people as ‘cartoonish, almost animalistic’ loses lawsuit

Sam Kerson (via Sam Kerson Art Gallery).

A federal appeals court ruled against an artist who created murals criticized for depicting enslaved African people in a racist manner, thereby allowing the murals to be covered and permanently hidden from view over the creator’s objection.

The Vermont Law School commissioned two murals in 1993 by now-73-year-old Canadian artist Sam Kerson — a muralist who is known for focusing on themes of social justice. The 8 feet by 24 feet murals were meant to celebrate Vermont’s role in the Underground Railroad, and Kerson painted them directly onto the designated walls at the law school.

“Slavery” depicted scenes of African people being captured and sold into slavery. “Liberation” contains images of Harriet Beecher Stowe, John Brown and Frederick Douglas, and shows Harriet Tubman arriving in Vermont and being provided with safe haven. The murals were initially well-received, but by 2001, observers began to speak up about racist caricatures appearing in the works.

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