The Big Dig, David Hartt: The Histories (Old Black Joe)

Press Release

To view The Big Dig: David Hartt: The Histories (Old Black Joe), click this link.

Corbett vs. Dempsey is delighted to present David Hartt: The Histories (Old Black Joe), the sixth iteration of The Big Dig, the gallery's online exhibition series.

Centered on an in-depth interview with Hartt and video documentation of The Histories (Old Black Joe), which was on view at the gallery in October 2020, this Big Dig is a rich intellectual complement to the show. Focusing on two important 19th century landscape painters of African descent, Robert Duncanson and Michel-Jean Cazabon, Hartt draws back the curtain on the elaborate conception and production of the installation, as well as his broader motives. Provocative and illuminating, the interview and supporting materials position this work in relation to the two other parts of The Histories.

Born of nerdy fascination, each edition of The Big Dig descends into the rabbit-hole of a tight curatorial concept, excavating a body of work, a thematic idea or a particular medium, a new development or a historical moment. Exclusive images, interviews and essays provide works the kind of rich sense of context that ethnographers refer to as "thick description."

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