This new giant mural at the Milwaukee Art Museum is a collage of Black Americans in pursuit of happiness

Jim Higgins, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
·3 min read
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Editor's note: The Milwaukee Art Museum has scheduled two May events in connection with Derrick Adams' mural "Our Time Together."

Adams will speak in conversation with Adrienne Brown at 6 p.m. May 12 at the museum. Brown is director of the University of Chicago's Arts + Public Life program. Admission to the talk is free.

Also, MAM will host a free block party, "On Site: Derrick Adams," from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 21 across the art museum campus. Local Black-owned businesses will provide activities, and food trucks will be present. Museum docents will lead gallery tours.

This article about the Adams mural at the museum was first published Nov. 2, 2021.

Many of the photos Derrick Adams incorporated into his enormous new mural inside the Milwaukee Art Museum are pointedly ordinary:

  • A 12-year-old girl jumping rope on a playground.

  • A woman receiving a loan from a new credit union.

  • Pedestrians crossing a normally busy street during a blustery winter storm without a car in sight.

In creating "Our Time Together," Adams was guided by "respect and admiration for the perseverance of Black Americans in their pursuit of happiness," he wrote in his artist statement. About 93 feet wide and 15 feet tall, "Our Time Together" will be on view for about three years, said Lisa Sutcliffe, MAM's curator of photography and media arts.

Born in Baltimore and now working in Brooklyn, multidisciplinary artist Adams' interests include portraying Black people at leisure, and intergenerational community spaces such as barbershops, coffee shops and churches.

Historic photographs are combined with artistic collages of everyday Black life and leisure as part of the "Our Time Together" mural at the Milwaukee Art Museum.
Historic photographs are combined with artistic collages of everyday Black life and leisure as part of the "Our Time Together" mural at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

His starting points for MAM's commissioned mural include Victor Hugo Green's "The Negro Motorist Travel Guide," also known as "The Green Book" (published from 1936-'66), a directory of safe and welcoming hotels, restaurants and sites for Black travelers. Adams collages pages from "The Green Book," including advertisements, into "Our Time Together," including a Milwaukee page that lists the Ambassador Motor Hotel, Chicken Shack Restaurant and Pastell Lampkins Rooming House.

While conducting research for this mural, Adams connected with contemporary Milwaukee spaces including Gee's Clippers barbershop, 2200 N. King Drive; Coffee Makes You Black, 2803 N. Teutonia Ave.; and the Wisconsin Black Historical Society / Museum, 2620 W. Center St. Each site is represented along the lower portion of the mural.

Adams also collages more than 30 black-and-white historical photos into "Our Time Together," all taken by Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Sentinel photographers from 1951-'89. Some refer to activism or political events, like the image of two supportive men carrying civil rights leader Lloyd A. Barbee on their shoulders as they walked out of a school board committee meeting on equality of educational opportunity.

Artist Derrick Adams stands in his Brooklyn studio. He created an enormous new mural for the Milwaukee Art Museum.
Artist Derrick Adams stands in his Brooklyn studio. He created an enormous new mural for the Milwaukee Art Museum.

But Adams is generally more interested in showing people thriving in their daily lives. The photo he chose of the renowned Vel Phillips isn't from her political activity; it's a family portrait with her husband and young son.

He also incorporates four church fans with painterly images, such as one of a boy and girl in pajamas, kneeling by a bed, their hands folded in prayer.

There is a lot to take in here. Fortunately, MAM has created a brochure with detailed caption information on the photographs. It can be read online at mam.org/pdfs/exhibition-brochures/exh_derrick-adams_closer-look.pdf. MAM plans to schedule related programming.

The mural faces Lake Michigan, so it will receive plenty of sunlight. Sutcliffe noted that it is printed on a form of vinyl that should keep it from fading while it is on display.

Contact Jim Higgins at jim.higgins@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @jhiggy.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Art Museum mural portrays Black Americans pursuing happiness