ON VIEW | On view at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC through October 31, The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900 is the first major exhibition to consider how and why artists have employed doubled formats to explore perceptual, conceptual, and psychological themes. Featuring 90 modern and contemporary artists and comprised of over 120 works made from the beginning of the 20th century to today, the group exhibition includes Rashid Johnson’s photograph The New Negro Escapist Social and Athletic Club (Emmett), 2008. Inspired by Black middle-class clubs formed in the early 20th century to aid fellow African Americans, Rashid Johnson invented a mystical secret society — "The New Negro Escapist Social and Athletic Club." The name references the term “New Negro,” coined in 1925 by critic Alain Locke to describe a rising generation of self-confident, assertive, and socially aware Black intellectuals. From 2008 to 2009, Johnson made a series of portraits that depict members of this fictional men’s club. Historic men represented in this African American club are Marcus Garvey, Thurgood Marshall, Emmett Till, Fredrick Douglas, and more. Johnson's photograph (Emmett) references Emmett Till, a fourteen year old boy from Chicago who was murdered in the summer of 1955 while visiting his great uncle in Money, Mississippi. In this photograph, the model’s parted hair and goatee recall portraits of the abolitionist Frederick Douglass. By combining Douglas, reputedly the most photographed man of the 19th century, with Emmett, whose photographs changed the course of the Civil Rights movement, Johnson investigates the complicated influence of photography on history, and the positive and negative ways in which photography has affected its Black sitters. Pictured: Rashid Johnson, The New Negro Escapist Social and Athletic Club (Emmett), 2008, printed 2022, chromogenic print, via National Gallery of Art. Gift of Funds from Ryan E. Lee and Lee Group Holdings (LGH), Heather and Jim Johnson Fund, Kend Family Fund, and Peter Edwards and Rose Gutfeld Fund, 2022.36.1 #rashidjohnson #ngadc @ngadc @rashidjohnson