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Locked Up Their Minds

Purvis Young
  • PY - Locked Up Their Minds - Master Image

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    Photo: Larry Clemons
1972
Paint and wood on wood
84 x 84 inches
Collection of
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation
Description

Some of the people that came to Goodbread Alley, they seemed to understand my paintings. Some of them I had to tell about it. There's a lot of stuff in my paintings people wanted to ask about back then. Like locks. I put locks in some of my paintings. A lot of people are locked up, struggling. The lock is playing a key part. It means mostly something's wrong.