CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 5/30/2023

The lost voices of African American ancestry in 'Whitfield Lovell: Deep River'

Featured spreads are from Whitfield Lovell: Deep River, collecting the artist’s Conte crayon tondo portraits representing anonymous African Americans who may have passed through the Union army “Camp Contraband” refuge as runaway slaves during the Civil War. These are part of Lovell’s acclaimed Deep River installation, recently exhibited at the Boca Raton Museum of Art. “The journey toward freedom was (and still is) a powerful claim to one’s right to be,” Lovell writes in the catalog. “The mood and ambience and quietude of the installation does not attempt to capture the turmoil and tragedy of our history. It simply honors survival and commemorates those lost along the way. It represents the timelessness of a journey well worth taking.”