Smithsonian American Art Museum
Isaac Julien: Lessons of the Hour—Frederick Douglass
December 8, 2023 – August 9, 2026
Sir Isaac Julien’s moving image installation Lessons of the Hour (2019) interweaves period reenactments across five screens to create a vivid picture of nineteenth-century activist, writer, orator, and philosopher Frederick Douglass. Through critical research, fictional reconstruction, and a marriage of poetic image and sound, Julien asserts Douglass’ enduring lessons of justice, abolition, and freedom that remain just as relevant today.
The presentation is organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery.
Isaac Julien, Lessons of the Hour, 2019, five screen installation 35mm film and 4K digital color, 5.1 surround sound; 28:44 minutes, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Joint museum purchase between the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. Acquired by National Portrait Gallery in part through the generosity of the Smithsonian Secretary and the Smithsonian National Board and Agnes Gund. Smithsonian American Art Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2023.42, © Isaac Julien, Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro
