National Museum of African Art
Create to Free Yourselves: Abraham Lincoln and the History of Freeing Slaves in America
November 18, 2023 – April 1, 2024
The Smithsonian National Museum of African Art partnered with President Lincoln’s Cottage in 2022 to commission an installation by Beninois artist Georges Adéagbo. Created with the goal that the artwork might join the museum’s collection, this installation is Adéagbo’s vision for us. With Create to Free Yourselves: Abraham Lincoln and the History of Freeing Slaves in America (Créez pour vous libérer: Abraham Lincoln et l’histoire de la libération des esclaves en Amérique), Adéagbo invites each of us to consider our individual reflections of Abraham Lincoln and the unfinished journey toward emancipation for all.
Georges Adéagbo (b. 1942, Cotonou, Benin), Create to Free Yourselves: Abraham Lincoln and the History of Freeing Slaves in America (detail), 2023, Mixed-media installation, Museum purchase. Photograph by Brian Rimm, 2023
