The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 20, 2025

Frederick Douglass

2015

Omar Victor Diop

(Senegalese, b. 1980)
South Africa, 21st century
inkjet print on Hahnemüle paper
Image: 90 x 90 cm (35 7/16 x 35 7/16 in.); Paper: 91.8 x 91.9 cm (36 1/8 x 36 3/16 in.)
Mr. and Mrs. Richard W. Whitehill Art Purchase Endowment Fund 2020.230
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Abolitionist Frederick Douglass was the most photographed person of the mid-19th century.

Description

The artist poses here as Frederick Douglass. Diop has replaced the fierce energy seen in photographs of the abolitionist with an elegance and languid grace, translating a diary of struggle into a civil rights hero. The yellow whistle is a reference to soccer because for Diop, that sport “reveals where society is in terms of race.” In Europe, Diop has observed “an interesting blend of glory, hero-worship and exclusion.”
  • 2016
    Omar Victor Diop (the artist) [b. 1980]
    2016-2020
    (Galerie MAGNIN-A), Paris, France
    September 14, 2020
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • {{cite web|title=Frederick Douglass|url=false|author=Omar Victor Diop|year=2015|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2020.230