The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 30, 2026

A horizontally oriented watercolor and ink drawing on crinkled paper with irregular, torn edges depicts dozens of people with dark skin tones densely clustered together. Across the top, overlapping heads are defined by white ink outlines. Below, white forms with black dots suggest figures in robes emerging from bright red and orange washes. Bottom right, hand-lettered text reads "MANY THOUSAND GONE." The paper's textured surface frames this expressive composition.

Many Thousand Gone

1980

Aminah Robinson

(American, 1940–2015)
America
watercolor and ink on paper
Sheet: 36.6 x 53 cm (14 7/16 x 20 7/8 in.); Mount: 49.4 x 66 cm (19 7/16 x 26 in.)
Gift of Barbara Tannenbaum and Mark Soppeland 2024.155
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

In addition to her drawings, Aminah Robinson was an accomplished and prolific quilter.

Description

This drawing exemplifies the practice of Aminah Robinson, a Columbus-based artist whose work reflected the stories and traditions of Black culture. As a child, Robinson’s father taught her to sketch and to make books from homemade paper—such as the sheet used for this work. Black figures blend together into a singular mass that is juxtaposed by a crowd wearing the white hoods of Ku Klux Klan members at lower right. A meditation on African American history, the work is titled for a spiritual sung by enslaved Black Americans that concludes with the verse “No more slavery chains for me / Many thousand gone.”
  • ?–2024
    Barbara Tannenbaum, Beachwood, OH, given to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    December 9, 2024–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • {{cite web|title=Many Thousand Gone|url=false|author=Aminah Robinson|year=1980|access-date=30 May 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2024.155