During group medical examination, the nude men are herded through a string of doctor’s offices

c. 1960

Ernest Cole

Associated Names
Ernest Cole

Artist, South African, 1940 - 1990

This black-and-white photograph shows a group of men standing in a line against a wall, with their backs towards us. The line stretches diagonally across the photograph, starting in the bottom left corner and stretching towards the center of the image, ending near the right edge. Almost all the men are completely nude, except for the man closest to us, who wears dark trousers. The men are raising their arms in the air, and some wear bracelets or watches visible on their wrists. The men have a variety of skin tones, from light to medium-toned to dark. They all have short hair. The room has a simple interior with a sink on the right, plain white walls with one dark section, like a chalkboard, behind the men, and an air duct near the ceiling in the upper right corner. Small white towels lay on the black floor near the feet of each man.
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Artwork overview


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Darryl Cowherd, Washington, DC; NGA purchase, 2022.

Associated Names

Inscriptions

on verso, by unknown hand, lower center in graphite inverted: 66-1-21/27; lower center artist stamp in black ink inverted; by unknown hand, bottom left in graphite inverted: 3; bottom right inverted: 5


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