DALLAS (1080 KRLD)- A powerful exhibition called "Confederate Currency: The Color of Money" has opened at the African American Museum, Dallas.
The exhibition is the work of artist John W. Jones, who started doing acrylic paintings of slave images depicted on Confederate Currencies about 20 years ago.
Mr. Jones was working as a graphic artist at a blueprint company in Charleston, South Carolina when a customer asked him to enlarge a Confederate bank note.
"When I did so, I noticed there were slaves on the note I was enlarging," says Jones.
The finding intrigued him, and he started to research these notes and was inspired to produce acrylic paintings inspired by the pictures on the currencies.
To date he's produced more than 300 works, which are on display in Dallas for the next few months.
Courtesy of John W. Jones
From a release:
"The juxtaposition of the framed Confederate Currencies with the acrylic paintings makes a very powerful statement on the contribution of enslaved Africans to the American economy. In these paintings, as John says, 'history informs art, which in turn artfully reveals more history.'"
