Using found materials such as mop strings and broken glass, Thornton Dial, Sr., created this monumen

Using found materials such as mop strings and broken glass, Thornton Dial, Sr., created this monumental, abstracted representation of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., exploring the intersection of the secular history of King’s assassination and the sacred history of Christianity. The central tiger—Dial’s primary emblem for representing Black men in his early work, because of the cat’s survival skills—symbolizes King on April 3, 1968. In the lower left-hand corner, we see with a table set with metal pots and pans, representing the Last Supper—the final meal Jesus shared with his twelve apostles the night before the Crucifixion—and signifying the impending murder of the civil rights leader.

See this work on view in our new exhibition “Elegy: Lament in the 20th Century." 

”The Last Day of Martin Luther King,“ 1992, by Thornton Dial, Sr. © Estate of Thornton Dial / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York