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Mankind (An Oriental, a Caucasian, and a Black weighted according to current population statistics)

1983–85, printed 1999
(American, b. 1948)
America, 20th century
gelatin silver print
Image: 22.8 x 19.4 cm (9 x 7 5/8 in.); Framed: 48.4 x 44.5 cm (19 1/16 x 17 1/2 in.)
The Jane B. Tripp Charitable Lead Annuity Trust 2020.76
© Nancy Burson
Edition: edition 14/15
Location: not on view
This artwork is known to be under copyright.

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Did You Know?

Burson used pictures from a 19th-century book of racial stereotypes and weighted their visibility in the resulting composite to reflect world population statistics in the mid-1980s.

Description

Although the image, if done with 2020 population statistics, might not look terribly different, the concept of race has changed in the intervening decades. Racial identity is often now discussed as a social rather than biological construct and is no longer considered a valid division by most geneticists.
Mankind (An Oriental, a Caucasian, and a Black weighted according to current population statistics)

Mankind (An Oriental, a Caucasian, and a Black weighted according to current population statistics)

1983–85, printed 1999

Nancy Burson

(American, b. 1948)
America, 20th century

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