"Lost Hope" oil painting by Tansill Stough-Anthony

Object number2018.063.0008

Datecirca 2010

ClassificationsArt

Artist Tansill Stough-Anthony

ObjectArtwork

Credit LineThe "Fading Memories: In Honor of JFK" Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 24 × 20 × 1 1/2 in. (61 × 50.8 × 3.8 cm)

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Description"Lost Hope" is an oil painting by Tansill Stough-Anthony in a series titled “Fading Memories: In Honor of JFK”. The painting, based on a Life Magazine photograph, depicts a black and white portrait of an unknown African American boy crying while attending a candlelight vigil held in Chicago, Illinois, following the assassination of President Kennedy. To the artist, the boy is mourning not only the death of President Kennedy but also for the lost hopes of the Civil Rights Movement. The artist's signature is in the bottom right corner.

Curatorial Commentary

This painting, "Lost Hope," was directly inspired by artist Tansill Stough-Anthony's visit to The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza in 2014. As she explained in an oral history recorded a few months later (while this painting was still wet), "This is the painting that I had in my mind as I walked out of here." The painting is based on an image taken at a Chicago memorial service for President Kennedy by Life Magazine photographer Enrico Sarsini. While visiting the Museum, Stough-Anthony remembered having seen this image printed in Life Magazine and found it "indelible." She said, "I couldn't get it out [of my mind], and I knew I had to paint it." As a seven-year-old in 1963, Stough-Anthony had little childhood awareness of the Civil Rights Movement. Researching the time period as an adult, she recognized that "there was an equality that was coming forth for the first time in America." This painting signifies that change and how the African American community in particular "felt like they had lost... part of that representation" with President Kennedy's death. -- Stephen Fagin, Curator