WATTS INDEXThe canonical database of visual culture

Artists›Jimmie Durham

Jimmie Durham

1940–2021

WA-00021923

InstallationContemporary

Representation

None documented

Institutional Exhibitions

Works in Collection

Assets Indexed

Authority-backed Facts

Publications Referenced

90%

Profile Completeness

Cultural Positioning

Influence Graph

No influence edges encoded yet.

Authority Records (1)

WikidataQ445487

Field Verification (3 fields)

1 cross-verified · 2 single-source

Birth yearArtsy· 85%✓
LocationArtsy· 85%
NationalityArtsy· 85%

Source Registry (1)

Wikidata
Tier 1 · Institutional40%

About

Why this artist matters now

Jimmie Bob Durham was an American sculptor, essayist and poet. He was active in the United States in the civil rights movements of African Americans and Native Americans in the 1960s and 1970s, serving on the central council of the American Indian Movement (AIM). He returned to working at art while living in New York City. His work has been extensively exhibited. Durham also received the Günther-Peill-Preis (2003), the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Robert Rauschenberg Award (2017), and the 58th Venice Biennale's Golden Lion for lifetime achievement (2019).

Source: Wikidata · Trust score: 40% · Updated 2mo ago

Graph relationships

Taste overlap and adjacency

Movement

Contemporary

Medium

Installation

Related Artists

11 in graph

Institutional

Museum Collections

Art Institute of Chicago Tate Whitney Museum of American Art Whitney Museum of American Art

Canonical record

Artworks (11)

YOU ARE HERE*

2020 · Phone booth and digital prints

84 x 42 x 27” (213.4 x 106.7 x 68.6 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Parkett no. 92

2013 · Journal

page (each): 10 x 8 1/4" (25.4 x 21 cm); overall (closed): 10 x 8 3/8 x 3/4" (25.4 x 21.3 x 1.9 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Look Ahead (for Parkett no. 92)

2013 · Screenprint

composition and sheet: 31 1/2 x 31 1/2" (80 x 80 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Our House

2007 · Drypoint on copperplate on paper

image: 215 x 345 mm

Tate

WattsOS

Untitled from the Museum in Progress project TransAct: Transnational Activities in the Cultural Field

2000 · Lithograph, offset printed

sheet: 18 1/2 x 12 3/8" (47 x 31.5 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Dans plusieurs de ces forêts et de ces bois, il n’y avait pas seulement des villages souterrains groupés autours du terrier du chef mais il y avait encore de véritables hameaux de huttes basses cachés sous les arbres, et si nombreaux que parfois la forêt en était remplie. Souvent les fumées les trahissaient. Deux de...

1993 · Aluminium machinery part, wooden planks, tree branches, castor wheels, Coca-cola bottle, bone, galvanised steel, glass a

object: 970 x 770 x 660 mm

Tate

Linen on Polyvinyl Chloride

1993 · Linen, leather, animal hide, woven cotton, copper, steel cable, paint, and pencil on polyvinyl chloride (PVC) tube

96.5 × 165.1 × 33 cm (38 × 65 × 13 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

WattsOS

Caliban Codex

1992 · Pencil on fourteen sheets of paper

dimensions vary; sheet (each approx.): 21 1/4 × 15 1/8" (54 × 38.4 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

My Blood

1991 · Watercolor, crayon, and brush and handprint in brown ink on ivory wove paper, cut and collaged onto ivory wove paper prepared with blood mixed with pink wash, with black fiber-tipped pen and cut and pasted black laser printed label

Sight: 59.5 × 48 cm (23 7/16 × 18 15/16 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan is the World’s Largest Gothic Cathedral. Except, of course, that it is a fake; first by the simple fact of being built in Manhattan, at the turn of the century. But the stone work is re-inforced with steel which is expanding with rust. Someday it will destroy the stone. The Cathedral is in Morningside Heights overlooking a panoramic view of Harlem which is separated by a high fence.

1989 · Moose skull with antler, metal pipe, wood, and paint

96 x 60 x 54" (243.8 x 152.4 x 137.2 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

WattsOS

Self-portrait

1986 · Canvas, wood, paint, metal, feather, shell, turquoise, hair, fur bone, and thread

Overall: 78 × 30 × 9 in. (198.1 × 76.2 × 22.9 cm)

Whitney Museum of American Art

View all 11 artworks →

Artwork sources (4)

11 published of 11 catalogued · 8 with image

MoMA
6 published4 img
Art Institute Chicago
2 published2 img
Tate
2 published2 img
Whitney
1 published

Per-Artwork Provenance Chains (top 2)

2 entries · 1 sources

Our House
2007 · Tate · 1 prov
Url Pattern Extraction 2026-05-27·accession_number
Dans plusieurs de ces forêts et de ces bois, il n’y avait pas seulement des villages souterrains groupés autours du terrier du chef mais il y avait encore de véritables hameaux de huttes basses cachés sous les arbres, et si nombreaux que parfois la forêt en était remplie. Souvent les fumées les trahissaient. Deux de...
1993 · Tate · 1 prov
Url Pattern Extraction 2026-05-27·accession_number

Record

Images

Art Institute of Chicago

Artsy

Relationships

Movements1

Contemporary

Collections3

Art Institute of Chicago Tate Whitney Museum of American Art

Institutional

Representation & Collections

In collection

Art Institute of Chicago

In collection

Tate

In collection

Whitney Museum of American Art

In collection

Whitney Museum of American Art

Record

Exhibitions and timeline

Exhibition Jimmie Durham: At the Center of the World