Julius Eastman & Glenn Ligon: Evil Nigger

Full Press Release

The reason I use that particular word is because for me it has what I call a basic-ness about it. That is to say, I feel that, in any case, the first niggers were of course field niggers. Upon that is really the basis of what I call 

the American economic system…. What I mean by niggers is that thing which is fundamental … and eschews that thing which is superficial.

—Julius Eastman, spoken introduction to the Northwestern University Concert, January 16, 1980

52 Walker is pleased to announce its fourteenth exhibition, pairing works by experimental composer and musician Julius Eastman (1940–1990) and celebrated New York–based artist Glenn Ligon (b. 1960). This presentation is conceived in close partnership with Eastman’s estate. Centrally positioned in the gallery is an installation of four pianos comprising three self-playing Yamaha Disklaviers and one antique Weber. The three Yamahas will play a performance of Evil Nigger every hour during the run of the show. Also on view is a multipart print based on the score to Thruway (1970), the final work in Eastman’s oeuvre to remain unpublished as a playable score. A new freestanding neon sculpture by Ligon centers on the onomatopoeic Sth—the opening word of Toni Morrison’s 1992 novel Jazz—which represents the sound of sucking teeth, a cross-cultural expression closely associated with the global black diaspora. In Sparse Shouts (for Julius Eastman), another new installation by Ligon, multiple instances of the word speak are rendered in neon letters and mounted across the wall of the gallery where they blink on and off, or “play,” in time with the score to Eastman’s 1981 solo vocal improvisation Prelude to the Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc.

The exhibition draws on Eastman and Ligon’s complementary interests in authorial voice, dwelling in particular on the perilous slippage of context and intent that occurs when language is transmitted and received. The show is titled Evil Nigger after an important 1979 composition by Eastman, who was known to give his pieces intentionally challenging names in part as a reflection of how he felt the world viewed him as a gay black man. Eastman wielded these titles as an act of self-empowerment rather than self-denigration, reclaiming the very use of language itself. In his engagement with and response to Eastman, Ligon expands upon Eastman’s musings on voice, visibility, and lack thereof, while building upon his own explorations of identity, culture, and the construction of race.

Julius Eastman & Glenn Ligon: Evil Nigger is curated by Ebony L. Haynes and presented by 52 Walker. A zine published by Haynes & Homer Press will be released to accompany the exhibition.

Born in New York, Eastman graduated with a diploma in composition from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia in 1963. Eastman composed at least fifteen pieces during this time, joined composer Petr Kotik’s S.E.M. Ensemble in 1970, and made his New York Philharmonic performing debut in 1972. In 1973, Eastman was nominated for a Grammy Award for his vocal performance on a remastered recording of Peter Maxwell Davies’s opus Eight Songs for a Mad King (1969), arguably marking the pinnacle of his critical reputation as a performer of unmatched versatility and presence. He cemented his reputation as a provocateur in 1980 when he performed three major compositions—titled Evil Nigger, Crazy Nigger, and Gay Guerrilla—at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. By the end of the decade, his whereabouts had become almost entirely unknown, and he died alone in Buffalo in May 1990. In 2005, New World Records released Unjust Malaise, an acclaimed three-disc set of Eastman’s works. In 2017, Tiona Nekkia McClodden and Dustin Hurt curated the exhibition and concert series Julius Eastman: That Which Is Fundamental, organized by the Slought Foundation, Philadelphia, and The Kitchen, New York. Recent programs featuring Eastman’s work have been staged worldwide by the Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection, Paris (2021); New York Philharmonic (2022); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2023); The 92nd Street Y, New York (2023); and Palazzo Grassi, Venice (2024), among others.

Born in New York, Ligon earned his BA from Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, in 1982, and attended the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program, New York, in 1985. Ligon’s first solo presentation was at the Davison Art Center at Wesleyan in 1982. In 2011, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, presented the major midcareer retrospective Glenn Ligon: America. The solo exhibition Glenn Ligon: All Over the Place is currently on view at the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, UK, through March 2, 2025. Ligon is represented by Hauser & Wirth and Thomas Dane Gallery. The artist lives and works in New York.