Michael Armitage's Necklacing at MoMA Projects 110

Michael Armitage's solo exhibition Projects 110 at MoMA in New York (October 21, 2019 – January 20, 2020) features ten paintings on lubago, a traditional Ugandan bark cloth used for burial. The artist, born in Kenya (1984) and based in London, previously showed at White Cube Gallery and the 2016 Lyon Biennale. His work blends Western art heritage with Baganda craft, appropriating iconic images such as Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (referenced in Nyali Beach Boys, 2016) and Michelangelo's Dying Slave. Armitage paints the slave figure black with a clown face, placing a tire around its body—a reference to necklacing, a South African execution method where a gasoline-filled tire is placed around a victim and set on fire. This contrasts with earlier appropriations by Yves Klein (blue, 1962) and Salvador Dalí (black Cadillac paint, 1966) who used the slave to critique General Motors labor conditions. Armitage's political intent remains ambiguous: is it an attack on Western masterpieces or a broader critique? Notably, neither Klein nor Dalí are cited in the exhibition label.