Mark Steven Greenfield
Zumbi dos Palmares
2021

About the Item

Halo presents an amazing cast of historical black figures, most of whom were legendary and mythic characters in their time, but have been nearly lost to the vagaries and biases of history as seen through a white lens. With Halo, Greenfield brings the stories of Black folk-saints, martyrs, freedom-fighters, survivors, magicians, and visionaries back into view. Many of the figures are from the 1400-1800s, a timeframe that corresponds with Europeans beginning to use racial distinction as a tool to justify slavery. Greenfield honors their simultaneously disturbing and astounding lives by bestowing them with halos, traditionally seen as reverential symbols of adoration and respect. “I am reimagining what a saint is,” Greenfield says. “Maybe in studying their stories, they can inform us on better ways to live.” Thought to have been a descendent of central African royalty, Zumbi dos Palmares was an Afro-Brazilian leader who pioneered resistance to the enslavement of Africans by the colonial Portuguese. Zumbi was also the last of the kings of the Quilombo dos Palmares. Quilombos were settlements in Brazil populated by “Maroons”, the name for people of African descent who had escaped slavery. At its height, Quilombo dos Palmares comprised a confederation of 11 towns, spanned an area in Brazil’s rugged mountainous terrain roughly the size of Portugal and was populated by some 30,000 Maroons. In 1678, after years of conflict with the Palmares, Portuguese Governor, Pedro Almeida, approached king Ganga Zumba, (Zumbi’s uncle), with an olive branch. Almeida offered freedom for all runaway slaves if they would submit to Portuguese rule. While Zumba favored the offer, Zumbi, as commander in chief of the kingdom’s forces, refused. He distrusted the offer and refused to accept freedom while other Africans remained enslaved. Zumbi killed Ganga Zumba and took over as king, continuing Palmares’ resistance for the next 15 years, until the Portuguese launched an aggressive assault in 1694, destroying the kingdom’s central settlement. Zumbi, who had become almost god-like to his followers, was killed by the Portuguese in 1695, in part to dispel notions of his immortality. Today Zumbi remains a powerful symbol of resistance to slavery and liberation from Brazil’s Portuguese colonists.

Creator:
Mark Steven Greenfield (1951, American)
Creation Year:
2021
Dimensions:
Height: 20 in (50.8 cm)Width: 16 in (40.64 cm)Depth: 1 in (2.54 cm)
Medium:
Gold Leaf,Acrylic,Wood Panel
Movement & Style:
Byzantine
Period:
2010-
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Santa Monica, CA
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU47810171852
View Invoice