One Thing Leads to Another

A Chicago native, Ralph Arnold is known for his collaged, often abstract images drawn from the materials of popular and consumer culture. In this work, Arnold juxtaposed scenes from the turbulent 1960s against a color palette evoking the American flag; stenciled letters suggest a framework for reading images of the Great Migration, a Jim Crow sign, violence against African American youth, war protests, Mayor Richard J. Daley, and the Statue of Liberty. Following the work's title, a causal equation can be pieced together: the combination of civil rights inequities, death tolls in Vietnam, and politics resulted in the 1968 Democratic Convention demonstrations and "law-and-order" police forces.